Klarinet Archive - Posting 000800.txt from 1996/08

From: leeson@-----.E
Subj: Re the "gut feel" (fwd)
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 1996 15:35:04 -0400

Forwarded message:
>
> So far I have seen about 6 postings asserting that they have a gut
> feel about differences in instruments, or that someone's wife heard
> a difference, or their student heard a difference or they heard a
> difference, and then the poster feels that something conclusive has
> been established by having said that.
>
> It is not the way it works. There has to be unbiased, objective,
> scientific evidence for assertions of this nature.
>
> It does not matter if one's dog hears a difference, this does not
> consistitute a technical truth. I used to thing that clarinet players
> were the most noble, intelligent, understanding people in the world.
> But my faith is shaken when I see "gut feel" being offered as
> conclusive evidence on anything. One has a built-in bias to hear
> things in the way that one thinks they are supposed to be heard. And
> to objectivity, that is a death sentence.
>
> I know that music is a subjective business, at least the performance
> side of it is. But when it comes to matters of physics and
> whether or not an unbiased listener can tell something, subjectivity
> is not a reliable tool.
>
> And thus, it does not matter what one's wife hears, or one's student,
> or even the player. We are beset with so many subjective phenomena
> that we simply cannot trust our ears on issues such as this.
>
>
>
>
> ====================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> (leeson@-----.edu)
> ====================================