Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2002/09

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Too Loud
Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2002 07:00:32 -0400

I posted this on the Clarinet board, but I wanted to get reactions here, too.
An interesting article from London says modern instruments are too loud --
they spoil the music and injury the players' ears:

<http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/hottx/review.html?in_review_id=673980
&in_review_text_id=645839>

The article is over the top, but I think it makes a good point. I quit
playing in bands because everyone was blasting. Greg Smith has said he wears
earplugs in Chicago. I now play more recorder than clarinet, because the
music is human-scale.

We're used to pop music, played at 100 dB+ in stadiums, and, at least in New
York, booming from every 10th car. People on the subway wear headphones with
music too loud for me, even on the outside. TV commercials, and now programs
themselves, have constant flashing lights and sound effects.

No one would argue that Mahler should be small-scale, but I wonder what
Mahler expected to hear. If I had a time machine and could hear Mahler
conduct his own music, I'm not sure my 21st century ears could adjust. I'd be
expecting much more volume, or would have to adjust to a surrounding
environment where everything else is, comparatively, much quieter.

I went once to a recital on a small organ in a stone chapel with lots of
windows. The bellows were pumped by hand, and all electricity was turned off.
With only breezes for ventilation, and without the 60 cycle background hum,
the music came to life in a way I've never heard before or since. Of course
we can't go back to that, but it's important to know what we've lost.

I've heard Eric Hoeprich and Larry McDonald play reproductions of old
clarinets that, by modern standards, were vanishingly soft. Maybe it's
impossible to get back, but we need to realize what we've lost.

Ken Shaw

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