Klarinet Archive - Posting 000209.txt from 1997/12

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: De Peyer
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 13:31:54 -0500

Absolutely it is a good place to start. My reply was a clarification for
the second poster to Dan's reply (I already can't remember!) - and I am
afraid that there really is no way to determine what the composer had in
mind in terms of a sound. There is simply not enough information for us
to know one way or the other. Also, you are now using the word "style" and
the original poster referred to reproducing the "sound" that the composer
had in mind. These are completely different issues.

Roger Garrett

On Fri, 5 Dec 1997, Tahna Britton wrote:

> Okay, I understand this, that's very true and a good point. Performance
> practice is a good way to get a start on what the composer had in mind when
> writing the piece though, isn't it? It's a good place to start determining
> what the style of a piece should be, even if we can't be sure exactly what
> the composer had in mind.
>
> ----------
> > From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
> > To: klarinet@-----.us
> > Cc: leeson@-----.edu
> > Subject: Re: De Peyer
> > Date: Friday, December 05, 1997 6:54 AM
> >
> > But Tahna,
> >
> > I think what Dan was trying to point out is that, short of a letter or
> > some specific reference to a specific work that spells it out, there is
> no
> > way (study of composer, time period, etc.) to know for sure what the
> > composer had in mind.......if he didn't write that information down - for
> > example, if Mozart had written to a dear friend...."I recently wrote the
> > XX concerto for Clarinet, and originally thought of a 32 Key Clarinet
> with
> > a tapered bore and undercut tone holes with a dark sound and a thick reed
> > - no edge - just a beautiful warm, chocolately color about it....blah
> blah
> > blah" - we would still be somewhat in the dark as to what he wanted. He
> > never wrote that kind of stuff down in any great detail....and we don't
> > even know if dark meant what WE hear as dark today.....(what is dark
> > anyway????).
> >
> > Yes indeed, study study study so you understand performance practice, but
> > we still will not know absolutely what Mozart or any other composer of
> > prerecorded history had in mind unless they wrote down specifically what
> > it was.
> >
> > Roger Garrett
> > IWU