Klarinet Archive - Posting 000329.txt from 1995/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: It's starting again ...
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 15:43:03 -0500

Please let me extend my thanks to the soothing postings of Fred
Cicetti, Bruce Hudson, and Edwin Lacy. My head still hurts and
I have a bandage around it. (Unrelated thought. When I was a
kid, the big western star was Tom Mix, soon to be upstaged by
Gene Autry who would get his from Roy Rogers. Anyway, Tom
Mix always had a fight at the end of his movies and it did not
matter where he was shot, he always had a bandage around his
head. If he were shot in the foot, he had a bandage around his
head. And in such accoutrements he would mount his horse and
head off into the sunset. But I woolgather.)

I am not sure these very kind people understood me, particularly
Bruce, who said "I can't believe that [any] person would would
have any trouble identifying the Rovner as producing the 'darker'
sound." Bruce, I could not agree less! 100 people, each hearing
what you suggested would produce unpredictable responses that
would astound you in their variety assuming that each such person
was uninfluenced by any of the other 99. This "dark" business is
a social phenomenon, not a technical truth.

And it is not because "dark" is a poor word or even a poor
analogous description. It is rather that there is no standard for a
"dark" sound, and this permits anyone to interpret anything they
want as "a nice dark sound." If it were called "a nice eggerplertel
sound" the same problem would apply. The term "dark" means
nothing because it has no definition.

To then say that its definition is clear because it means an
abundance (or absence of) upper partials is not particularly helpful
because sound character is such a subjective element of our
makeup that those things that we like are said to have (or not to
have) all those upper partials. And it is further complicated by the
fact that I do not know what to do with my mouth (or face, or
throat or cheeks or diaphragm or elbows or kneecaps or goodness
knows what) to get more (or less) of those things into my playing.
And I don't know what to buy to achieve those things.

The only thing I know how to influence is the nature of the sound
so that it pleases me. That is my only aesthetic. With the greatest
ease I can make some very awful sounds come out of a clarinet
and I know how to improve those up to a point. And when I am
at that point, I like my sound (though I wish I could produce one
that I liked better). But I have no idea if anyone in the world
would characterize that sound as dark or bright, and I couldn't care
less.

The only important thing is that I like it. (Perhaps more important
is when the conductor doesn't like it.) It has achieved the proper
level of eggerplertelness to satisfy my subjective understanding of
true eggerplertelosity. If someone wants to say that that is a "nice
dark sound" (or "an ugly puce sound"), that's OK with me as long
as the checks keep coming it.

The bottom line is that I was not arguing for a new word; i.e., dark
means eggerplertel. I was arguing against the use of ANY word
on which there is no standard of understanding. And since I do not
believe we will ever get one, I'll simply stick with my (to me)
sound which I will not characterize as anything but pleasing to me.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that my bass clarinet sound went to
hell in a handbasket and Clarke Fobes fixed my mouthpiece whose
table had become warped. I knew within 15 milliseconds of it
happening that I found my sound unpleasing. I don't know if it
had become "undark" or "anti-eggerplertel." I knew only that I
didn't like it and something had to be fixed.

I see all these wonderful young clarinet players running around the
world trying to get a sound characteristic by someone else's
aesthetic. They want the world to say that they have "a nice dark
sound" when all they need to have is some serious self-criticism.
It is a wonder we are all not paranoid and psychotic
simultaneously. We are searching for a holy grail which, despite
Monty Python's brave effort, is not going to be found.

I am going to bed now and pull the covers over my head. I may
take my basset horn to bed with me. (Don't knock it if you
haven't tried it.) And under those covers I will play on my basset
horn, achieving the true characteristic of a "nice eggerplertel
sound."

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