Klarinet Archive - Posting 000714.txt from 2003/02

From: Neil Leupold <leupold_1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 09:51:36 -0500

--- Tony Pay <Tony@-----.uk> wrote:

> First of all, an explanation of *why* you're unlikely to be convinced,
> and a detailed source:
> http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/Phrasing.html

> Another way of looking at that, which might be worth reading first:
> http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/2001/05/000572.txt

I notice that you cite your posts as a common device. Do you have a catalogue of URL's at the
ready, or do you conduct an archive search every time you want to reference historical Klarinet
material?

> Still, how crucial is this argument here? Perhaps not very. Even if
> the soprano is obscured, we've heard what she's singing once or twice
> before, after all. You could even make out a case that her being
> finally overwhelmed by the clarinet is a dramatic sexual metaphor
> (clarinets are better than....:-)
>
> But it *is* crucial at other points in the piece, and at very many
> points in other classical pieces, as I try to make clear in the
> references. Performances that use the 'going to' metaphor as the norm
> particularly damage the clarity and simplicity of the 'Shepherd on the
> Rock', and its clarity and simplicity is an important part of its
> touching quality.

The consolidated point made by these two paragraphs is not un-huge, in my opinion, i.e., that
encountering the exact same musical phenomenon multiple times within a piece (be it opera, pure
orchestral, chamber, or solo) -- in the case of Shepherd, the text itself -- requires a thoughtful
approach relative to its purpose (as determined by musical context). Your suggested justification
for a dynamic climax at the LT resolution involves a bit of faith and 'audience mindreading', as
it were. Are the audiences of today musically sophisticated enough to pick up on the fact that
they're hearing repeated lyrics, and that the literal meaning of those lyrics the 2nd and 3rd time
around defensibly takes a back seat to other musical considerations (such as the one you suggest,
the expression of a dramatic sexual metaphor)? Sadly, I would argue that they're not, in which
case the "thought"-fulness behind any given interpretation of the passage is lost on them (which
is not to suggest that a thoughtful approach should not still be taken and applied). I'm
referring more to American audiences here, and perhaps the state of musical awareness and
appreciation is different in Europe. Music, of course, is meant to be heard, making the audience
itself part of the musical context that must play a dominant role in one's interpretive
considerations as a performer. Is this true? Or should our approach to a given performance be
constructed in a bubble, irrespective of who is going to hear it?

Neil

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