Audiography: a new word for music
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"I want people to listen to music with their minds, as well as their emotions," he summarizes. "What is it that gives meaning to music? One should engage the intellect in order to understand the structure of a piece of music."
This 81- year- old retired professor of music devotes his time and his travels to spreading his ideas. "I teach the teachers," is how he phrases it. In most of the corners of the globe, he has held workshops of one or more weeks' length to bring music teachers into his frame of learning.
One week he might be in Buffalo, the next in Portugal. He has led seminars in Poland, Italy, Germany, China, Switzerland, and others.
"I plan to keep at this as long as I am physically able," he says. His 30 books on the psychology of music are another way he spreads his gospel. Many of them have been translated into other languages.
What kind of music is this pedagogue talking about? All kinds. But jazz is where his heart is.
He played string bass with the renowned Gene Krupa orchestra, where rhythm was king. His music education began in high school, progressing through a self taught era to the Eastman School of Music, the University of Iowa, Temple University, and most recently the University of South Carolina where he served as distinguished professor in residence at the School of Music.
Dr. Gordon no longer plays his cherished string bass, but he continues to be heavily involved in spreading his ideas about music theory and its teaching patterns. In addition, he has discovered the joys of abstract, or non- objective, wood sculpturing. "In jazz I followed the chord progressions, and in sculpturing I followed the grain of the wood," he states in his autobiographical book, Discovering Music From the Inside Out.
Another form of art has captured his attention, as he creates in what he calls a new medium: "squared abstractions" and "half- squared abstractions." These are wall hangings, primarily of plaster, wire, and string, which have also been called "contemporary primitives." He held one- man shows at Columbia College and the Richland County Public Library.
He said, "I find fulfillment now through improvisation generated by my art as it once was created through jazz and bass playing."
Edwin E. Gordon and his wife Carol proclaim the virtues of Columbia as a place to live and work. After completing his assignment here as distinguished professor in residence, they have chosen to remain here, enjoying their downtown condominium within walking distance of the university, libraries, museums, shops and restaurants.
"The people of Columbia are so kind and gracious, and we love being in a community with historical significance."
