Klarinet Archive - Posting 000284.txt from 1998/06

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] musical terminology
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 10:19:17 -0400

Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu> wrote:

>...... it isn't bad to think
>of instrumental music in terms of vocalization, given that emulation
>of the voice is one of most common means by which instrumental musical
>expression is analogized.

Absolutely right, Neil. And wind instrument players can learn a lot from
good singers, about intonation and breath control.

>And what about these nebulously entitled "songs
>without words"? Is a sloppiness of logical precision being committed
>by people who write those little animals?

Hey, watch it. You're talking about Felix Mendelssohn, who was one of the
all-time great melodists, and who (I think) invented the sub-genre songs
without words. Maybe some of his successors wrote stuff that deserves to be
called little animals. But personally, I feel about music almost the way a
Scot said about whisky: Some whusky is better than ithers, but there's nae
such thing as bad whusky.

And some music is so bad it's good, like an old B movie. Florence Foster
Jenkins used to sell out Carnegie Hall once a year.

Only come to think of it, there was Anton Webern. And the whole
twelve-tone school. And heavy metal, and now all the industrial rockers.
Sorry. For a moment there I forgot one of my own laws - all general
statements are wrong.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

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