Klarinet Archive - Posting 000120.txt from 1998/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Mozart and the V word
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 12:09:03 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.23
> Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Mozart and the V word

> In a message dated 7/6/98 5:49:35 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> leeson@-----.edu writes:
>
> << Insofar as music coming from the heart, that is the kind of remark
> that is heard from an amateur on the fringe of the music business.
> It is a hollywood understand of music. Music comes from the head
> and the heart has little to do with it.
>
> In sum and substance, any performer who approaches K. 622 knowing
> nothing about the practices of the late eighteenth century (those
> practices governing how one approaches and performs works of this
> nature) is simply arrogant.
> >>
>
> Dan:
> You speak of other people being arrogant, but reread your first paragraph I
> cut, please. That comment about if music is from the heart means that the
> person is on the fringe was rather arrogant as well.
> Take, for example, the second movement of the Mozart Concerto. Are you trying
> to say that you shouldn't express yourself with slow, dreamy melodies?
> (Forget vibrato for a moment.) I didn't think so. But the best expression
> comes from your heart, because you want it to MEAN something. Playing
> straight from your headmay be just fine and dandy, but pieces sound just
> boring playing it straight. True expression DOES come from your heart.
> You have been very bold in your comments, and you don't care whose feet you
> step on. You are respected as a clarinettist, but for God's sake, have some
> sensitivty! I understand you are very passionate about this subject (am I
> correct in assuming that 18th century music is your forte?) but sometimes if
> people want to do something you just don't agree with, just let them do it.
> And if you run across that person in an audition, and you both do your own
> things, and you get accepted, then you can think silently to yourself that you
> were right, so that your pride isn't hurt.

You are assuming that music played with an intellectual perspective must,
of necessity, be dull. I don't assume that. On the contrary, I think
that it is the intellect that is the source of music, and not something
as ephemeral and incomprehensible as the heart. There are not two organs
in the body to be actived in an either/or fashion: one the heart for good
things and one the mind for boring things.

> This matter is always going to be debatable, so why don't we just put it to
> rest? So what if there IS some documented proof on stylistic remarks? On the
> other hand, they might be other talented clarinettists of that time who did it
> differently, but never wrote it down.
> Another example I can site is a comment from my piano professor. Take Bach,
> for example. If there had been a piano with pedals in his day, he would have
> wrote pieces for it, so why don't you just play his pieces on piano, and use
> pedal wherever it's needed? It is stylistically with today's times, so just
> combine old in new in an effective manner.

With the argument that "if ... had had such and such, he would have used it"
I can do anything I want. It is signing your speculations with Bach's name.
If Mozart had had a tenor sax he would have used it instead of the clarinet
for K. 622. The argument has no substance.

Furthermore, it is not what he might have done under different circumstances.
The argument is what he did with the circumstances at his disposal and the
further away from that that you get, the weaker and weaker ground you are on.
The best players create an extraordinarily emotional performance from their
intellect. It is when the intellect is left behind, that you get performances
that are so syrupy as to have no substance.

One of the things that a professional player get paid for is to eliminate
as much emotion as s/he can from the creative process and let the music
shine without the player's interference, often characterized as
interpretation.

> So with the concerto, if a person wants to use vibrato to express themselves,
> just let them be. Obviously, you won't use jazz-style vibrato. (Mozart would
> have God strike you down with lightning!) But if slight vibrato is wanting,
> go for it, just use it tastefully. Then they can concentrate on making other
> things in the 18th century style ( like trills), where they might value that
> more important.

I have not argued against vibrato. I'm very much for it in Mozart's
music. Where did you get the idea that I was not.

> Well, I've probably said too much, and will probably be flamed (I can already
> guess one person, and there might be another, depending if he reads this), but
> I don't care. I just needed to vent. Just please remember, Dan, not to be so
> arrogant yourself with your comments, and just let some people be.
> Respectfully (at the risk of being flamed),

Your points are interesting but not fully developed. The most egregious one
is the "if Bach had had pedals he would have used them." That is a slippery
slope to hell, namely when you start deciding what Bach might have done
under different circumstances. That is an area of your musical development
that you are going to have to rethink.

> Chris Hoffman
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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