Klarinet Archive - Posting 000973.txt from 2000/05

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Definition on the line
Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 16:23:48 -0400

Yesterday I posted that -- as a result of conversation here, and
as a result of
attending a master class and hearing specific clarinet music with my own
ears and seeing how other musicians besides myself reacted to it -- I
posted that 'dark' and 'bright' are real and identifiable.

Okay, now it's time for me to put my newly found definition on the
line and discover if anybody can destroy it. If anybody can.... well,
that's what true discussion is about.

My definition is: 'Dark' vs. 'bright' is (1) the perception that a
tone has either less or more energy and (2) the perception that a tone
comes at you either from a source that is larger than a pinpoint and
therefore surrounds or enfolds you, or it comes at you from a pinpoint
source and pierces you.

As with any word that describes a magnitude, dark vs. bright can be
a matter of comparison without explicit boundaries. When someone says,
"Ouch, the water is too hot", I am likely to turn the water off rather
than to say, "Well, let's talk about this because temperature is a wide
spectrum and we need to define at exactly what temperature you first
experience severe pain, and we'll need to do this under double blind
laboratory conditions with control samples and statistical analysis of
the standard deviation....."
The question of measurement is not irrelevant, but no musician
(that I know of) carries a frequency analyzer or decibel meter in his or
her instrument case. Therefore the question is not: "Can you give me a
number?" (any more than it would be if you were being burned by hot
water). If the conductor declares, "That's too dark", you should know
what's being said -- and hopefully you will know how to change it as
well, even if the conductor is obviously mistaken.
The human senses can always be deceived and manipulated. Thus a
mezzopiano note may sound forte if played next to a pianissimo note.
"How do you accent a note?" "Play the other notes softly."
Suggestion and context play a roll, such as when your perception of
music in a movie theater depends on what the actors are doing on screen.
Is the music sad or hopeful? It may depend on whether one actor is
kissing another in a hospital bed while the cardiac/EEG monitor goes
flat line.... or perhaps the actors are embracing passionately to the
same music under a brilliant sky outdoors with birds twittering and a
picnic basket lying forgotten at their feet.
But none of this takes away from the fact that bright and dark are
real and identifiable qualities, just as happy and sad and loud and
quiet are.
It's true that words such as "sad" and "enfold" are more uncertain
than "hot" and "high pitched" when applied to music, but they still have
meaning.

Another way to define a quality is by example. For example,"Hot
means that your skin turns red and you say Ouch! and if it gets too hot,
your skin will blister." Clearly this isn't a precise definition, but
it carries meaning that makes 'sense' to other people.

And this __is__ the key word: 'sense'. Rational thought is
ultimately based on abstractions that we make from what we perceive with
our senses (dispositions that we remember and later reactivate -- see
Descartes' Error). The senses do cross-talk with each other and we use
them to think with. How well we think depends to a significant degree
on how well we know our senses. Hence education.

In the same way, I think it is legitimate to define 'dark' by
example. For example, "Dark means that you use less breath such that
the listener perceives less energy and you avoid the higher harmonics
that result from overblowing, and/or you expand your throat and mouth
cavity such that the sound doesn't appear so focused and centered and
piercing (more enfolding, as if the sound is approaching you from a
source that is larger than a pinpoint) ('warm breath' vs 'cold breath'),
and/or you attack the notes more gently or perhaps even slur or delay or
extend them just a smidgeon, and/or you use a softer lip to dampen the
higher harmonics." There is a musical notation for intentionally adding
a higher harmonic.

'Dark' vs. 'bright' is: (1) the perception that a tone has either
less or more energy; and/or (2) the perception that a tone either comes
at you from a source that is larger than a pinpoint and therefore
surrounds or enfolds you, or it comes at you from a pinpoint source and
pierces you.

....well, as soon as I log off, I know that I'll think of one more
thing that I should've added to this.....

Feel free to have at me. I posted this in order to hear other
people's ideas.

Cheers,
Bill

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