Klarinet Archive - Posting 000768.txt from 1997/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: A clarinet
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 12:43:48 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.28
> Subj: Re: A clarinet

> Dan Leeson wrote:
>
> I wonder if you would amplify on this point. Specifically, what is
> it about the C clarinet that you suggest you can't stand?
>
>
> Dan,
>
> I think the sound is probably tooooooo bright!
>
> Steve

Now that is a position worthy of a politician. You can chase
that statement from Monday to Thursday and find no substance in it.

First is the "probably". Is it too bright or is it not too bright?
How does one counter "probably too bright" with rational argument?

Second is the "bright". I am confident that you know what this means,
but I am a beginner and need specificity. Sound character is not
bright or dark or blue or purple or banana. Those words do not
describe what it is you have in your inner head. They are buzz words
that people use because they don't have anything more descriptive.

Third is the "I think". Now, don't misunderstand me, Steve. You have
a right to think whatever you want to think and to offer whatever
opinions you chose to offer. But let us distinguish what you think
from technical truth. What you think may very well be technical truth,
but in this case, I need evidence.

I am just a simple country boy and you are a city slicker trying to
confuse me.

I know I have been gone a long while from this board, but certainly
all rational examination of the vocabulary that we use when speaking
about such critical subjects as sound character could not have
regressed so fast.

If you say, "I am not accostomed to the sound character of a C clarinet,"
I can understand that, and the solution to that problem is to try it
some more until you get accostomed to it, or conclude that you cannot
do that.

If you say, "I find the sound character of a C clarinet penetrating
beyond my wishes to penetrate" I can understand that, but such a
criticism is blaming a black cat for being black. That is what the
sound character of a C clarinet is supposed to be, and that very
cahracter was used by composers in a way to suit their ends. You may
not care for it, but, like a poor man with only one coat on a winter
day, it is what you have to work with.

You know that I have always valued your opinion on many things
having to do with clarinets and clarinet playing. And I even value
this position too. But it is ill formed and unworthy of a person
as qualified as you to take. First you must study in a monastary for
100 years, then you can tell me its "probably tooooooo bright."

And I'll be concerned with that position as probably being toooooo hasty.

>
> Steve Prescott
> Instrument Rep.Tech./ Clarinetist
> Indiana State University
> mipresc@-----.edu
>
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================