Klarinet Archive - Posting 000236.txt from 1994/11

From: Jim Freeman <collnjim@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: um, gee, um
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 02:52:01 -0500

On Tue, 15 Nov 1994, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> OK, here are the results and it is not so easy to mark this quiz. I'll
> give a play-by-play breakdown and state if I think the answer is right,
> wrong, or unclear. But my rough cut is that it looks as if Jim got >
about 1/2 right and 1/2 wrong, giving him the benefit of the doubt on all
> for which the matter is unclear and two half-correct scores. > > > >
This is known in the west as a Mexican standoff. Bottom line is that > my
argument has neither been contradicted or supported by the test. > >
Anyone else want to try a different test? > > > >
==================================== > Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California >
(leeson@-----.edu) > ==================================== >

I would like to encourage everyone out there to give Dan's tape test a
try. It's concievable that when I was playing "name that orchestra" in
the car that I would only remember the instances in which I was correct,
and, hence, had an exaggerated sense of the ease in which national
schools could be discerned. Or it could be that Dan's test was somehow
skewed in a particular direction. The one thing we know is exactly what
we knew before the test began: regardless of the outcome, the test will
prove exactly nothing (but it was a very interesting experience).

I can't quibble with Dan's scoring. My only quibbles with the test is
the addition of the bass/basset/ orig. instrument portions, and longer
exerpts, but they are minor quibbles (quibble in A minor?). I find it
interesting that Harold Wright, my most revered tonal model, was instantly
recognizable, but this doesn't prove anything as far as national schools
go. It might, in fact, hint at Dan's thesis that national schools are
inferred from major players. If there are any statistics/music double
majors on the Klarinet, I sense an impending senior project.

Jim Freeman (collnjim@-----.edu)