Klarinet Archive - Posting 000211.txt from 2001/12

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Material...was: Clarinet Bores - not me - the internal d
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 13:03:39 -0500

> Science and mathematics certainly play a role in music and musical
> instruments. This is a necessary evil. However, music itself
> has nothing to do with science and perfect reproduction of a performance
by
> a long dead composer (in my opinion) kills the pleasure.

The message quoted above continues at some length, the gist of which is that
we should be guided only by our emotions and intuition, and if we should be
so unfortunate as to have a brain, particularly one with any sort of
scientific or analytical bent, we should not use it. For example:

> I'm glad I enjoy music for the pleasure it brings me. Too much science and

> mathermatical precision destroys the pleasure.

And:

> Although a lot of you are pros who actually make a living from music, I
> kinda feel sorry for you.

Several times previously, I have heard the assertion that if we analyze
music, or if we happen to try to understand something about it, our
enjoyment of it will be destroyed in the process. However, in my more than
50 years in music, I have known perhaps thousands of musicians, some of whom
are quite analytical about various aspects of music, yet I have never known
one who felt that examining music in an attempt to gain a deeper
understanding of it has in any way diminished the pleasure they experience
from hearing or performing it. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

So, while I feel grateful that the writer of the message says that he "feels
sorry" for me, I hope I can put him at ease that at least in my case, his
sympathy is unwarranted. Perhaps instead we should direct our sympathy
toward those who spend years letting music go in one ear and out the other,
undisturbed in the process, and who may never understand what it is about
music that makes it such a necessary means of human expression.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville
EL2@-----.edu

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