By Beat Rink   

A Gift is not yet a Calling

In the recently published book of interviews, “Mich umgibt ein grosser Klang’, some excerpts of which are presented in this magazine , Steven Clapp, for many years Dean of the Juillaiard School, says he has been giving his students in the violin class the same advice for years: “If you have wide and varied interests, with music amongst them, it’s better to leave music on one side and choose something else as your profession. That way you will earn your living and enjoy music your whole life through. But if you’re completely crazy about your violin and you can hardly leave it in its case, then you will find a place somewhere”.

So a gift is not yet a calling – calling understood here in the sense of a decision setting the future direction for a profession. So what leads to a calling? Steven Clapp’s opinion is that a person has to be passionately a musician and nothing else.  I had an uncle who was a chemist.  Many musicians assured him that he was more musical than some professional musicians.  But he had chosen another profession…

It can happen that beside the musical gift an equally pronounced gift (or passion) of another kind holds the scales in the balance.  And it is of course hardly possible to make a profession out of two different passions.  But there is no doubt that someone who remains an amateur artists can also achieve great things. 

In philosophy, there is an concept known as ‘entelechy’.  Aristotle used it meaning that at the core of a human being (Greek ‘en-‘) there is purposeful energy which works towards a goal (Greek ‘telos’). Think about the caterpillar, for example, which carried in itself the goal ‘butterfly’. 

The idea of ‘entelechy’ was very influential for a long time in European cultural history (for example the development of characters in novels) and it can still be felt today.  In this age of gene technology it is even receiving new nourishment!  Although there may be a portion of truth in this concept, there is no entelechy which has the right to predetermine our lives completely – this applies to artistic talent as well!

Called?! And then everything went a different way…

If someone is born to be a musician, it does not mean that he necessarily has to die as a musician.  For in living out a calling other factors are necessary as well:

• a good training (I unfortunately often hear of singers whose natural gifts were destroyed during studies),
• a suitable mental constitution (there are highly gifted musicians who shy away from the limelight), a positive environment (there are families in which artistic talent is considered worthless),
• finances (how many artists are there who have to choose another profession because of financial needs?),
• health (I am thinking of an accordionist friend of mine who gave up his career after a skiing accident and became a happy manager), and so on.
  
  If someone with a “calling” discovers that things are taking a different path, his life is by no means ruined.  Often he can continue to cultivate his gift – and even continue having a joy in this that many a professional artist would envy.

Conclusion: no-one is born and called exclusively to be an artist!

Calling – at what price?

And on the other hand there is someone like Vincent Van Gogh, who despite extreme poverty and lack of success stayed true to his calling and produced an oeuvre of genius. The biographies of many other artists who how great works were achieved under the most difficult circumstances.

The price of an artistic calling is sometimes really high and has to be calculated carefully amongst the total costs of life. It is important above all that other people (the family) should not be the ones who have to pay it. The singer Jorma Hynninen broke off his international career at a certain point for the sake of his family. So, fortunately, there are examples of the costs not leading to a total deficit in terms of relationships.

Therefore you have to ask yourself: what is the cost of my calling and who is going to pay for it?

Called, but not gifted?

Another possibility should be mentioned for the sake of completeness.  It is something we meet repeatedly: someone believes he has a calling to be an artist and dedicates himself to be recognized as such.  Perhaps with enough means to present his work to the public.  He then believes he is called.  Only, unfortunately the talent is not there!  Particularly in the area of visual art and literature, where the ‘technical’ craftsmanship is not so easily measured as in music, such untalented and uncalled people turn up in large numbers.  If they are then in fact admired (quite often in Christian churches), this is a rather painful experience for those with genuine talent and calling.  

Now there may well be a place for a modest talent – but please only a suitable, modest one.

With “fake” (self-)callings, neither art nor the person with a calling is served. 

Accepting the artistic calling

An artistic calling should be accepted gratefully. It is God’s gift and does not stand, as is sometimes assumed on the Christian side, in a fundamental opposition to faith. 

An opposition of this kind is always the result of a reduced theology which does not allow enough room for the wonder of creation and the wonder of human creativity.  For non-artistic people, it is not always easy to understand that a person can have no greater wish than to be artistically active, and that a calling of this sort is more than just a profession which one can simply exchange for another one. 

It is therefore all the more important that the artist is sure of his artistic calling. For a Christian artist, another aspect comes into the picture.  He does not simply follow his gift or his inner calling, but Jesus Christ.  He does not wish to serve his gift or success, but God. 

God can then call him into being a full-time artist. But He can also call him away from that and let gifts in other areas blossom. God can renew the original calling and he can take it in another direction, as the course of Dieter Schoep’s life shows.  He can for example give further gifts and awake new interests. 

From this point of view, we should put calling (where it is not exclusively a matter of profession) in the plural as well; there are always different callings with God.  But art can be one of these and take an important place.

A Christian artist can always remind himself, “God is the greatest artist and He has joy in my art”.

Living in an artistic calling

The artistic calling can meet opposition from various sides, the torture of being unsuccessful on one side and success with which one cannot cope on the other. Artistic isolation here and all too strong a media presence there, perfectionism in one case and the tendency to instant art and superficiality in another, to name but a few dangers. It is therefore not so easy to hold onto the original calling. 

One of the most important principles of management is the reflection on what the ‘core business’ is, and every business consultant begins with the question, “How did it start? What vision moved the founder of your firm?”.

It can be important to let something drop that damages or distracts from the real calling.  On the other hand, calling is not a life programme cast in concrete.  And artists in particular are called to be active in creating and changing.

Being alone is part of being an artist, above all for creative, less for interpretational artists.  Although phases of isolation are important, a calling should not be lived completely alone, but in fellowship and in regular exchange with others. 

For a Christian artist, this can mean that he asks others to pray for him.  I myself have had the very encouraging experience of hearing a man who knew nothing about me say during a time of prayer, “I see you, how you wrestle as a writer for the right word and how you continue to write.”

My modest poetic subsidiary calling received a big boost from this simple word for me. Why? I realized that God knows about my activity and he stands behind me in it. 

It can also be encouraging to converse with other artists.  Aren’t there some medicines that are healing in small doses ., but are poisonous in larger quantities? It’s the same with the loneliness of the artist.

The artistic calling and also the artist (sensitive, lonely, wrestling with his work) are often in danger.  It is important for him not live with calling alone. 

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Based in Basel, Switzerland, Beat Rink and his Finnish born wife Airi, founded Crescendo (www.crescendo.org/ ) in 1985, and have served as spiritual leaders to hundreds of Christian Classical Musicians. This apostolic work has grown into an international ministry which now includes Crescendo Arts.

Article reprinted from Crescendo magazine with author’s permission.