Klarinet Archive - Posting 000192.txt from 1997/07

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Jerry Korten on improvisation
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 10:32:24 -0400

this has become thoroughly enjoyable for me.......

Jerry? Response?

RG

On Wed, 2 Jul 1997, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> I very much enjoyed reading Jerry's long and thoughtful comments
> about improvisation. There are two items in his note on which
> I wish to comment.
>
> "Clearly the performer must be a contemporary of the composer in
> order to understand and successfully execute embellishment or
> improvisation."
>
> I couldn't agree less. To assert that only musicians contemporary
> to a specific era are really capable of executing music with the
> performance practices of that era is equivalent to suggesting
> that no living person can ever be successful in the performance
> of any music written 30 or more years earlier.
>
> I am also immediately alerted to a revolutionary statement (such
> as Jerry's, but in fact anyone's) that begins with the word
> "clearly." That is the psychospeak equivalent of "I'm not really
> sure but I'll throw it out and maybe it will get by."
>
> End of item one.
>
> Item two comes at the conclusion of Jerry's comments. After
> being very supportive of the idea of improvisation, and citing
> a half dozen references in clear recognition of the importance
> of the practice, he then makes a statement that appears to
> reverse himself: "I guess I don't see the justification for using
> improvisation in our time in the representation of classical
> music. If we are guessing our audience won't tolerate it
> then why are we doing this? If we are displaying our own
> compositional prowess wouldn't it be better not to do so on
> other's coat tails and stand on our own?"
>
> The performance of any music -- from any period -- requires
> a knowledge of and adherance to the performance practices of
> that period. We don't play Beethoven as we play Bartok, and
> we don't play Mozart as we play Gershwin. If you don't believe
> that to be an accurate statement, then try playing K. 581
> in the same style and with the same performance practices
> (particularly those related to rhythm) as "Walking the Dog."
>
> The bottom line here is that we are all prisoners of performance
> practice. We have to know something about it in order to
> represent properly the music that we are payed to represent.
> For Jerry to say that one practice is important while another is
> beyond our reach simply because he doesn't see any real
> justification for doing it, strikes me as disingenuous.
>
> The real reason (and I should not be so dictatorial either,
> but I am trying to make a point so the reasoning is extreme)
> Jerry takes this position is because improvisation as a
> performance practice is such a radical departure from today's
> understanding of how to play Mozart's music. But I suggest
> that it is today's understanding that is flawed, not the
> assertion that improvisation needs to be revived as a practice.
>
> In effect, Jerry has a cart and a horse. Today he moves
> ahead by having the horse push the cart. He gets to where
> he is going, to be sure. So someone comes along and says,
> "Why not have the horse pull the cart instead of pushing it?"
> And Jerry's response is "I see no reason to change the
> contemporary way of moving along in a cart. Even if it
> is true that, in years past, people went forward in that
> fashion, that mechanism is no longer applicable to the
> engineering of today's transportation needs."
>
> Either one accepts that knowledge of performance practices
> is an important part of the kit bag of every player's
> set of working tools, or one either does not accept this
> or accepts it only to the extent of his or her personal
> beliefs and says "While the overture in the French style
> was fine for Louis XIV, we don't have to do that any longer
> when playing French overtures, because there is no longer
> a king on the throne of France."
>
>
>
>
>
> =======================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
> leeson@-----.edu
> =======================================
>