Klarinet Archive - Posting 000173.txt from 1998/07

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Mozart and the V word
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 17:31:32 -0400

On Tue, 7 Jul 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> So when I hear comments such as "play from the heart" and I riposte,
> "Nonesense, play from the head" I'm simply directing you to the more
> erotic organ in the body, namely, the brain!!

In my opinion, Dan is right about this. The order in which things happen
is that we have an intellectual reaction to music, and that in turn
produces an emotional response. It generally won't work the other way.
Some performers feel that they can play emotionally without intellectual
involvement with what they are doing, but unfortunately, this usually
results in no response at all from listeners, except the least
intellectually involved ones.

I have heard performers who say that they are "playing with feeling" when
I was sure it was only indigestion that was troubling them. I get quite
impatient with musicians who say that they are have to have certain
imagery in mind in order to be effective performers. One person told me
that when she played a certain passage she thought of "clouds floating
over a mountain lake." I would have sworn that it was stampeding
elephants that she had in mind.

Once a conductor told me to play "as though smiling through a veil of
tears." (That was for Beethoven.) I still don't know what he wanted me
to do.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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