Klarinet Archive - Posting 000942.txt from 2000/10

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Minor key - Mendelssohn Octet
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 08:45:01 -0400

We are in agreement that the subject of the discussion was the minor key
movement, not the entire work. When I made my comments about the joy
and ebullience of the work, I had the only the minor key movement in
mind, though the entirety of the work is also exquisite.

Let me tell you a completely irrelevant story about that piece. I was
playing a concert at the Gertrude Clarke Whittall auditorium in the
Library of Congress and we had a rehearsal in the afternoon. The
concert was scheduled that evening.

Another concert was scheduled the next night with the Mendelssohn octet
being the centerpiece. When I finished my rehearsal I began to walk out
of the LC when I caught the strains of the octet. Following my ears, I
wound up in the room where the five Stradivarii from the Whittall
collection are kept, taken out only occasionally to play a concert.
There was a string octet rehearsing the Mendelssohn and four of the five
Strads were out of their locked case, clearly in use by the players.

When they finished their movement, I gushed about hearing that wonderful
work played with four Strads, at which one of the players (they were all
from the National Symphony) said, "There are not four Strads, but eight!
The other four are from the collection of the Corcoran Gallery of the
Arts!

It was quite an experience.

William Wright wrote:
>
> <><> Dan Leeson wrote:
> Interesting. I find it a happy, gay, and charming work.
>
> Without meaning to repeat myself unnecessarily, it was the change of
> key in the second movement that we were discussing, wasn't it? Not the
> entire piece, most of which is in a major key? The CD liner says the
> same things about the entire piece as you do: joyous, exalted, and so
> forth. But the second movement....?? Is a minor key 'plaintive' of
> itself, or is this merely a 'learned' response of some cultures?
>
> The fact that neither you nor the CD liner make any comment about
> what I perceive as a drastic change of mood is evidence of my own
> 'learned' perceptions, I suppose.
> But it's good music, and so I'm not complaining about having bought
> the recording.
>
> Cheers,
> Bill
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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