Klarinet Archive - Posting 000149.txt from 2002/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Writing your own (was: [kl] Duke Ellington)
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:41:56 -0400

Bill Wright wrote,
>I have no desire to be a composer or performer;
>but (imo) there's equally as much personal pleasure,
>or perhaps more pleasure, in writing something
>oneself and playing it as there is in learning to
>play someone else's music.

Yes. Bill, if you're thinking this way, the desire may be sneaking up on
you. Until a few years ago, I was way too paper-trained to improvise or
compose, though playing alto clarinet and bass sax gave me plenty of
incentive to improve my sight transposing. When transposing did finally
mutate into composing, I regarded it as a secret vice for years, until last
weekend, when I discovered what a tremendous kick it is to hear other people
play something I've written for instruments I *can't* play myself.

(After Bear Woodson's message yesterday, I nearly decided to delete this
message unsent, but.... ) This was nothing so grand as a public performance;
and I've got an awful suspicion that my loyal husband the violinist and our
old friend the cellist probably decided to be merciful, instead of delivering
critiques along the lines of, "Pee-yew!" and, "This sucks a rat's tail." ;-)
Even so, after I recovered from a powerful impulse to hide under the
furniture, hearing them play my fugue turned out to be a huge thrill.

That fugue started out as an alto clarinet solo for an unwilling audience of
one gray cat, but then the thought struck me that (thanks to *legible*
notation printed out on the Sibelius music process program) I could now write
for someone besides myself. I could even delete all the places to breathe
and turn the tune into a fugue for *two* solo voices, on something other than
a piano for a change! Well, this experience has made it completely clear to
me why there's so much more keyboard and violin music than clarinet music.
It's far easier to write for musicians who don't need to take in air.

In fact, since I bought the note processor program, I haven't written one new
thing for clarinet or sax. Now, that's embarrassing. Maybe we should
encourage composers (real ones, I mean, not dabblers like me) to perceive the
need to breathe as a *challenge* instead of a limitation on creativity.
Weasel words do have their uses....

Lelia

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