Klarinet Archive - Posting 000361.txt from 1997/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Bill Edinger's interesting comments
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 10:33:09 -0500

> From: MX%"wde1@-----.81
> Subj: Infallibility Doctrine for composers?

> When it comes to treating whatever was written by a composer as if
> it came down on tablets from Mt. Sinai, I have to agree with what
> Gary Young wrote. My faith in the infallibility of the great
> geniuses of music was permanently altered the first time I heard
> Beethoven's "Wellington's Victory." What on earth _could_ he have
> been thinking?? Of course, Mozart is a different matter - he and JS
> Bach are the only ones still infallible : ). All the rest - a
> little leeway has got to be allowed. Otherwise, we'd never learn
> anything. Aaron Copland felt that there was no reason that a
> conductor couldn't be a better interpreter of a piece than the
> composer himself.
>
> Bill Edinger

I am sorry Bill, but this transcends logic. The way it reads is

1. The composer writes
2. The performer decides on the fallibility of the composer
3. If fallible, believe nothing
4. If infallible, believe everything

And there is a corrolary to this, too.

1. The performer is infallible

I have no idea if Beethoven was fallible or not. It is irrelevant to
the issue under discussion and it would be colossol arogance of me
to presume that my judgement on a composer's fallibility affects
my conclusions. If a guess is permissable, I would suggest that
Beethoven was probably not infallible but who cares? I also presume
that he meant what he said and that I should not contradict what he
said except on the hardest, most well-documented evidence.My opinion
on fallibility is neither hard evidence, well-documented evidence,
or anything but my personal opinion. And personal opinion has very
little place in music performance. Only knowledge does. It gives
rise to chaos if everyone plays the way they feel.

This is not directed at you because I don't know you, but many
clarinet players presume that they don't have to know anything
about music in order to play it. They don't need to know history,
tradition, performance practice, harmony, theory, counterpoint,
or anything if they manage the instrument with competence. They
only need to hold an opinion on how things go.

To which I suggest: doo-doo!

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