Klarinet Archive - Posting 000631.txt from 1999/12

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Baloney is not only a slice of meat of questionable comp
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 19:06:24 -0500

Dan diatribed:

<<<Moral: be sceptical of EVERYTHING you hear about the clarinet and
clarinet playing. Some of it is probably true. Some of it is certainly
true. And a lot of it is based on unfounded beliefs that have no validity
but do have a lot of word-of-mouth propogation, which most of us take to be
technical truth.>>>

No question in my mind but that Dan is WRONG here -- but only in the sense
that the moral, as stated here, limits such skepticism to the clarinet
world. Bargain mystery meat is everywhere -- and you'll find it most often
where "truth" is proclaimed. (Of course, clarinet was the subject at hand
-- I'm sure that Dan would offer similar advice in other contexts as well.)

I'm reminded yet again of a maxim I heard at a Stanley Hasty master class --
I am paraphrasing based on 15 years of bad memory, but it was something like
this:

"You don't play clarinet with your mouth. or your tongue, or your fingers --
you play it with your BRAIN."

A corollary for the equipment-minded was that "the farther away from your
brain something is, the less important it is." Consequently, reeds +
mouthpieces @-----. Hasty was so
picky about both. While he worked quite a bit with Vic Olivieri, he made
his own reeds. A list of his students reads like the Who's Who of
mouthpiece dudes: a short rendering would include James Pyne, Charles Bay
and Dan Johnston. Clarinets? Less important. While fussy about
adjustments, he used the same set for 50+ years.

Conductors? As I said, the farther from the brain . . .

kjf

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org