Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 1999/04

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wood/plastic, etc...
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 17:20:59 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.90
> Subj: Re: [kl] Wood/plastic, etc...

> On Sat, 3 Apr 1999, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
> > Ed Lacy is quite right to argue against "how things feel" by saying
> > that this subject is not religion, it's science. For anyone to say
> > that something is true because he or she hears it to be true is
> > not someone who can offer reliable testimoney on this subject. It
> > is the height of non-objectivity to presume that the way one hears
> > something is an insight into technical truth.
>
> What the studies and the experiments and the articles and the information
> available to the public does not show is:
>
> 1. proof one way or the other if the material affects the
> perceived resistance a person experiences when blowing through an
> instrument.
>
> 2. proof one way or another if the material affects a perceived
> response of the instrument by the person blowing through the instrument.
>
> Both of these issues may impact a perceived sound differences in many
> cases. The problem of course is that every person physically reacts
> different to what they perceive is happening when they play the instrument
> - and that variable is not measureable - regardless of how many double
> blind tests are done or what tool measures the vibrations or lack of such
> by a given material. Perhaps what we know is that, without a person
> playing, materials make no difference. But what we seem to be arguing
> about every two years is if a person perceives a difference as
> demonstrated by numbers one and two above and they subtly alter their
> playing to account for what they feel - which ultimately affects the
> sound/timbre. Or perhaps they simply intpret what they feel in terms of
> response and resistance as a sound issue rather than a response/resistance
> issue. I couldn't say. But, while it may be technically correct to
> say the materials make no difference, it is inaccurate to say that they
> don't make a difference in the way a person playing the instrument
> perceives either the sound or the resistance/response of the instrument.
> And my friends, because it is the performer's perceptions of his or her
> own playing that actually makes the difference in the performance (and
> ultimately the tone itself), I submit then that materials can make a
> difference in the performance - including the sound.
>
> I feel better now.

Roger, the above is VERY well written, intelligent, succinctly stated,
and a joy to read. But I perceive it as pure sophistry. It is like
arguing good against evil; i.e., because evil exists to combat good, then
..., so evil must be good.

Whether materials affect the player's thinking process if one thing,
and you have stated that case impeccably. But how that player thinks
has absolutely nothing to do with technical truth. I used to have my
fingernails polished by a professional before important performances
because it made me think differently about the way I played and, in
my mind at least, I played better that way.

In my mind, true. In the real world, ca-ca.

And I am very glad that you feel better now. I feel worse for having
to contradict your well-stated points, but they are simply anathematic
to scientific thought.

I think that you are a devil in disguise who writes well but who will,
ultimately, have to be burned at the stake for making emotional statements
about technical truth.

Now I feel better.

> Roger Garrett
> Professor of Clarinet
> Director - Concert Band, Symphonic Winds & Titan Band
> Advisor - Recording Studio
> Illinois Wesleyan University
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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