Klarinet Archive - Posting 000397.txt from 2003/07

From: RichChPlay@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Missing the Point
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 22:32:43 -0400

>> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2003 23:47:48 -0700 (PDT)
>> To: klarinet@-----.org
>> From: CBA <clarinet10001@-----.com>
>>
>> Bear,
>> With all due respect . . . I think you spend too
>> much time thinking of HOW LONG the pieces
>> you write are, and HOW MANY FUGUES are
>> in them. . . . Guinness Book of Records we
>> aren't.

on 7/11/03 1:13 AM, Bear Woodson wrote:

> Hmmm? From where I stand you have
>precisely missed the point. My goal is to write
>music of Good Compositional (Intellectual)
>Quality AND Lyricism, for Each Major Instru-
>ment of the Orchestra.

Just a quick comment -

There are two Brahms sonatas for clarinet. Neither one lasts 25 minutes
(though the F minor one comes close). Neither one contains a fugue of any
shape or size, though the contrapuntal writing is pretty impeccable.

Poulenc wrote a pretty decent sonata, too. I don't think it even lasts 20
minutes, and there are certainly no fugues in it. Counterpoint in the
sense that we know it from Bach was not a part of Poulenc's aesthetic.

I'm sure other clarinetists could share their favorite examples.

The reason that pieces "work" has nothing to do with academic rigor. They
work when listeners want to hear those pieces repeatedly, and they get
some satisfaction from doing so at whatever level of musical
sophistication they possess. Those same pieces might also work for
performers and other musicians if the piece has enough content to bring
something new to each performance.

Berg's "Vier Stucke" takes about 5 minutes - Quartet for the End of Time
takes about 45 minutes. Both are very stunning pieces that reveal new
things with each performance (no fugues there either). Length of
performance time and contrapuntal content have nothing to do with it,
IMHO.

BTW, the capitalization of "Good Compositional Quality" reminds me of an
artist friend who is constantly deriding the concept of "art with a
Capital A" - art that only the cognoscenti could *possibly* appreciate!

Ultimately it takes a little distance from the time of creation to decide
what will survive, and what will not. Sometimes judgment of the present
is amusingly off the mark - See Slonimsky's "Lexicon of Musical
Invective".

OK, so it wasn't such a quick comment...

My $0.02 (US)

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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