Klarinet Archive - Posting 000776.txt from 1996/03

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.EDU>
Subj: On clarinet and sexuality
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 09:07:03 -0500

[Holy cow...do we have a brand new thread in the making??]

Hear hear Dan! And all this time I thought I was some isolated pervert for
feeling the same sense of literal passion about playing and hearing the
clarinet. If there is some inanimate-object form of bestiality, that is
NOT what I'm talking about here. :-) Honestly, though, when completely
drawn into the music and the performance event, I sometimes experience
emotions, and even physical "trembling" sensations, akin to sex. It has
something to do with the the total involvement of all of one's senses, I
think, when one is so involved in the act of creating music through one's
instrument that the music is literally the only area of reality which
exists at that moment in time. Woo woo! Take it off Dan!

Neil

On Thu, 28 Mar 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> Nate writes "What I like about the clarinet so much is its clear,
> innocent, warm sound. While vibrato can add character if used correctly,
> more often than not it will take away from the innocence of the
> clarinet sound that we all love so much."
>
> Well, of course, Nate can hear in the sound of the clarinet anything
> he wishes or any emotion that his taste finds as contained in the
> character of the sound.
>
> On the other hand, (and this is simply an expression of my own taste
> and preference, not necessarily a statement of truth), I find the
> clarinet's sound to be lusty, erotic, sensual, passionate, and
> earthy, the very antithesis of innocent.
>
> It is because I find the character of the sound so sexual, that I
> find its passionate character is diminished when played without
> vibrato.
>
> The use of vibrato is likened to the tremors one might feel in
> a sensual situation. I may be a lot older than I was when I first
> felt sexual urges, but I would tremble with passion under certain
> circumstances. That passion is not dissimilar to the feelings
> I have when I would play the Brahms quintet (whose slow movement
> is erotic conversation at its most lusty) and to play it without
> physical trembling, simulated by vibrato, one would have to be made
> out of concrete.
>
> There is nothing innocent to my ears in the Mozart quintet, the
> Schubert octet, the Reger quintet, the Hindemith concerto, the
> Corigliano concerto, etc. These are hot, lusty, play-it-naked
> pieces.
>
> Innocent???? Hand me my whip!! Bring on the absinthe. No
> thin-blooded, pursed-lipped innocents for me. I want to see
> and feel the heat of passion in my music. I want to burn up
> and smoke. Excuse me for being vulgar, but I don't think that
> great clarinet playing (and music in general) comes from the
> heart. It comes from the crotch!!
>
>
> ====================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> (leeson@-----.edu)
> ====================================
>