Klarinet Archive - Posting 000172.txt from 1996/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Preaching/having fun/love hate relationships
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 1996 12:47:01 -0500

Well, I never thought that my off-hand remarks would get to this. But
Gary Bisaga sent a thoughtful posting on the subject that I found very
touching. I also allowed it to flow around me because its content
was not appropriate for me, but that does not mean that I was not moved
by his thoughtful gesture. In effect I let the matter lie.

But Scott struck a spark when, in his rebuke of Gary's comment, said,
"Stop preaching and have fun." And in doing so he may have made a
conflagration.

The reason why I have this love hate relationship with certain pieces,
(the operatic fantasies being the operative topic) is due to the fact
that they are fun, and fun is the last thing I want to do when engaged
in serious music performance.

For me, at least, and in professional performance,
it is not fun. It is serious, deadly business and is, in the final
analysis, a matter of life and death. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms,
etc. are matters of great profundity and there is no room in my life
at least, for the frivolous in music. It takes too much energy.

That doesn't mean that I did not enjoy it when I was doing it. Rather,
that the approach was invariably serious. I had been given a great gift
by God; i.e., the ability and desire to play serious music and I was not
going to allow it to take on the same level in life as a Knicks basketball
game. That was fun. Mozart was not fun. It was a hallowed gift from
one of God's most favored people to me and the world.

So: (1) I appreciate the thoughtfulness of Gary Bsiaga's comments but
I am afraid that, in my case, the arrow went in the wrong direction, and
(2) I appreciate the input of Scott but instead of calming troubled
waters, it stirred up the humors and the vapors within them.

Fun? Hell no.

> > I suppose this means (if
> >this is what you feel to be the correct ideal, which you do seem to)
> >you should preach against a showy piece, hopefully with the hope that
> >others will find the same salvation (i.e. not commissioning, writing,
> >or performing similar pieces, at least not with the intent of showing
> >off) but that you shouldn't really feel bad about liking certain
> >aspects of such pieces.
>
> >Gary Bisaga (gbisaga@-----.org)
>
> Or you could just admit that some pieces of music (or films, or
> books, or TV shows, or theatre, etc...) DON'T have lofty goals, but are
> just fun!
> And isn't that a perfectly justifiable goal in itself?
>
> Stop preaching and have fun!
>
> -Scott
>
> Scott D. Morrow
> Department of Biochemistry
> School of Hygiene and Public Health
> Johns Hopkins University
> (410)-955-3631
>
> SDM@-----.edu
====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================