Klarinet Archive - Posting 001273.txt from 1998/03

From: "Scott Morrow" <sdm@-----.edu>
Subj: Fw: This business of instrumental substitution
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 17:39:47 -0500

Dan,
I apologise for your getting two of these! I wanted it to go to the
whole list, and all of your "reply to"s go directly to you only!
-Scott

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Morrow <sdm@-----.edu>
klarinet@-----.us>
Date: Friday, March 27, 1998 11:22 AM
Subject: Re: This business of instrumental substitution

>
>(tirade clipped here)
>>
>>This is the slippery slope that one gets to in all these
>>instrumental substitutions, from Till Eulenspiegel's
>>D clarinet part, to Mozart K. 622, to Sousa marches played
>>by a band without an E-flat cornet, to a wind quintet
>>arrangement of Beethoven, Op. 103. In every case, pitch
>>has been preserved, but timbre, character, and composer
>>intent have not.
>>
>>It is unchecked instrumental arrogance to presume that these
>>things don't matter and that there is no significant impact on
>>the music as a result of these decisions.
>>
>(more tirade clipped)
>
>Dan,
> Just to add a philosophical wrench into your always-eloquent apoplexy:
>
> When I was at Drexel University, I played in the Colonial Ensemble, a
>wind ensemble that played music which was popular in America during the
>Colonial and Early Federalist periods. This music ranged from imported
>European music (Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) to field marches and two-steps.
>Our performances were "narrated" by a history professor who gave the
>audience insight into the time period.
> The opera pieces we played by Mozart (and Rossini, etc.) were all
>written for wind octet: it was apparently the practice at that time to
>transcribe popular operatic scores for these more manageable "dance bands"
>for balls and soirees. I also remember hearing of a letter from Mozart to
>his father in which he mentioned this practice and was thrilled that
>"everyone was dancing" to music from his opera.
> Now the question:
> If the composer KNOWS this is an accepted practice of the period
>(ie., altering the instrumentation, and thus, timbre, of the composition),
>and is happy that the music is so well received (in this altered form),
>couldn't we extrapolate that the composer might not mind a more minimal
>alteration, such as using a clarinet in a different key?
> I realize this is a specific case, and thus not applicable to every
>composer who ever lived and died without specifically stating his/her
>wishes. And I also realize that the modern analogy could be extrapolated
to
>a composer riding on an elevator, smiling as he watches the other
passengers
>humming along to his melody seeping into the car through the sound system!
> But this brings us back to the dilemma: at what point do we cross the
>line between helping the composer's work get out to the public and
>bastardizing the music?
>
>-Scott
>
>Scott D. Morrow
>DNA Synthesis Core Facility
>Department of Biochemistry
>The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
>Baltimore, MD 21205
>(410) 955-3631
>