[from SFSU Magazine, Vol. 1/No. 1, Fall 2000]

uch of our work takes place in silence," explains the Music Department's Ron Caltabiano as he welcomes a visitor to a one-on-one session with Jono Kornfeld, a graduate student in music composition. Even though teacher and student sit next to a piano, they hardly touch the keys. The dominant sounds during the hour-long class are words, not notes.
As Caltabiano reviews the score of Kornfeld's work in progress, his comments seem technical. They deal with downbeats, elisions, fermatas. His suggestions are practical: "Give the flutist a rest here" and "The mezzo is going to expand on that note, so get the instruments to a place that match her."
You hear similar comments
in the various group and individual classes taught by SF State's prize-winning musical faculty. The topics include notation (when to switch from the bass to the treble clef when writing for cello),

balance (the danger that a singer'svoice may be covered by the other instruments), and limitations of both the instruments and performances. Many remarks seem designed to make the students aware of choices they've made and possible alternatives.
Occasionally generalizations emerge ("Getting an instrument out of a piece is as difficult as getting it in"), but they are rare. As department member Richard Festinger explains, "Knowledge is contextual. You can't talk about principles outside a particular musical situation."
Nuts-and-bolts comments comprise the text of the lessons, but they are not the subtext, the underlying point. Although the four faculty members may express that point somewhat differently, the substance of their teaching is the same: to help each student express an individual voice and find a place in a continuing musical tradition.
To find their own places in the tradition, the four took different