Klarinet Archive - Posting 000830.txt from 1997/10

From: Mark Miller <mkmiller@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Joel Sheveloff
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 12:19:06 -0400

As Mark Charette has noted, Joel Sheveloff is indeed still at Boston
University. In the course of my master's at BU (mid-80's), I had three or
four classes with him. He's definitely the most entertaining lecturer on
the faculty, with a sense of humor that veers towards the scatological.
His classes were memorable, interesting, challenging, and hard as hell.

He is a clarinet player, though I don't know if he still plays, and one
of his topics of interest is performance practice. Our quintet asked him
to do a coaching session on the Ludwig Thuille Piano Sextet which we
found very illuminating. I once played L'Histoire du Soldat in a lecture
Sheveloff was giving for a senior citizen program at BU. He had written
"pedestrian" versions of some parts of the piece in order to illustrate
the quirkiness and creativity of Stravinsky's version ("Now if Rogers and
Hammerstein had written the Royal March, it would have sounded like
this...")

Dan objects to Sheveloff's including off-the-track personal opinions in
his Mozart article. This is typically Sheveloff; in his classes they most
often take the form of diatribes against the university administration.

In short, he's a real character and definitely knows his stuff. Were he
and Dan to debate the Mozart issue, I would stand in line for tickets.

Mark Miller
mkmiller@-----.net
http://www.tiac.net/users/mkmiller/

P.S. Dan should know, in light of the list's recent discussion of his
ability or lack thereof to "slam someone against the wall" for playing a
part on the wrong clarinet, that Sheveloff is a rather large man. He
should come armed with an appropriate "blunt instrument." ;)

>Dan Leeson recently posted his reaction to a paper on Mozart clarinet works
>by Joel Sheveloff. While he expressed *mild* ;-) disagreement with the
>author, he also expressed respect for his scholarship and pointed out that
>he does not know who the author is.
>
>Dr. Joel Seveloff was head of the Music History department at Boston
>University during my undergraduate days there in the late 1970's. He may
>still be there for all I know. I remember him as a popular, charasmatic
>and extremely erudite lecturer. I imagine a debate (live or e-mail)
>between Dr. Sheveloff and Mr. Leeson on any topic would be immensely
>entertaining for the whole world.
>
>----------------------
>Regards,
>Rob
>