The article reviews the book  The Musician\u27s Walk: An Ethical Labyrinth,  by James Jordan

Miranda, Julianne

English

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Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Scholarship and Professional Work Center for Academic Technology 2006 The Musician's Walk: An Ethical Labyrinth Julianne Miranda Butler University, jmiranda@butler.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/it_scholarship  Part of the Instructional Media Design Commons Recommended Citation Julianne Miranda. "The Musician's Walk: An Ethical Labyrinth" American Music Teacher 55.6 (2006): 86-86. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for Academic Technology at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarship and Professional Work by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact digitalscholarship@butler.edu. 86 JUNE/JULY 2006BOOKS8 The Musician’s Walk: An EthicalLabyrinth, by James Jordan. GIAPublications, Inc. (7404 S. Mason Ave.,Chicago, IL 60638), 2006. 399 pp.$38.95.Punctuated by lush photographyand insightful quotes, The Musician’sWalk: An Ethical Labyrinth, articulatesthe ethical wanderings of the musicalsoul through the lens of the labyrinth.Author JamesJordan’s advice toexperience a reallabyrinth is welltaken—the portioningof physical space isakin to the intellectualand spiritual space thisbook requires. A bitabstruse, this book isanything but a tradi-tional look at themusician’s life. Ahealthy portion of itdiscusses the ethicaldilemmas that musi-cians face in the 21st century, includ-ing how to treat each other and ourart, how to protect the rights of thosewho create and publish music and howto uphold aspiration and excellence. Italso explores diverse topics such as Qi(vital energy), crystal bowls as healingobjects and the role tones, such asthose produced on a didgeridoo, playin healing the body and soul.The Musician’s Walk is the third inJordan’s trilogy about spiritual musicmaking. The paradigm of the labyrinthis effective. It not only conveys the dif-ficulty of our path but of the threestages of the journey. The first is thejourney to the center, the path that attimes arrives at a dead end or offersdifficult turns to benegotiated. Jordan cau-tions we must be in the“right space” to take thewalk. These pages arefilled with anecdotes andfindings about thehuman self and themusical self from theperspective of Jordanand his contributors—engaging descriptions ofthe differing ways theyexperience awareness,love and compassion inthe modern world.At the heart of the journey is thecenter of the labyrinth, the place wherewe find our centeredness and arrive atour definition of what it is to be ethi-cal. Curiously, this section is devotedprimarily to the church musician, anda decidedly religious tone prevailsthroughout these four chapters.Regardless of one’s thoughts aboutspirituality, these chapters are bothmaze and mirror. Once settled in the center, one canbegin the walk back out into the world,cultivating an authentic presence bymaintaining a “state of constant aware-ness about both ourselves and our placein the world.” Jordan provides tools forreflection, including “My EthicalNotebook”—copious blank pages forrecording thoughts and completingguided journal entries and a space forcreating a personal ethical statement,which he encourages we carry with us.If this book has any weakness, it is veryminor and can be found in the incon-sistency of voice and presentation ofideas inherent when differing authorsshare unique perspectives. In any case, The Musician’s Walk is abook that should be read, and readoften. It is an important look at ourwalk through the ecology of life and abeautiful reminder that when wechoose to tread ethically, we will leavebehind footprints of love, compassionand brilliance. Reviewed by JulianneMiranda, Greencastle, Indiana.8 Teaching Genius: Dorothy DeLayand the Making of a Musician, byBarbara Lourie Sand. Amadeus Press,LLC. (512 Newark Pompton Tpke.,Pompton Plains, NJ 07444), 2005. 240pp. $16.95.Reviews8 The items marked with this symbol can be ordered via the MTNA website through our affiliation with Amazon.com. Go to www.mtna.org, clickon “Resources and Services” and scroll down to the Amazon.com section.Reviews of books, videos, software and music for the professional music teacher 

The Musician\u27s Walk: An Ethical Labyrinth

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The Musician\u27s Walk: An Ethical Labyrinth

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