Klarinet Archive - Posting 000662.txt from 2002/07

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet History & "Popular" vs. "Classical"
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 00:16:41 -0400

Hello, Klarinet List.

I did a little digging on the Google Search Engine,
and found a bunch of websites that talk about Early
Clarinet History. Some go back to Ancient Egypt!
Some include the Vivaldi works, although I'd doubt
that the "Clarinet" in Vivaldi's day had anything
close to the elaborate Keys and Fingering Systems
that were invented in later centuries. Perhaps none
of you consider Vivaldi as having access to a "true"
Clarinet by the Modern Definition. (YOU guys are
the experts on this, since I am the outsider, here.)

Clarinet History Websites:
http://www.muramatsuflute.com/data/050-2fl/2fl+instr+orch/2fl+3-instr+orch.h
tml
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/details/66383.asp
http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~kawil/scholarlywork/clarinet/clarinettits.html
http://hem.passagen.se/eriahl/history.htm
http://www.geocities.com/prissy1027/history/frame.html
http://www3.niu.edu/music/barrett/Cl_history_surrounding_cl.htm
http://www.music.ucc.ie/pje/2clarinet.html

However as a Terminal Music Theory GEEK, I
get really tired of fans of "Popular" Music, who try
to tell me, "they are my favorite group, but they are
not really 'Popular' Music". Knock off the sophistry!

In the Middle Ages, the term "Popular" Music
was coined, and defined as "music written by and
for the 'Populus', being the 'music written by those
living in the Public, who are NOT trained in the
Music Conservatory' ". In modern slang we would
say that they are the "NON-Music Theorists" who
write simple music.

The defining issue is: Does the music stress
Highly Complex Music Education to have written
it? If not, it is in the "Popular" world, regardless if
it is a Best Seller or not.

Usually the dumber it is, the better it sells, as
more people with NO Music-Theory-Clue can still
dance and sing to the mind-numbingly obvious
chord progressions, that they have heard in MOST
other Popular songs for the last 500 years! They
are usually little more than 5 chords or less, usually
the "4 Primary Chords", and 99% of the time in 4/4
Meter. Meanwhile there are plenty of Modern
"Classical" Composers who abandoned using Key
Signatures 100 years ago. I am deeply offended by
the pandemic ignorance of even the most empirical
awareness of Modern Harmony. Most Popular
Music makes ME wince, due to its blithering
stupidity, and that the Public eats it up, every time!

Can anyone here tell me that you, in your right
mind, would go to a Medical Doctor, or a Repair
person for you Computer, Car, Communications,
or any other high-tech device, when you KNOW
that the Repair Person's Knowledge STOPS at
the year 1600, 1720, 1830 or 1860? And yet most
Americans, regardless of how modern their educa-
tion is in all other areas of their lives, will often
sit down and CRY like a baby, if you play any
music for them that is more modern than the 4
Primary Chords of a Key Signature!?!?! (In C
Major, these would be, I vi IV & V, or rather C
Major, A minor, F Major and G Major.)

I'm sorry, but I have spent the last 30 years
studying 20th Century Harmony. I always did
hate 12-Tone and Aleatoric Music, and both are
Officially DEAD as of the Mid-1990's at the
latest. But there is Chromatic Modality, which
gives "Harmonic Function" (the "Emotional
PULL" from one chord to the next, that causes
music to make Sense). But unlike Tonality which
is based mostly on the Major Scale, Chromatic
Modality finds Fun, Emotionally Genuine Har-
monic Functions in ALL kinds of Church Modes,
Ethnic, Invented and Altered Modes, etc.

Good examples of Chromatic Modality are in
Shostakovich, Prokofieff, Hindemith, Bartok, etc.,
and a small army of Modern Jazzers, and Film and
TV Score Composers. In other words, it has been
hitting the ears of most Americans daily for the last
60 years! And yet too many people, who are under
60, say that it is too "modern" for them!?!?

Therefore, to recap: if your favorite Group on
the radio is NOT writing Operas, Symphonies, Con-
certos, Sonatas and Fugues, then they are what we
call "Popular" Music because they do NOT stress
Music Education in their music. While the com-
posers of those Operas, Symphonies, Concertos,
Sonatas and Fugues, are what we would call com-
posers of "Art", "Serious" or "Classical" Music.

(Now there's a few good examples of Oxy-
morons for you! How about a 100% Authentic
Country / Western Fugue, or a 100% Authentic
Taliban Space Station?!?)

I gotta get back to work. I have a deadline to
finish a new work, that is scheduled for perfor-
mance in Early September, in Honor of the Vic-
tims of the 9-11 Attack. Then I can get back to
my series of Clarinet Works for Professor Joze
Kotar. He just left for a few weeks of music
camps and vacation, and will not be in E-Mail
Contact until Early September himself. He has
already scheduled my large "Sonata No. 1 for
(Bb) Clarinet and Piano" to be performed in
October 2002. Since it is only half-written, I
have a lot to do!

Bear Woodson
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>

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