Klarinet Archive - Posting 000245.txt from 2002/10

From: EClarinet@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Saying what you want
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 17:44:56 -0400

In a message dated 10/6/02 3:05:44 PM EST, Dan writes (in response to Tony's
response to Gene):

<<And it is exactly the belief that "today we really know ..." that causes
players to presume that what the composer has written is insuffiently
well-described so as to allow proper performance. So they create
additions of the type spoken of by Tony, because they fail to understand
the notation of the composer as taken in the context of the practices of
the era.

The bottom line of this, in Levin's words, is that "standardized
solutions to performance are not an artistically acceptable substitute
for musicians' thinking about the content and meaning of the pieces they
play." >>

I would like to agree with what Dan is saying (quoting) here, and add that as
I have matured musically, I have found myself marking my music less and less.

I also have to agree with Tony that people that come to lessons with their
parts "plastered with markings" seem to be the ones that don't understand
what they are doing expressively. As you listen to every
crescendo-decrescendo or other marking they play, you realize that all those
things add up to exactly nothing, musically.

Elise Curran
Orlando, FL

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