Klarinet Archive - Posting 001251.txt from 1998/07

From: "Matt C. Palasik" <mattp169@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet Column
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 00:27:07 -0400

Karl Krelove wrote:
>

> But I can't help thinking with > reference to Chris's post that this is by no means the first time in the
> history of Western civilization and its music that performers in one era
> have felt the need (or even the urge) to apply contemporary filters to
> earlier music (i.e. make "modern" arrangements). In fact, without having
> thought too deeply about it, it seems to me that ours may be one of the few
> periods during which there was any widespread concern at all about
> maintaining fidelity to original performance or compositional practices. Did
> Mendelssohn worry about how Bach's choir sounded? Was stylistic purity a
> serious concern of Mozart when he arranged Messiah? Most of us know what was
> done to the orchestra music of the 18th and 19th century composers during
> the first half of this century by leading conductors and other performers.
> Haven't performers and even composers themselves been "sprucing up" the
> music they present for as far back into the past as we can see? Is it
> inaccurate to say that Chris's hating to "stoop" to the level of
> "contemporary stylings" is itself a phenomenon of our era perhaps as the
> result of vastly improved research techniques and resources that are
> themselves products of our technological developments. I'm not at all a
> historian, but I suspect that old music has been a hard sell forever into
> antiquity, and if there is a difference now, it has to do with the means by
> which music performance is now disseminated. How far off base am I?

Due to technology music has become an ever increasing portion of our
everday lives. Subcultures with in our own society and between societes
adopt certain styles of music as their own and it has deep rooted
personal meanings. Not to be racial but to illustrate the point many
blacks prefer rap and R and B, while many whites preer country or rock.
However there has been a movement by some artists in R and B country
Rock etc. to cover songs from another genre other then their own and
this usually crosses subcultures. FOr ex. an R and B group will cover a
rock song. While doing thi they dont perform it in its original manner
they change it to fit the R and B style. When thi happens people from
one subculture dislinke the other subculture for basically stealing
something of theirs and changing. They feel they are destroying part of
their culture and heritage. In a manner of speaking of course. I know
it drives me crazy to hear Puff daddy performing a Sting song that i
grew up too listening on the radio back when I was 12 or something. But
musiclly its fine it just bothers me for some ofthe the reasons i
mentioned earlier. So I thinkl part of what Chris meant was who are we
to take classical music that was written by some of the greatest and
most revered musicians and composers of all time, to change what they
wrote. And by changing the music are we destroying it or making the
work less of a great work. I don't think so but thats open to opinion.
In recent years it has started to become common practice to hold on to
history and not distort it any way. Society as a whole does not accept
change quickly and a minor few dont accept change at all. So when
musicians change a classical piece or even a rock song written only 5
years ago people have a problem accepting it at times and I bvelieve
although I may be wrong, that this is part of what chris was referring
to when he said "sinking that low" when he adds glissandos etc to get
the children interested in classical.

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