Klarinet Archive - Posting 000238.txt from 1997/01

From: "Nichelle A. Crocker" <crockena@-----.EDU>
Subj: Loose "seems"
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 00:32:27 -0500

It's tough to sort out all of the greys. "It's an impossible clarinet
change." vs. "It's a difficult clarinet change." vs. "It's easier on the
other instrument." or whatever the case may be in a particular piece.
Invariably, there are musicians out there who can and do play what the
composer wrote in the score. Things start to get shady when players decide
to step in and override what the composer wrote.

It's a little scary when we get into the "it seems to me that Brahms this"
or "players of the period might possibly have done that". In David Hattner's
example, a clarinetist *asked* Brahms. If a composer is still living, we
have that option. However, there is a huge difference between making a
suggestion to a composer and saying after a composer's death that he didn't
seem inflexible, so maybe we could... This sounds like too much guesswork to
me. And don't get me started on the composer's "intentions". Our great
composers did not leave us intentions. They left us music (scores), a
finished product.

I'm reminded (if I may) of an appropriate parallel in a foreword to a
collection of Shakespeare in which the foreward's author (Joseph Papp)
reminds the reader:
"It's hard to imagine, but Shakespeare wrote all of his plays with a quill
pen, a goose feather whose hard end had to be sharpened frequently. How many
times did he scrape the dull end to a point with his knife, dip it into the
inkwell, and bring up, dripping wet, those wonderful words and ideas that
are known all over the world?"

Though it may not seem relevent to some, this little quote reminds me of a
time when it wasn't possible to transpose an entire movement in a keystroke
or try out different instrument groups and sounds through your computer
speakers. I don't want to imply that modern composers are not meticulous
about their markings. Composers tend to be quite careful about what they
write, and it behooves us to think of a time when Brahms (or any other
composer) sat down to write, dipped his pen (though probably metal tipped,
not a quill) into an inkwell, with inkstains on his fingers, and carefully
wrote in the subtlest markings with a musical purpose in mind. Or so it
seems to me...

So glad I got to use "behooves" in my e-mail,

Nichelle Crocker
crockena@-----.edu