Klarinet Archive - Posting 000326.txt from 2001/11

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Stan Geidel's comments on "Bananas"
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 10:18:15 -0500

It's an interesting perspective to escalate Beethoven's betterness
against Stan's compositional abilities through Danzi all the way up to
the glories of Yes We Have No Bananas, but there are still problems with
it.

Are Beethoven's works good? And the answer to that question depends on
who wrote them. No kidding. If we are told that Beethoven wrote them,
and if everyone believes it, and the critics support it, then we presume
some level of superiority that may or may not be justified.

Exactly such a case occurred with the Jena Symphony, a work discovered
and put forward as an unknown composition of Beethoven. The critics
were very positive about the work and spoke of its "nobility of spirit."
the "clearly Beethovinian voicing of the winds," etc. Program notes
were written suggesting that the work had to be by Beethoven because it
was so good.

Then H.C. Robbins Landon demonstrated absolutely that the work was by a
man named Witt, and the Jena symphony not only went down the tubes, but
was accused of being a very poor work.

Exactly the same thing happened with the symphonie concertante of
unknown authorship but presented as a Mozart composition for 100 years.
I often read program notes that attributed the work to Mozart because of
its beauty and quality. Then, in 1964, that work began to go out of
favor as a result of it being pulled from the Köchel catalog. Today one
often reads reviews about how terrible the piece is. And it's a
clarinet piece, too.

So our perspective on goodness and betterness is often dependent on who
we think wrote it. The Jena Symphony was better than Yes We Have No
Bananas only so long as it was thought to have been written by
Beethoven. Now that it is by Witt, is it still better than Bananas?

Stan, I was listening to a composition of yours just the other day, and
because of mistake made by the radio announcer, it was said to be a work
by Beethoven. I thought it beautiful until the announcer corrected
himself and said it was by Geidel. Then, of course, I turned against it
viciously. Now that I know who wrote, I conclude that it must be awful,
though the clarinet part was very idiomatic.

Get my point?
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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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