Klarinet Archive - Posting 000798.txt from 2002/11

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Centred tone
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 00:00:26 -0500

> -----Original Message-----
> From: WILLIAM SEMPLE [mailto:wsemple@-----.com]
>
>
> Recordings are not as good as a live performance, but Pete
> Fountain sounds
> like Pete Fountain no matter what recording I have. The problem
> would occur
> when the differences are more subtle.
>
But does Pete Fountain on all those recordings sound like Pete Fountain in
live performance? The sound of a particular player may record consistently,
but does the recorded sound have the same qualities as the live one? Is it
really valid, do you think, to attempt to describe live sounds in terms of
what we hear on recordings?

I can't think of a single player whose playing I've had the chance to hear
both live and recorded who sounded the same both ways. One of my greatest
mistakes as a young student was to try to emulate the sound qualities I
heard on recordings, since live concerts were then a rare treat for me.
Among the most basic revelations for me as I got older and began to hear
more live performances, both as audience member and as a performer, was what
a well-played clarinet really sounded like.

If the point of all this is to develop a frame of reference for describing
and discussing recorded performances, this sounds like a way to do it. So
long as the vocabulary you develop is applied within the context where it
was developed (i.e. recordings), it can do no harm (though I'm still
unconvinced that it bestows much benefit either). But will this vocabulary
have any valid use in describing live clarinet tone?

Karl Krelove

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