Klarinet Archive - Posting 000631.txt from 2001/01

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: RE: [kl] Re-facing & metaphors
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 01:05:42 -0500

I understand (at least I think I do) what you are saying, Jay.
But you have expanded the topic beyond what motivated my post. There's
nothing wrong with this, of course; but it's not what I was thinking
about when I posted.

You have brought the word "good" into the discussion, which is a
word that did not appear in my post. I agree without question that
"good" cannot be reduced to numbers or quantities.

What I'm saying is this: It would be a valuable step forward if
we could quantify tonal characters in order to identify them and to
communicate them and to practice producing and recognizing them.
If you, as a teacher, told your student (for example) that an
odd-to-even ratio of <whatever> is good or bad in a particular situation
--- because musical context does make a difference --- this would be a
completely different thing from saying to your student: "Did you hear
that your odd-to-even ratio was <whatever> when you were playing just
now?" or perhaps "Try raising your tongue in order to shift the ratio a
bit more towards <whatever> and tell me if it doesn't sound more
appropriate in measure 27?"
It's the ability to communicate and to define that I'm talking
about, not the value judgments about "good" or "proper".

I do agree that definitions can be a form of tyranny or hidden
agenda, and they can embody value judgements. Every debater knows that
once the other fellow has accepted your definitions, you've won.

Some people will say (and _have_ said repeatedly on this list) that
music uses a different realm of emotion and thought than language and
numbers do. Perhaps they are correct. But 'real musicians' _do_ use
numbers to describe intervals and pitches and rhythms. Why not tonal
character?
Are complexity and inadequate technology the only reason why not?
Or is tonal character a completely different beast? Personally, I
don't think so.

How to use them is a different topic from how to quantify them.

Cheers,
Bill

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