Klarinet Archive - Posting 000241.txt from 1997/02
From: Scott Lipcon <slipcon@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Musical literacy
Date: Sat, 8 Feb 1997 13:56:34 -0500
While not a music performance major, nor a music professional, I have
some comments to make. I don't even come in contact with too many
performance majors, as they are housed + taught at another campus, about
15 blocks south of me. My music knowlege comes from 6 years of private
lessons, and 9 years of elementary, middle, high school, and college band.
> For example:
> --How many upper-class undergraduates
> (and graduate students for that matter) have a
> ready knowledge of the common descriptive terms
> in German, Italian, and French that we see
> virtually every day in musical scores?
I may be over simplifying this, but I certainly know what the various
tempo, style, and dynamic markings mean. The ones I don't know I can
usually figure out from my english, spanish, and latin knowlege.
> --How many budding performers, who in their
> own minds are ready to take on the clarinet
> world, can read more than one clef? (How is
> someone to study the score of say, a quintet
> for clarinet and strings if they cannot
> read the treble, alto, and bass clefs?)
I think most more advanced musicians can read at least two clefs.
Looking at my peers in band, who are about the same level I am musically,
many of them play piano, or some other instrument. I can read bass clef
reasonably well (I played trombone for a year). I'm not familiar with the
names of the other clefs - the one with the squigly E looking thing - is
that alto? I know that the squigle is centered on C, so I could pick out
notes very easily, even though I couldn't sight read something from it.
> --How many performers really possess an
> understanding of the various gradations of
> note-length?
I'm not sure I understand this question... You don't mean half note versus
dotted half note, I'm sure. Do you mean stacatto vs. legato, etc?
> --How many students, when asked why they
> play a piece in a certain manner, respond
> by saying either (1) "I don't know, I just
> "feel it" that way; (2) because [Clarinetist
> X] plays it that way; (3) because "it's
> Brahms" (or whoever composed the music).
> In other words, how many students can discuss
> the process involved in making interpretive
> decisions? To ask this in another way:
> How many performance majors can discuss
> musical style without using subjective terms
> that may mean something entirely different
> to their discussion partner?
I think that is a very hard thing to be able to do. I agree that #2 and
#3 are poor answers. I wouldn't play something a certain way because I
heard a recording that way. Interpretation has to be something that comes
from yourself, and I do believe that often "because I feel it that way" is
the best one can do to describe why he/she played it that way. Again, I
don't have a lot of experience here - I have a hard enough time playing
pieces technically, without spending a great deal of time on
interpretation.
> --How many clarinet students could reasonably
> explain why the clarinet is a transposing
> instrument?
I may have this wrong too, but I'm assuming its because there are so many
variations of clarinets, and composers wrote for the clarinet in many
keys, and most clarinetists don't own every single clarinet, so they have
to be able to transpose. As a non clarinet major, I know why it is a
transposing instrument, but if my band director handed me a piece for
Clarinet in Db, and all I had was my Bb, I'd have a very difficult time
playing it, especially the first time. The most I've done is transpose a
part for the A clarinet to play on Bb, and to transpose flute music in C
to Bb so I could play flute duets with a friend.
Therefore, I don't feel that Dr. Geidel's remarks are entirely true. I'm
not even a performance major, and I don't feel like I know enough to be a
performance major, but I do feel that I'm not musically "illiterate". My
only thought as to why this is, is that I have been a subscriber and loyal
reader of Klarinet for a long time (2 years now, I think) and that many of
you (Dr. Geidel included) have taught me a great deal about musicianship
in general and about the clarinet. So, maybe the point is that all
Clarinet performance majors should be required to join Klarinet!
Scott
