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You are here: Home / Cycle-of-Life Season / 3 Growth / Being Competent

Being Competent

Camille Pissaro, Shoemakers (1878)

Competence characterizes the quality of attainment at the second level of development in our relations to the world.

Real

True Narratives

Biographies focusing on the subject's competence:

  • Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III (Doubleday, 2020): “The former secretary of state’s experiences as a public servant offer timeless lessons in how to use personal relationships, broad-based coalitions and tireless negotiating to advance United States interests.”

Imaginary

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Calling an artist competent is damning with faint praise. Some composers are technically sound but lack any profound musical insight, or inspiration.

Arnold Bax’s tone poems are masterful. By contrast, his seven symphonies are about “Celtic atmosphere” but not much else. They are monotonously similar to each other, and do not develop musical ideas to any significant point of fulfillment.

  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 1 in E-flat Major (1922)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 2 in C Major (1926)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 3 (1929)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 4 (1931)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 5 (1932)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 6 (1935)
  • Arnold Bax, Symphony No. 7 (1939)

Compositions:

  • Friedrich Gernsheim’s (1839-1926) violin sonatas 1-3 are more than competent but they well express this value all the same: Sonata No. 1 in C minor, Op. 4; Sonata No. 2 in C major, Op. 50; Sonata No. 3 in F major, Op. 64
  • Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, Premier Livre de Piéces pour Clavecin: workmanlike compositions.
  • Weber, Piano Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 32, J155 (1812)
  • Raga Rajeshwari (Rajeswari – Rajeshvari – Rajesvari), a Hindustani classical raag (performances by Salamat Ali Khan and Shivkumar Sharma)
  • Cimarosa, 32 Sonatas for piano; complete keyboard sonatas
  • Storace, harpsichord and organ music

Albums:

  • Chick Corea is a jazz legend but I place his “Further Explorations” album, with Eddie Gomez and Paul Motian, here because of his and their consummate musicianship.
  • Eric Alexander, “Man With a Horn” album: straight-ahead jazz, in ensemble, solidly performed

August 23, 2010

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