Klarinet Archive - Posting 000170.txt from 1998/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Was it elitism or just an unfortunate figure of speech?
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 20:18:33 -0500

Tani Miller wrote, in speaking about a Selmer Signet clarinet that it
"plays rather nicely for a plastic horn." To that Bill Haussman
correctly pointed out that the instrument was wood and that Tani
had erred in her assessment of the material of which the instrument
was made.

But I sensed in Tani's comments something that makes my spine
shiver; i.e., an elitism, a looking down the nose at something
that Tani considers inferior for no reason other than the fact
that the instrument is made out of plastic as opposed to some
other material.

Perhaps it is because I grew up in the 40s, but every time that
Hollywood wanted to isolate a character, they always had an
old biddy say something like, "Well, considering his breeding,
what else could you have expected?", and everyone would nod
their head wisely at the obvious truth of this statement.

But it was nothing more than horse hockey!

In effect that kind of thinking does not credit something for
what it is, but what it is not. To presume that an instrument,
ipso facto, cannot be good because it is made of plastic, is
an intolerant statement to make because some very fine
instruments are made out of plastic and some very bad clarinets
are made out of wood.

Perhaps I misinterpreted Tani's statement and if I did, I'm
sorry, but taken at its face value (one of the problems of
the internet) it is the kind of thing that makes on shudder
20 years later in the remembrance of being so narrow and
parochial.

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