Klarinet Archive - Posting 001276.txt from 1997/09

From: "Lorne G. Buick" <lgbuick@-----.net>
Subj: Re: difference?
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 22:00:43 -0400

> Charles said:
> > If you had all of the major orchestral clarinetists play the same excerpt
> > behind a screen, would you, could you, should you, be able to tell
>who's who?
> >Clare replied:

> I'd say yes, yes, and yes - because just as creative talent is
>individually recognisable (telling the difference between Mozart and
>Beethoven, for example) so is interpretive talent. If you can't tell
>who's who, I'd argue it's probably more because we don't know enough of
>each person's sound/tone/playing style rather than because we shouldn't.
>Besides, from the performance point of view, when you play a piece, you're
>putting the whole gamut of your own experience and feeling for the piece
>into the performance of it. That will naturally result in a different
>sound to someone else, who brings different experiences to their playing.
>Perhaps the reverse question, which really made *me* realise what the
>answer should be, is "should we all be aiming to sound the same?" If not,
>the answer to your question *has* to be yes.

I reply:
Interesting question, interesting answer. I disagree to a degree with the
answer though. Here's a few followup questions and thoughts:
--Did you (Charles) mean all American orchestras or all including Berlin,
Vienna, Moscow, the various London orchestras, etc.? I would say the
differences would be much more obvious than among just the Americans.

--Continuing with degrees of difference... if you had Neidich, Stoltzman,
Daniels, Meyer (S) and Meyer (P) play some Brahms (or Rossini or
Saint-Saens or whatever) behind a screen you would hear big differences. If
you had the principals of Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York and
Boston (are those "the big five"?) playing Brahms 3 (or whatever) you would
hear much smaller differences. If you gave a conductor ten minutes with
each to get them to play the excerpt identically I bet some of them would
fool you.

--Individual interpretive talent is a relatively small part of orchestral
playing. The goal in preparing for an orchestral career is to be _able_ to
do absolutely anything on the instrument, and ready to change the way you
do it according to the interpretation of the conductor. You have to be able
to shape a phrase beautifully but you don't have to understand sonata form
and know how to build a musical interpretation of a whole work.

--Your question "should we all be aiming to sound the same?" is too vague.
If your goal is "to be the best musician I can be" then the answer is no:
you should be listening to and studying a big variety of music and
musicians, finding the area that excites you most, developing your own
sound and interpretive skills etc. If your goal is to get a principal job
in an American orchestra then the answer is almost yes: you should be
listening to a narrow range of current orchestral recordings, striving to
play with perfect accuracy of notes, intonation and rhythm, and aiming to
sound like the best clarinetists you hear only better.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LGB Lorne G Buick St. John's
lgbuick@-----.net Newfoundland
Canada