LA MIA STORIA
Raffaella Macuz
Maestra Archettaio Cremona
FROM MASTER
TO MASTER
Each bow is unique, different from any other, and for each bow the actions we can perform, to bring it or bring it back to its excellent, are different, they must necessarily be different.
Every student I have met, in ten years of courses, is different from every other student, he learns in his own way, it is necessary, every time, to find the way, the actions that teach.
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At the beginning I wanted to find, reflected in the students, the enchantment, the surprise, the curiosity, the enthusiasm, the gloomy despair, the irritation, the patience, the resilience, the determination to succeed in spite of everything and against all those who made ironic smiles, come on, you, over thirty, female moreover, what do you want to do!
Bow maker?!?!
My Master was unbearable, he never finished it, he never stopped it... but I understood, I felt that I understood, I saw that I understood, and step by step I succeeded, and he grumbled for a long time, but less and less, until he said: socc!, expression which meant it was fine, very well.
But none of the students I've had have ever been like that.
At the beginning I accepted any student who asked me to do a course in bowing, and I looked for every possible way to learn, and at the end of the course he were able to perform a maintenance in a workmanlike manner, and, dammit, few succeeded, many did not.
And so, year after year, I changed almost everything I did at the beginning, I stopped expecting my students to reflect how I was when I started, many and many years ago, I stopped accepting any request, I stopped believing I could have the answers to "how-you-teach-bow?" before I met the student.
The first encounter with those who say they want to learn the things of bowing is a very exciting moment, very important, everything is important, how they found me, how they looked for me, why they want to learn this art (yes, definitively, it is an art, rich, complex, magnificent), what they expect to achieve, what specific fruits, what results, for whom, where he comes from, his experiences, how and how close or inside he is to music, what he already knows, or believes he already knows... it is important how, without instruments, we "play together".
This is difficult to explain, until recently I had no other words to indicate this aspect, even if we all know it, we all went to school, we all had teachers, we all know that with certain teachers we can learn and with others not, a matter of harmony, of atmosphere, so we say, and so I said too.
And even if we had to resign ourselves to having inadequate teachers for us, we had to try to learn something despite the masters, yes, just in spite of them, we do not hide that if we are not well with the master, with the teacher, then we will have a lot of effort, and the results will probably be poor.
A friend, a short time ago, suggested a new perspective, and I found myself in it, even if the big picture is a bit complicated, neural systems, neural codes, plexus-sequences of codes that guide our actions, how can we describe that thing we commonly call "I"... the point that I liked and that I feel corresponds to what I have lived and done in so many years is this, the Master, the Teacher, they help, they are helpful, and their voice is simultaneously out there and inside me.
I listen to the Master, I listen to the Teacher, simultaneously, out there and in here, one of my voices, a voice that I accept, that I welcome, that becomes mine, because it is the voice of those who help me... I observe the Master, I observe the Teacher, and I see that their gestures are made out there, but also, simultaneously, inside me, I took them, they became mine.
Even today, ten years after his death, my Master is with me, it is in the gestures, in the slow, precise, wise movements, that the Master has helped me to build, step by step, better, in the gestures and in the precise actions and movements that I have built in me and for me with the help of the Master.
For a long time my students have always succeeded... in a certain sense I do not hold courses, I help to learn who can learn, success is guaranteed, and success is guaranteed because I have learned, over the years, to accept only those students who can succeed, with me, to learn what needs to be learned to effectively take care of the bow that has been entrusted to us.
And it is magnificent, for me, to see how the student, step by step, take, grasp, understand, change, face with them the obstacles, the failures, the mistakes, the defeats, sweating yes, so much, and to obtain rewards greater than the efforts endured.
No, I have never said nor will I ever say Socc!, but I admit that every time my Scholar, succeeds, behind my smile of satisfaction, my words of congratulations, I hear my Master laughs and bursts into his Socc!
And in me, every time, for his ears alone, my subdued: thank you Maestro!
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Raffaella Macuz