Klarinet Archive - Posting 000833.txt from 1997/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Joel Sheveloff
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 13:40:33 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.72
> Subj: Re: Joel Sheveloff

> 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.

But I do want to make clear that I was very positive and highly
complimentary about the insightfulness of his paper. Frankly, for
me to suggest that it was the most important paper since Dazeley's
of 1948 is roughly equivalent to a Nobel prize suggestion.

I don't think I said anything like "slamming him against a wall" because
I am opposed to violence. But I did say that his paper made me mad
as hell and that was a terrific thing for a scholarly paper to do.

As for off the track personal opinions, I find that they detract
from the central issue of any technical paper and, from a practical
point, make them more difficult to get pubished. After I have
finished a technical paper of "n" pages, I then go through and
take out all the crap that I pour into it over the period of its
gestation. It then winds up at "n/2" pages. Then I take out
all personal opinions and it winds up at "n/3" pages. Then
the publisher asks me to shorten in to "n/10" pages and we settle
at something like "n/5" pages.

I once suggested on this list that one of the most important
skills that a clarinet players needs is the ability to write
clear, precise, effective English (or whatever language is
used in the country where one plays for a living). Eventually,
every clarinet player is going to be asked to put his/her
thought's in writing, and no matter how good the ideas are,
if it comes out like a high school sophomore writing about
"How I spent my summer vacation" it is never going to see
the light of day and one's good ideas get sent to the briny
deep. But Sheveloff writes like a dream. That was not my
beef. In fact, I had few beefs.

>
> 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
> >
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================