Klarinet Archive - Posting 000179.txt from 1996/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Where is Dan?
Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 15:28:58 -0400

Dan is here. He reads every post. He grumbles and ruminates at some of
the (what he thinks) nonsense that is posted. But after having raised
holy hell about dark sounds and what the source of sound character is
and why (in his opinion) the clarinet playing world accepts handsful of
grandmothers stories in support of just about anything, there is no reason
to do it perpetually. About two or three times in the last 3 years is
quite sufficient.

Besides, I have a number of other interests that have occupied me intensely
for the last 4 months or so. One of them may be of interest to the list.
I had to write an article for the Mozart Jahrbuch (1997 issue) and the
title is "Mozart's Wind Sereande for13 Players, the Gran Partitta, a Revisit."

The matter dealt with an argument to a previously stated view on the date
of the work. In 1976, Dave Whitwell and I published a paper in the Mozart
Jahrbuch that dated the work to the middle of 1783 up to early March, 1784.
Then, in 1979, Neal Zaslaw and I completed the Neue Mozart Ausgabe score of
that same work and it was published as part of the Neue Mozart Ausgabe
itself. A proud moment for me (and I hope for all clarinetdom, too). In
that volume, Zaslaw and I reconfirmed the date of 1783/84 and that influenced
a great deal of writing about the work; i.e., being composed 3 years
later than orinally thought. (I recognize that some on this board do not
consider the date of a composition very important in the scheme of the
things, but for Mozart scholars, it is very important.)

It was with the publication of performance parts and study score that some
anonymous person (who wrote the preface to the study score) said that
we were wrong. That the date of K. 361, the Gran Partitta (and it is
spelled with two "t's") was really 1781/1782 based on two pieces of
information: (1) watermark studies does by Alan Tyson of the UK, and (2)
the authority of the flute quartet in C, K. 285b.

I have energetically contested that assertion by putting a knife through
the eye of the second one, and argued that the watermark information put
forward was shockingly in error (not Tyson, but the interpreter of what
Tyson wrote).

I got so p.o.ed at the assertions that I undertook the "revisit" article
and it is now done, being reviewed by about 5 world-class Mozart scholars
such as Bob Levin, Neal Zaslaw, Marius Flothuis, etc., and will be sent
to the Mozart Jahrbuch editor around Dec. 1.

Plus I am teaching three math classes at local colleges.

Plus I am attending my cardiac exercise class three days a week where
I do aerobics, long distance walking (1/2 block at most), a lot of
stretching exercizes, and laying around on gym mats with 24 other old
farts.

That limits my energy to contribute to the list, but I read every posting.
The last time I posted was to tell a lovely young woman on this list
that she had "broken my heart" because she had the hubris to say something
like, "I bought a Yamaha. And everyone tells me I should have bought a
Buffet. I am sorry I did such a wrong thing." When I read that, I concluded
that had she been my daughter, she would have become my dead daughter because
I personally would have strangled her for being the world champion accepter
of the opinions of others.

So don't think I am dead. Think of me in more angelic terms.

And next summer, if the crew that was going to have the Dan Leeson
Roadblock in Baltimore party wants to do it again, I will come through
and greet everyone, though I no longer eat pizza. I look at it a lot.
I just don't eat it.

Would anyone like to see a picture of my operation?

Would anyone like a 3 hour discussion of my ills?

Would anyone like to hear how I suffer like saint?

Would anyone like to argue the dark sound question? Watch out!! Knife
in the eye for that one.

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