Klarinet Archive - Posting 000527.txt from 1998/10

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Accents again
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 09:27:49 -0400

Sure I'm serious.....there is a mark on paper called an accent in
music.....do you disagree? Do we always have to think of it that
way...nope. Do I assert that we should.....nope. Do young music students
(eg. university undergraduates) always
understand.........sometimes....sometimes not.

I understand your perception of how accent was being used in the context
of phrasing - I also see that it was a different perception than mine. I
don't see that there was anything wrong with the idea of accents
used as a teaching tool....or of my description.....no need to attack or
sarcastically imply something other than there was a difference of
understanding in what was being said.

I don't teach students using the word accents - primarily because of my
background in public school teaching where I notice students learn one
definition of the word accent. Most music students are not taught the
subtle nuances of "accent" as it is applied toward phrasing (although
the teaching technique would be very effective in most applications
that I can think of). Most music students are taught that it means to
emphasize a particular note - sometimes to tongue harder, or, worse, to
play it louder than the other notes. It is far more common for students
to misunderstand the word "accent" as a teaching tool for phrasing than it
is for them to misunderstand direction of air stream and arrival point in
a phrase - of course, that is only my opinion based on teaching privately
and in the public and private schools (ages 5-12, and university).

Nice description of accent by the way. Keep in mind that not everyone
(students) will know your chosen definition out of the several that are
available. The two listed in the music dictionary I keep by my desk
for teaching are: Accent - 1) an emphasis on a particular note, giving
a regular or irregular rhthmic pattern. For more detail, see Rhythm.
2) the name applied to the simplest forms of plainsong tones, i.e. very
slightly infected monotones. There is not description of accent as a part
of a phrase.....although it certainly could be.

I don't mind arguing about the word accent! I just don't enjoy the
insinutation that my initial posting.....a suggested contribution
to the discussion regarding phrasing that I perceived as a simple,
innocent idea for helping students to understand phrasing had to be called
an example of "bad properties of American woodwind playing." I felt that
was an inappropriate comment.

Do you think we could get off this issue now?

Roger Garrett
IWU

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Roger Shilcock wrote:
> "Accent" in poetry and rhetoric is to do with emplasis. "Accent" in music,
> according to Roger G, is a mark on a
> piece of paper. He can-not be ser-i-ous!
> The use of "accents" to mean various signs on paper is secondary, and
> came into English (and other languages) from Early Modern French. Perhaps
> it should have stayed there. The history and provenance of such signs
> deserves a book, which I don't think exists - but I'm open to
> commissions....
> Roger Shilcock
>
>
>
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