Klarinet Archive - Posting 001349.txt from 1998/03

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: This business of instrumental substitution
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:37:34 -0500

On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> All of these apparently different problems (which are in reality a
> single problem that takes on many forms) center around the assertion
> that "All that matters is pitch!"

You're putting words into other people's mouths. To assert, as you have
here, that everyone who plays an orchestral passage on, for example, the A
clarinet rather than the Bb for technical reasons believes that "All that
matters is pitch" is intellectually unsupportable.

If I play a work such as the von Weber "Fantasie and Hungarian Rondo" on
the bassoon rather than the viola, without first doing extensive research
as to whether the bassoon version is also by the composer, or which one
was the original version, would you say that is because I believe that
"All that matters is pitch?" I don't think so. What I would intend to
assert, in either of the instances I have given here is that "All that
matters is the musical effect."

While I don't advocate "instrumental promiscuity," it seems to me that
there should be a middle ground here somewhere. You have drawn your line
in the sand, and it seems to consist of a very small circle, completely
encompassing your position.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu