Klarinet Archive - Posting 000264.txt from 2003/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Klarinet 101: Performance
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 18:02:18 -0500

On Sun, 9 Feb 2003 13:48:28 -0700, cactus@-----.net said:

> > ...I think that the 'bringing to' bit, that seems to imply an
> > 'addition' of some sort, is the metaphor that creates the
> > difficulty. It's as though you have to 'make it interesting', then.
>
> I'm not sure why this is difficult, unless it is a language usage
> issue that is getting in the way.

It is a language usage issue in part. The words people use are often
misleading.

By the way, I should be clear that we're talking here about music like
the C-T sonata. We're not talking about improvisation, or even about
what might happen were somebody to take elements of the C-T sonata as a
basis for an improvisation; though I could probably say something
different, but similar, about that too.

I shall further assume that the C-T is 'good' music. (It obviously
doesn't matter what you do to bad music -- changing it might easily make
it better:-)

The point is, 'good' music is *already* interesting.

Now, everyone's view of it *as interesting* is slightly different, which
means that interesting performances differ.

But those interesting performances are not interesting *because* they
are different. And more importantly, they're not interesting *because*
they differ from the text provided by the composer. As I've tried to
make clear here before in various ways, it's perfectly possible to do
wonderful performances of pieces like the C-T that could be said to
diverge not at all from what the composer wrote.

But conversely, it's all too possible for a performer to do something
that comes over as an attempt to make interesting something that they
don't find interesting, by changing it. I encounter students doing that
all the time. It's as though the first thing they do is to *not play
what's written*, because they think they need to 'bring something of
their own' to it.

This is a mistake, and you can hear that it's a mistake if you're
familiar with the sort of experience that wonderful performances give
you. It's the sort of mistake that makes you think that the
performer is unduly pleased with themselves, or makes you think that
the piece itself is rather shallow.

You can avoid that mistake by concentrating on how you can most clearly
represent *what is interesting about the text* to someone else; namely,
a member of your audience, because funnily enough, no one really wants
to hear what you think is interesting about *you*.

Of course, doing that doesn't guarantee a good performance, because you
just may not be up to recognising enough of what is interesting about
the music, or not technically able to make that clear.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
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