Jan Ranck has mixed feelings since her return from a year of study at the Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands. Reluctant to talk about her "accomplishments" as a student of the flute, she is excited about the variety of experiences in music and living. She is obviously confident of herself, and enthused about the 11-month "sabbatical" which began Jan. 2 of last year, and ended Dec. ~. Jan, 19, is the daughter of Rev. and Mrs. J. Robert Ranck.
At the Royal Conservatory, she was the' only student from Indiana University, and one of two American flutists for part of the year. She returns to classes this week in Bloomington as a junior, having completed her independent study.
The experience was.something Jan wanted very much, asked for, and got. It was, in a sense, an extension of her experience in music at Interlochen National Music Camp in Michigan's lower Peninsula. There, two summers ago, she studied under the talented flutist, Alexander Murray.
"Often I heard he would be at the Royal Conservatory at the Hague, I wrote to him, and he accepted me as his student."
Jan describes Murray as an "experimenter in music." He designed his own flute, which has a system of fingering that makes the intonation more exact and the higher register smoother. Murray also incorporates the "Alexander Technique" into his teaching. Originated by F.M. Alexander, the technique is a "whole philosophy" in which mind and body are considered inseparable. Working with bodily balance and co-ordination and habits of both moving and reacting, it applies not only to breathing and music, but establishes a whole new relationship between individual and existence.
Jan is enthused about the technique and would like to return to Murray and his wife for more study and certification as an Alexander Technique instructor.
The conservatory itself emphasizes Baroque music, and has an outstanding faculty. Jan used her modern flute, although other students used copies of instruments from the Baroque period, including the recorder. She attended sessions in what proved to be~'an interesting old building where stodios of well-known musical artists are used as practice rooms. Classes are small (two of hers had only five students) allowing for individual attention.
Although only one private lesson per week was required, Jan had up to three. She had a class in orchestral studies, another in flute methods. Frans Vester, a well-known flute literature expert, conducted several performance practices classes.
While in Holland, she had opportunities to play in churches and in informal duets with fellow students.
Jan found that American standards of music performance are sometimes higher than those in Europe. Laughing, she said, "You can be more musically expressive if you hit the right notes!"
Jan began playing the flute when she was 10. Anton Peshek, band instructor at Menominee High School, gave her the first, basic, instruction. Rev. Joseph Mattern, former band director at Marinette Catholic Central High School, gave her lessons during middle school and early high school years. As he coached her, she said, "I absorbed his musicianship."
Asked what the year's experience has given her, Jan, said, "A confidence about my playing that I didn't have before .. and ideas in music I had never thought of. Mr. Murray is not only a "great" in performance, but a very knowledgeable man in other fields. All of these, he somehow applies to playing music!
"And I learned more about myself - I learned what I need as a person because I was often alone."
During summer vacation, Jan went to Salzburg where she studied German. she also worked in Cologne, since she was responsible for her expenses of transportation and room and board. She learned both Dutch and German and is able to compare the languages. Jan loved both and pointed out that there was a similarity in the two, but great differences in the people who spoke them.
"Attitudes of various ethnic groups must be different, because thought structure is based on language. And even. such things as differences in sentence structure change the way of thinking."
Jan spent the first six months in Holland with a Dutch family, the Wijmans, in Voorburg, a suburb of the Hague. When she returned after the summer months, she moved into an apartment and then to a student house .. important months, she said, because she had the opportunity to react with people, and have a social life.
Asked about what high school experiences she had which might have been of value, Jan said she was always sorry Latin was dropped.
"It's helpful in learning so many other languages, and language is important. Americans tend to assume that everyone in the world speaks English, and of course they don't. So it helps to learn at least one other language. As I said, it's part of getting to know how other people think."
In the months in Europe, Jan became aware of the strengths of the United States. But she can be a critic, too.
"There is a higher consciousness level in America .. there is something being done about blacks, the rights of women, etc. Europeans take things more for granted."
She criticizes America for its lack of mass transportation (our transportation systems can lose luggage between Chicago and Menominee, and certainly don't run to the minute on schedule) and feels that our large cars are a waste.
"By European standards, our small cars are hardly small."
She enjoyed the European lack of billboards as well.
Jan said there is some anti-American feeling in Europe, and hoped she presented, while there, the image of an American other than "the rich American traveling in Europe, which most Europeans see."
She admits that she missed the structured academic life of the university.
At Bloomington, she is majoring in music and literature. Her major there is unique since it is actually a degree in the "inter-relationship of the arts", yet not an interdepartmental program.
Jan doesn't want to "make money with music." Concentrating on "making it" in the performance circuit' seems to warp the musician, she said. She does feel that performing, music is as creatively valid as composing it, since one must discern and then somehow newly express what the composer has said.
Writing as a music critic is perhaps another facet of being creative in the field.
Jan is eager to get back to the university as she loves school, its life, its people, and the classes. Ultimately, she wants to find a lifework related to literature to support herself. She will always continue to read .. and to play music.
For contentment Jan needs places to walk alone and access to the cultural stimulation she needs.
She also wants companionship. "It means a great deal," Jan said.
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