Klarinet Archive - Posting 000589.txt from 2000/12

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Performance
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 19:32:04 -0500

on 12/9/00 6:56 PM, Tony Pay wrote:

>For this reason, I regard my own contribution to music, and the
>contribution of my fellow performers of written music, as in one way on
>a much lower creative level than the level of the best jazz players;
>which is perhaps why I become rather testy on this list and elsewhere
>when I feel that what we do is relegated even further, to the level of
>mere technical expertise, as in 'making it all seem easy'. We are
>creative too, but under a different interpretation of the word,
>'creative'.
>
Tony, I wonder if you'd be willing to elaborate further on this
"different interpretation of the word 'creative' ". I've gotten into
spirited discussion with fellow performers on this subject, because I
feel as you do that creativity for us is not the same as it is for, say,
composers, who are truly working in the creative end of the musical world
(whether or not they are truly "creative").

I also think this relates to the discussion of exactly what a performer
brings to a piece of music. Some performers, under the guise of being
"creative", distort the "letter" of the composers intentions, and thus,
as we've discussed before, inject more of themselves into the performance
than is really good for the music.

Stravinsky speaks about this subject in one of his Norton Lectures,
published as "The Poetics of Music", though with all these !=#$%^&*()
Nutcrackers, I haven't had the time to re-read it.

Bill Wright writes:
>
>> Still, the announced goal for classical players is to approach an
>> unchanging goal: to honor the composer's intent.

and Tony Pay replies:
>
>I don't know about that. I don't want to study some music with (still
>living) composers in case they tell me *what I don't want to hear*. The
>relation I have with what they write is enough. That's because I want a
>point of beginning that is sufficiently rich, but not an interference
>with my own way of making it come alive. I won't change what the
>composer has written, but I'm capable of following that to the letter
>whilst making it alive in a way that is my own. (If I get stuck, of
>course, I might consult them.)
>
My experience with living composers is that the good ones, who know their
craft, have a point of view about all kinds (styles) of music that is
very helpful. As one example, I've worked quite a bit with Allan Blank
over the last 20 years. His knowledge of the music of Beethoven and
Mozart, from a composer's point of view, is quite extensive. Allan wrote
a set of variations for clarinet and viola, and in working on it, we had
a long discussion of how his variations relate to Mozart and Beethoven -
to the melodic and harmonic language, and even dramatic language, that
they had available in their time, and how it affected Allan's approach to
the form. Allan's sense of performance practice may not be up to date -
he's 75, and grew up learning the violin with all the 19th century
conventions that were received wisdom in the 30's and 40's. But from an
analytical point of view, his outlook is very interesting and helpful,
both with his own music and that of Beethoven and Mozart.

I also had the privilege to have a rehearsal of "Ariel" with Ned Rorem.
Instead of telling us "how to play his music", he helped us to understand
how different players had approached the piece (for soprano, clarinet and
piano) given the nature of the various soprano "instruments", and how the
clarinet and piano could relate to various approaches. Very helpful, and
not at all limiting - in fact, it opened some new avenues for us in terms
of that piece, and vocal music in general.

>But the other side of that is, I don't want to lose the possible
>freedom, with composers of the past, of making what they write live more
>effectively simply out of ignorance of what was available, or normal,
>when they were writing. So I'll read very carefully what they and their
>contemporaries have to say.
>
>And equally, I am very willing to use the 'freedoms' that become
>available to me when I am open to the norms of previous performance
>practice, in order to make the music of today 'work', and 'live',
>better.

I really don't have a lot of interest as a player in playing instruments
with 9 keys or whatever. But I'm very happy to have people who have
explored this in a practical way, and even some of the musicologists who
have explored the performance practice. It has given my playing a new
sense of color and phrasing that I never learned in school, and makes
playing this repertoire exciting and "new" each time I do it. And, as you
say, I think the benefit applies to new music as well.

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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