Klarinet Archive - Posting 000227.txt from 1998/03

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Memorization
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 13:29:55 -0500

My $0.02:

I agree that memorizing the contest piece can raise your score a full
grade--and wrongfully so. I HATE watching soloists play w/o music; I
get very uncomfortable knowing that so much of their energy is spent not
on playing well, but on trying not to screw up their place. Playing
without music adds nothing. If you are a polished performer, you can
have the stand lowered so as not to interrupt you interaction with the
audience. A prime example would be David Shifrin--I saw him w/ the
Seattle Symphony a couple of years ago, used music and was great.

A homily. My ex (a much better clarinet player than me) auditioned to
be a grad student at the Eastman school a while ago. She memorized her
entire audition, believing that Stanley Hasty was a big proponent of
having things memorized.

She was wrong. After she got in, at one of her lessons they discussed
her audition. As to memorization, Mr. Hasty remarked (and I paraphrase,
but I believe pretty close) "what the hell did you do that for?" His
emphasis was always on the sound that the audience would hear (e.g.,
"tone isn't everything, it's the only thing")--and whether or not paper
was present had nothing to do with the sound waves.

Fancy conductors sometimes conduct from memory. These are usually the
conductors who do more dancing then conducting--you can tell who they
are, because none of the musicians are looking at them. I have never
seen a situation where conducting is really needed--an opera or
recording session--where the score was not present. I am not aware of
any major symphony player who has ever played a concert w/o music in
front of them, even though the solos are (obviously) memorized. If
memorizing really did make the performance better, Stanley Hasty or
Larry Combs would always play from memory. They don't.

----Original Message Follows----
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 07:31:36
From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subject: Re: Memorization (was Re: marching band)

I think Andy Grenci has it right:
>I think that memorization is the norm for pianists because playing
while
>reading the music almost invariably requires a page-turner on stage to
assist.
>This is not the case for clarinetists. Of course many clarinetists do
perform
>solos by memory. But this leads to the next reason for a lack of
memorization:
>most clarinetists are not trained to be soloists.

I know better, but seeing a page-turner always makes me feel that a
pianist
is playing material he hasn't fully mastered. Organists sometimes have
two
helpers, one to change the registration, but they're usually out of
sight
of the audience or congregation. Concert and jazz pianists typically use
no
music, which allows them look at their hands, a no-no for students, and
that helps minimize mistakes. (Yes, even the virtuosi hit an occasional
clam.)

For student horn players, there is something about the professionalism
that
is conveyed when a soloist does not use music that impresses not only an
audience but the adjudicators in regionals. I can't prove it, but I
believe
that memorizing a solo can increase a player's score by a full grade.

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