Klarinet Archive - Posting 000064.txt from 1994/11

From: Cary Karp <ck@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: the infamous test
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 16:20:34 -0500

On Thu, 3 Nov 1994, Dan Leeson:

> Cary is, of course, quite correct in his assertion that Jim Freeman's
> ability (or lack of it) to recognize the nationalalities of 20 players
> on the basis of 20 recordings does not go one inch beyond Jim.
> . . .
> If I understand Cary correctly, he
> suggests that no result will sway him from his current thinking on the
> matter because the test is insufficiently conclusive. That is a perfectly
> rational position and one with which I could not possibly disagree.
>
> Do we have a disagreement Cary?

I'm not even sure that there is a genuine argument here. My personal
feeling is that there is reasonable substance to the notions of national
schools with clearly defineable and recognizable characteristics. I would
also accept as reasonable that someone who is reared within such a school
might have an easier time incorporating its characteristics in his/her
personal style than might someone reared in a school which differed
substantially from it.

I could provide my reasons for harboring these opinions either from the
perspective of a musicologist, describing the historical evidence, or by
relating my experiences as a practicing musician who has put in healthy
professional stints in NYC, Germany and Sweden (having during the course
of my 26-year exile painfully come to the realization that specimen U.S.
American attitudes about the relationship between language and culture,
and the nonexistence of national personalities, are pretty much out to
lunch).

Limiting this for the moment to a single observation, I am repeatedly
dismayed by Swedish colleagues turning up their noses when me and my horn
sound as I feel we should. Although I'm quite sure that I would evoke a
more favorable reaction if presenting the same goods back in NYC, I have
little difficulty producing the kind of sound that my Swedish friends do.
They like it just fine when I do so, nor do I suspect that anyone might
peg me as a foreigner while I'm at it.

In light of personal experiences such as this I'm having some difficulty
understanding what is under contention here. I'm sure that we could define
some reasonably objective metric for describing national styles and take
it that nobody is suggesting that this would be a waste of time. Instead
of doing so, however, the interesting underlying issues are being
obfuscated by a far less fruitful competition about the possibility of
identifying a clarinetist's nationality on the basis of his or her
adherance to some more or less well defined national or regional style.

So, Dan, I dunno if we are at odds 'cause I don't even know what we're
arguing about.

Cary <ck@-----.se>