Klarinet Archive - Posting 000481.txt from 2001/11

From: "Patricia Smith" <pattiesmith@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] A few facts about Chromatic Modal Harmony
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 08:51:42 -0500

Professor Amy Parks wrote:

Thanks for listening list...Sorry if this first post was rude, but my blood
boils when someone makes an ignorant comment like that which likely insults
me among others on this list who take '20th Century music' quite seriously.

Patricia:

Well, said, Professor Parks. Much of the body of literature for the
clarinet has been written in the last century. I believe that most of us
would agree that, although there is a great deal of poor music out there,
there are also a lot of pearls as well.

In an earlier response to Bill Hausmann, I spoke a bit of my personal
preference as far as composing - and listening fare goes - that I prefer
music that perhaps has utilized the twelve tone method as a means to an end,
but that often, a slavish addiction to the method produces a product that is
not all that aesthetically pleasing to me.

However, my personal preferences aside (and I certainly apologize if I was
unclear on that point), I would never say it wasn't music. In fact, one of
my teachers of theory and music history during my matriculation at Virginia
Commonwealth University was a student of Schoenberg's, Professor Dika
Newlin. Her knowledge and breadth of understanding was such that she could
convey a great deal about all types of music and engender an understanding
of forms as diverse as Mozart operas, jazz idioms and punk rock. It was in
her classroom that I gained a lasting appreciation for the great American
composer - he he he - Charles Ives. And, to be truthful, Ives, and Aaron
Copland are two of my personal favorites!! I just wish both of them had
written MORE for the clarinet!

Patricia A. Smith
pattiesmith@-----.net

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