Klarinet Archive - Posting 001211.txt from 1998/04

From: "Gene Nibbelin" <gnibbelin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Light and dark clarinet sounds
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 23:14:59 -0400

Lee -

I agree with you. Verbally describing tone color of an instrument is
nearly impossible, but as you have done in describing the Benny Goodman
tone vs the Artie Shaw tone, you related to an example of a contrast that
you noted. Since my first job was in a music and record store in 1942 (age
14), I heard and sold a lot of both Goodman and Shaw records. My
recollection is that I preferred Shaw's tone to Goodman's; i.e. I prefer
the "darker" tone, particularly in my field of classical music.

Roger Garrett's reply to my question did a good job of verbally conveying
the idea of a "darker tone". RG's reply and the others have helped me a
great deal in defining my "darker tone" goal.

Thanks to all,

Gene Nibbelin

----------
> From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: Re: Light and dark clarinet sounds
> Date: Tuesday, April 21, 1998 4:46 PM
>
> To define dark and light (I prefer the word bright) sounds in words is
not
> possible. The vocabulary we use to talk about music, like the one graphic
> artists use to talk about colors, is meaningless to someone who has not
had
> the experiences to which it refers. You can point to a color and say
> "That's cerise" and to another and say "That's crimson," and from then on
> both you and the person with whom you're talking have a common referent
and
> can agree.
>
> Because I'm a swing era product, I have my own way of defining the words
> bright and dark. I play a Benny Goodman record and say "That's bright,"
and
> then play an Artie Shaw record and say, "That's dark." Someone else might
> say that what I call bright is a jazz sound and what I call dark is a
legit
> sound. I wouldn't argue. The words are only pointers, and we shouldn't
get
> hung up on them.
>
> Zen parable: A student points at the moon and says, "Master, what do you
> call that?"
> The master says, "Finger.".
>
> Talking about music is like talking about colors, or flavors, or tactile
> sensations. Basically, it can't be done. I think music is a
self-referring,
> self-contained system, intelligible only to those who have acquired its
> non-verbal "vocabulary." You can't learn music from a book, or a lecture.
> You learn it from other musicians, or from records. That's why the best
> teachers are those who play an instrument themselves, and provide the
> student with a model to emulate. My high school teacher was a trumpet
> player who had learned to play the clarinet just well enough to teach it.
I
> only began to progress when I began taking summer lessons from a teacher
in
> another school who was a clarinetist.
>
> Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>