Klarinet Archive - Posting 000228.txt from 1998/03

From: Mark Charette <charette@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Memorization
Date: Wed, 4 Mar 1998 15:22:51 -0500

Kevin Fay wrote:
>
> 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.

Oh, bull-pucky. If memorization is easy for some of us,
then maybe we'll dispense with looking at the music because
we want to concentrate on the sound. I don't expend _my_ energy
on not screwing up because I don't have the music - I expend
energy on not screwing up, period. Truthfully, sometimes looking
at the music makes me more confused than not looking at it,
especially when (as in my recital late last year) I lose my
place. It took me longer to find my place in the music than
if I would have just listened to my accompaniast for a moment
and played from memory.

Using/not using music has nothing to do with being great - except,
as I noted, on piano, where, for some unfathomable reason, a
soloist always plays from memory.
--
Mark Charette, Webmaster - http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
Web/Personal - charette@-----.org
Business - charette@-----.com
"There's already an educational TV channel - it's called 'off'."
Lily Henderson, age 11