Klarinet Archive - Posting 000250.txt from 2001/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Audience view irrelevant? - Tony Pay
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:53:18 -0500

On Tue, 11 Dec 2001 10:01:14 -0500, clarinet@-----.net said:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 10 Dec 2001 09:27:48 -0800, kevinfay@-----.com said:
>
> > > When I experimented with Legere reeds, I was pleased that my wife
> > > could not tell the difference in my sound between cane and
> > > plastic.
>
> > Whether or not a member of the audience, however special, can tell
> > the difference between cane and plastic, is quite irrelevant to the
> > serious player, IMO.
>
> The words about Legere experience attributed to Kevin Fay were mine
> originally, not Kevin's.

Yes, sorry about that. Careless, late at night, etc.

> While not professional, I consider myself a "serious" player, but that
> seems irrelevant to the discussion.

All I meant was that whilst 'can they tell the difference?'-type
questions are askable, and may even be answerable with some effort, they
shed very little light on the problems of performance, which are almost
always to do with whether the performer can do what he or she wants, or
what he or she finds is required.

I find myself up against the problem of representing that on occasion.
For example, it's difficult to get some students to be aware that what
they're doing or playing on isn't producing results that are effective,
and to change what they're doing or playing on so that the results they
produce *are* effective. They need to look at, and listen to, the wider
context of their playing. I thought what Robert Dick had to say about
that, quoted by David Niethamer in his recent post, was right on the
button.

>From this point of view, the question: 'Can the audience tell the
difference between one sort of reed and another?' is, I find, the wrong
*sort* of question to be thinking about. The audience comes into the
equation, as Robert Dick pointed out in his discussion of the effect of
distance on perceived sound, but not as equipment testers.

I once listened to Norbert Brainin rehearsing a Brahms sonata in a
difficult hall, and when he asked, told him how the violin was sounding
against the piano. "Interesting," he said, and changed his E string, to
good effect, I thought. It turned out that the second string had a
slightly larger diameter than the first.

Now, you could say that that showed I 'could tell the difference between
different diameter E strings', but it would be rather a strange way of
putting it.

In fact, if I put the matter like that, there are several people here
who might question the scientific status of my assertion. But it
wouldn't matter, because the little process that Brainin and I went
through was designed to get his performance of the Brahms sonata working
as well as possible, not to make watertight statements about the
abilities of my perceptual systems.

> I agree that it is not of major significance whether the audience "can
> tell the difference between cane and plastic", which is what I
> originally stated. I thought that I could tell the difference between
> the cane and plastic when I was playing, felt it was not a big
> difference, and wasn't surprised that my audience could not hear a
> change. I was "pleased" by this only in the sense that I felt this
> gave me an additional option in choice of acceptable reeds for
> performance. My original comments were preceded by discussions on
> "Klarinet" about a player's perception of his/her sound and what is
> heard by the audience.

Then I'm with you all the way.

The only reason that I haven't yet played on plastic reeds is that I
can't get them to go well enough on my type of mouthpiece, worse luck:-(

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Does this condom make me look fat?

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