Klarinet Archive - Posting 000524.txt from 2002/09

From: "Ed Maurey" <edsshop@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet substitution
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 17:53:00 -0400

Dan,

You obviously have been running around with alot of God-Like composers. I
have yet to meet one. Sure, there have been a few conceited jerks like
Wagner, Dick Strauss and even pitiful, foolish John Williams. I would hope
you wouldn't have been fooled by their self promotion.

Your uncritical reverence for composers seems incongruous with a man of your
intelligence, wit and erudition.

Attila Maurey

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Leeson" <leeson0@-----.net>
Subject: [kl] Clarinet substitution

> Ed Maury writes:
>
> "Regarding your homily on instrument choice: How can you expect us
> clarinetists to take the choice of clarinets seriously when composers
> are
> often too dumb to write for the proper one in the first place? They're
> usually just pianists who's ears have long since been wrecked from
> practising on beat-up, out of tune pianos. They couldn't tell the
> difference between an A and a C clarinet...let alone a Bb and and an A!
> They just want to have their stuff played well, and it's usually going
> to
> sound best when played in the easiest key. They'd probably be touched
> that we went to the bother."
>
> Ed has put in a single paragraph all of the most unworthy justifications
> for instrumental substitution that could be gathered in one place. It's
> no argument at all, just a collection of beliefs and hypotheses that are
> not only probably untrue, there is not even a way to confirm if they are
> true, false, or silly.
>
> "... when composers are often too dumb to write for the proper one in
> the first place."
>
> Mama mia, what a statement! In one breath it is asserted that composers
> are simply too stupid to be in this business. At the same time, there is
> an authority who decides which clarinet is the proper one. Ed, that's
> not me, of course, but I hope it is not you.
>
> "They're usually just pianists who's ears have long since been wrecked
> from practising on beat-up, out of tune pianos."
>
> How does one address the inherent wrongheadedness of this set of
> assumptions? It is collossol hubris.
>
> "They couldn't tell the difference between an A and a C clarinet...let
> alone a Bb and and an A!"
>
> Ed my friend, how could you possibly know that this is the level of
> musical sophistication of what you imply to be present in all composers?
> It's just arrogance addressed to a set of people from whom we all make
> money.
>
> "They just want to have their stuff played well, and it's usually going
> to sound best when played in the easiest key. They'd probably be
> touched that we went to the bother."
>
> You must have a pipeline to the infinite that is more visionary than
> mine. I have no idea (and I don't think you could support this with a
> statement from any orchestration text ever written) "that music sounds
> best when played in the easiest key." If that were true, we'd then have
> to have a vote about what that key is and all music ever written would
> need to be transposed to that key. That way it would all sound best.
>
> A paragraph such as you have written makes my case strong even if my
> arguments were wrong in the first place. It is so far right that even
> Attila the Hun would appear a conservative by comparison.
> --
> ***************************
> ** Dan Leeson **
> ** leeson0@-----.net **
> ***************************
>
>
>
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>
>

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