Klarinet Archive - Posting 000407.txt from 1995/03

From: Kerry Roebuck <roeb7610@-----.CA>
Subj: English terms vs Italian terms
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 15:15:28 -0500

Italian terms have lasted throughout the ages and have been universally
accepted, even by the Germans. It has become an active part of our
teachings and learnings to date. Most of the terms deal with affecting
emotion and sound, like allegro (happy), forte (loud), etc.. Some that
deal with sound also deal with physical elements like con sordini (with
mute), arco (with the bow) , etc..

My point is that the main method used by composers of reaching the
performer is by way of terms. I do not have a solution, but I do believe
that advancements in instruments since the 18th century have
surpassed the terms available to us. We as performers and composers
should create more terms to add to the list which apply more directly to
our own instruments. For us, clarinettists, words like dark, bright,
fuzzy, round, focussed, spread, sax-like, g and t trills, and others
should be standardized so that in 200 years from now, other players willl
be able to have guides by which they can have authentic performances of
music written in our time.

How? Well, I think an association like this (a clarinettists' network)
can produce a good skeleton of some descriptions of the terms, and send
them to Groves, Oxford, and Harvard, and begin the circulation of the new
words. Even Italian terms are sometimes ambiguous, but they are there,
and the performers can modify their meanings to suite themselves anyway.

Kerry Roebuck
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo

Brown hills have melted into spring.
-Emily Bronte