Klarinet Archive - Posting 000025.txt from 2000/09

From: stewart kiritz <kiritz@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Phrasing With the Harmony
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 12:28:23 -0400

As both a clarinet player (amateur) and a psychologist (professional) this
is an interesting issue to me as well. I just picked up on this thread so
this ground may have been gone over earlier. What I know is that there is a
"critical period" for language acquisition. Between the ages of about 2 and
7 the human brain seems to be programmed to construct a model of the
language it is presented with in the environment. Those who learn a second
language after the age of 8 or 9, for example, generally have an accent
while those who learn two languages simultaneously in their earliest years
find it natural to speak both languages unaccented. This is not to say it
is impossible with great effort to speak perfectly if you acquire the second
language later in life, just much more difficult. "Feral" children usually
do not acquire language at all after the age of 10 or 12.

Most virtuosos on the piano or violin, with certain exceptions, have
started playing before the age of 6. It strikes me that musical language,
like spoken language, may use similar mechanisms that kick in at a very
early age. To speak "unaccented" clarinet you may need to start very early.

That being said, I imagine that for most of us who started later, the key to
learning to "speak" with the instrument is automaticity. When all of the
mechanical components of playing become so overlearned that little or no
conscious thought needs to be devoted to the execution of the playing, just
as in language, the player can begin to be more expressive. This would also
apply to the nuts and bolts of the musical elements, tonality, rhythm, etc.
that make up the underpinnings of the music. These would need to be fully
internalized before the player can truly speak with the instrument.

What is even more mysterious to me is how music expresses feelings at all.
What really is the nature of musical language and why does it have such
power over us?

Stewart Kiritz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patricia Smith" <pattiesmith@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Phrasing With the Harmony

> Tony Pay wrote:
> "What actually happens is that they learn to *imitate* what we do;
> against a background, we now know, of an innate ability to do exactly
> that sort of imitation."
> and
> "...then, we should encourage them to play the way they sing, in its full
> complexity. The exercises I'm talking about are designed to give them the
> ability to do that sort of thing from the start, on the instrument."
>
> I f I understand you, correctly Tony, what you are saying is that we not
> only have the ability to synthesize spoken language; we also have the
> ability to synthesize musical language. Our first musical mode of
> expression are our own voices; I personally think the problem lies, at
least
> for some players, in the process of having the clarinet (or whatever
> instrument) become an extension of the human body - becoming one with the
> horn - so we can sing through it.
> What I am unable to explain is what exactly goes on in the process of the
> instrument becoming "part" of the body, as it were.
> This is a very interesting thread to me.
> Patty Smith
>
>
>
>
>
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