Klarinet Archive - Posting 000373.txt from 2002/06

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Schumann's 'Romances'
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 17:10:04 -0400

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 09:36:21 -0700 (PDT), w7wright@-----.net said:

> It's obvious that an instructor should encourage a student to go in
> the proper direction, if there is a clear 'proper direction'; but to
> what extent does a publisher or composer play the role or have the
> obligation of being an instructor, or of being the defender of a
> certain point of view?

I don't know what you mean by that. When I have the role of
'instructor', I regard it as being my job to make sure that the person
I'm instructing understands what playing pieces in general is all about,
and has the technical ability to put that understanding into practice.

I don't try to insist on a 'proper' direction, except to the extent that
I try to make evident what is 'improper' about something that doesn't
work. It's hard enough to do that.

You write:

> ...to what extent does a publisher or composer play the role or have
> the obligation of being an instructor, or of being the defender of a
> certain point of view?

I want to resist your lumping publisher and composer together. They
couldn't be more separate, because they live in different worlds.

The composer, unlike the publisher or instructor, lives in the world of
communication and difference, not in the Newtonian world of objects and
forces. So does the performer.

Like the performer's job, the composer's job is to create living wholes.
If one aspect of that is to determine very precisely the details of a
piece, then so be it. Not every composer does so, but then everyone is
different. Jackson Pollock dripped paint onto his canvas because *he*
had to, not in order to be different from Picasso, or because he was
'defending a certain point of view'.

A performer might have decided to play Schumann's Romances on the
clarinet, against his wishes, and might even have convinced Schumann, as
I suggested previously. But that would be such a different thing from a
*publisher* deciding to go against Schumann's wishes. And notice --
that's what I found 'funny'.

So, for example, I don't find Holliger's deciding to play the Fantasy
Pieces on the oboe objectionable in principle.

I do find it highly objectionable and tasteless *in fact*, as judged by
the recording, but that's another matter:-)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
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