Klarinet Archive - Posting 000098.txt from 1994/04

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Verdi, feet, etc.
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 12:33:56 -0400

Roger Shilcock asks "What has 'commercial appeal' to do with 'appeal' to
a player." And he adds that this is not rhetorical, but is a real question.
Finally he states that flute congresses always include someone playing things
such as the Verdi Rigoletto Fantasy, about which there was some disuccsion.

Roger, clarinet congresses always have clarinet bands but that does not make
this kind of ensemble a viable commercial success. The fact is that it is
only at such congresses that they are heard. By the same reason, it is only
at flute congresses that one hears a great deal of the kind of music we have
been discussing. In the practical perform-for-money world, such performances
are extremely rare. Only Pavarotti made room on his program for this kind
of thing with a flute, and I add that the buy bombed.

I cannot see the purpose of music that has general appeal but has no
commercial appeal. After a while such performances become incestuous with
players playing for players instead of for general audience. Can you suggest
a single case over the last 200 years where a general-appeal-but-without-
commercial-appeal school arose and lasted more than a few years. The U.S.
dance band has tried many times to revive the success it once had before
World War 2, but the lack of any commercial success has limited its success.

And so it is with Verdi fantasies, and Carnival of Venices, and Brides of
the Waves. They have almost no commercial appeal and, as such, have
gone out of the audience repertoire. I do not say that this should not
have happened, nor do I try to understand why the phenomenon occurred.
But when it does, I go with the flow and avoid taking a serious financial
bath.

If one is an amateur (that does not mean a poor player, only one whose
living is not made from performing), one can afford to concern oneself
with issues of general appeal even if no income is generated. For a
person who plays for pay, that distinction simply has to be made. Being
a musical altruist does not put bread on the table.

Audiences are also a lot smarter than we give them credit for. They
are the barometers of what is good and not good, and the guage that
they use to show the performers what to perform is simply one of
volume of income. If it's up high enough, general appeal and
commercial appeal are synonymous and everybody is happy. If general
appeal does not produce commercial appeal, then that school of music
is not going to be played very much.

In Japan the item with the greatest general and commercial appearance
is Beethoven's 9th. There are probably 500 performances of this work
there every year. So commercial and general appeal go hand in hand.

In Kentucky, the music of Harrison Birtwhistle (spelling?) is avoided
by the public as if it contained the plague germ. So it does not
really matter how generally this music appeals to players. No one wants
to buy it; i.e., it has no commercial appeal.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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