Klarinet Archive - Posting 001283.txt from 1998/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: This business of instrumental substitution
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 17:39:56 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.67
> Subj: Re: This business of instrumental substitution

> Scott Morrow wrote:
>
> > 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.
> (a lot snipped here)
> >.... at what point do we cross the
> >line between helping the composer's work get out to the public and
> >bastardizing the music?
>
> I've never forgotten a Capitol Hill party years ago where four musicians
> from the Marine Band played a baroque string quartet on two trumpets,
> trombone and tuba. I think Mozart, who was a practical joker and wrote
> quite a bit of hey-ma-lookit-me music, would have enjoyed it as much as I did.

And I suggest that he would have smiled and hated every minute of it. Who
am I (and who are you) to presume what Mozart might or might not have
done under a given set of circumstances? I think Mozart would have loved
K. 622 done on a tenor sax. But that doesn't mean that such a suggestion
is a valid technical argument.

>
> Music can be many things, including more fun than anything else you can do
> with clothes on. God save us from always approaching it with a tense,
> hushed and reverent attitude.

Your words. Not mine. I said nothing about being tense, hushed or
overly reverent.

>
> Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================