Klarinet Archive - Posting 000044.txt from 2000/08

From: Lacy Schroeder <LacyS@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Body movement
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2000 10:25:38 -0400

Bill Wright said:

"As a member of the audience, I find body movements extremely (not
just a little bit) distracting because they seldom are graceful or move
towards completion -- as opposed to how true dance movements would
appear."

I agree, Bill. I was at Interlochen playing Mahler's 1st with James DePreist
and had the unfortunate duty of playing assistant principal to this girl
from Juilliard who would dance around in her seat while she played. I not
only found this extremely annoying (as a matter of fact, I wanted to yank
her clarinet out of her hands and bludgeon her to death with it), but
audience members also found it distracting. Several of my friends who were
there to see the performance (including one of my conductors on the St Louis
Symphony conducting staff) asked me how I could stand to sit next to her and
commented on how annoying it was. As it were, I have listened to the
recording of the performance, and she really *didn't* sound all that good,
and it didn't help her playing (she squawked several times and her tone
suffered, probably as a result of the extra movements). I think it was like
what someone else said on here: it was misguided nervous energy. But she did
it during rehearsals, too! How nervous can you get during a rehearsal? Maybe
she thought she was being particularly "artsy" by doing this. Who knows.

Lacy S.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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