Klarinet Archive - Posting 000967.txt from 2000/10
From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Repeats
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 02:33:57 -0400
--- William Wright <Bilwright@-----.net> wrote:
> I am really surprised to notice how much thematic repetition there
> is in orchestral music. Same theme, repeated many times with different
> instrumentation and/or different harmony in the background.... but still,
> the same theme. I don't mean that all orchestral music is this way, but
> it's surprising how large a percentage of it is -- at least, how large a
> percentage of the music that gets played.
Hey Bill, I know a book that might interest you. It's by a couple of guys named
Donald Grout and Claude Palisca. The title is "A History of Western Music," and
it's a quick read, which should provide you with an insight or two on how compos-
ers dealt with melodies and thematic development over the course of a few years.
<Pause>
Okay, sorry, I'm half-kidding here, and 98% of you know it. I couldn't resist
though, because Bill, your sincerity and unadulterated inquisitivenes really
are a remarkably enriching addition to this list. I don't think we've ever
had somebody quite like you in the eight years that the list has been around.
What scares me is how quickly you've assimilated some pretty sophisticated
ideas about the clarinet, about acoustics, and about the music world, in such
a short period of time -- all by virtue of the fact that you keep asking very
good questions until somebody gives you a satisfactory answer. Many of the ad-
vanced musicians on the list would be even more formidable in their baileywicks
if they followed your indomitable example of fact-seeking and thirst for know-
ledge. Please accept my apologies for the silliness in the above paragraph, for
it was meant in the nicest of humors. You know you've made friends when people
feel comfortable roasting you in public.
In seriousness, on the other hand, since it would be completely in character
for you to actually buy the book I've mentioned above, I'll now tell the truth.
The book will, in fact, tell you nearly everything you ever wanted to know about
the evolution of Western music, and would very likely answer the question about
musical form which comprised your original post. "The Grout" (as the book is
called, with varying degrees of disgust and nausea, by most music conservatory
students and professors) is at the core of every undergraduate music history
curriculum in the country. Depending on which edition you acquire, the book
approaches 1000 pages in length. I have the fourth edition -- 910 pages. It
begins with music in ancient Greece, 500 B.C., and makes its way meticulously
forward, all the way through Stravinsky, Webern, and Steve Reich. It covers
most of the major styles, movements, and musical devices which arose and faded
and arose again over a 2500 year history, as well as the major people and in-
fluences which were seminal to this evolution. Since I am now in the process
of preparing myself for master's auditions, I have exhumed my own copy of this
crusty warhorse, and have begun to reacquire all the foundation and trivia
which I worked so hard to forget ever since I took my last undergraduate mu-
sic history class ten years ago.
Something tells me that you, Bill, would take a great deal more interest in
reading this material than any undergraduate music student. And if you do,
we'll all be bowing to you and asking for *your* insights, because most of
us have worked very hard to not think about the Grout ever since we flung
our mortarboards into the air and cheered "hooray!" after receiving our first
music degrees.
-- Neil
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