Klarinet Archive - Posting 000965.txt from 2000/07

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re:Learning practices (was Mozart's wife and Carl Maria We
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 16:47:00 -0400

Audrey, in life one waits for a person as intelligent as you, a person
who hears something that makes little sense (such as American sound,
French sound, German sound, central Bulgarian sound, etc.) and who says,
"This makes little sense."

However most people are afraid to ask the question, "I don't
understand. What is this all about," and the reason why is that it is
so uncomfortable to be standing up when everyone else is sitting down.
So I like you and you should consider yourself a special person for
seeing through this crap about national sounds.

The very idea that a German player has a special nationalized sound that
derives from the training, the nationality, the food, the garlic, the
pronuciation of vowels, the kind of clarinet employed, is so rich in
fairy stories that I have no idea why it is perpetuated.

But wait. There are going to be at least 10 postings that contradict
this thesis, and these players will assert the exact opposite. They
will swear that they hear a difference, their wife (or husband) hears a
difference, their chicken hears a difference, even the Polish ambassador
who only plays accordion hears a difference.

I will help you every now and then, but I want you to be the centerpiece
of saying "Explain in what objective ways the following two things: (1)
what are the precise characteristics of this nationalistic difference,
and (2) from what is this difference derived.

You and I will soon be surrounded by dead bodies, all hoisted on their
own petards. The problem is that the idea has become legend in clarinet
land, and a legend is a very difficult thing to kill. Clarinet players
can be killed by the barrelfull, but no legend ever dies.

Now let us see the war of the National Sound begin again. It has come
up on this list about 5 times in 10 years, the last time was about 4
years ago and I was hoping that it had been speared for good. But I was
foolish and naive. Your great grandchildren will hear of it too.

Dan

Audrey Travis wrote:
>
> David
> What exactly is meant when people talk about an"American" sound or a "German" or
> French" sound? I've never had this explained. Could you take a stab at it,
> please? And could you, or anyone else, please try to describe each of these
> sounds?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Audrey
>
> HatNYC62@-----.com wrote:
>
> > Now, all of the American
> > orchestras eventually became what we now recognize as "American Sounding."
> > But they did so at different rates. Philadelphia scrapped its German roots
> > very early on, under Stokowski. But Chicago remained heavily German until the
> > early 50s.
> >
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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