A Musical Way of Life
Just as Temianka articulated to his audiences that composers and their own creations were a product of their time, it could also be said that his lectures are uniquely the product of his own life, from performing as a soloist and traveling the world with the Paganini Quartet to conducting symphonies at Royce Hall and writing on the purpose of music appreciation.
Synthesis defines Temianka's work. Through countless commentaries, he synthesized personability with formality, education with entertainment and mechanical prowess with human empathy.
Most strikingly, Temianka's holistic lecture style broke new ground when it portrayed a conductor's own personal thoughts and experiences as valid aspects of musical commentary and discourse. Similar to how he spoke of composers and their creations, Temianka saw his relationship with the music he performed and lectured about as inseparable — to not discuss his thoughts on the piece, or how he came to understand the work, would be to ignore a large aspect of how a performer performs.
For Temianka, this more personal approach to performance lectures affirmed that music was indeed a way of life.