Klarinet Archive - Posting 000264.txt from 2003/08
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tony=20Pay?= <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] The way it spozed to be
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 18:23:44 -0400
--- Ormondtoby Montoya <ormondtoby@-----.net> wrote:
> I noticed an advertisement in the newspaper:
>
> "BE CREATIVE! BE BOLD! [Purchase our sportswear.....]"
>
> I couldn't help thinking (and pointing out to my daughter): "They're
> asking me to buy a style of clothing that _they_ designed. If I want
> to boldly create where no man has created before, then I will design and
> sew and wear something of my *own*. Of course, I'll probably need to
> use the sewing tools and fabrics that someone else created....."
>
> Sewing isn't my thing, but the principle applies. We all build on the
> achievements of those who went before us, but the people who 'learned
> before us' have a natural tendency to cherish and promote what _they_
> learned.
I think that what I was on about wasn't this -- but still, this is a very
important thing despite not being what I was talking about.
I always say -- some people tune out when I say it, because they've heard it
before, but I still think it's worth reiterating -- that there are certain
things that I will demand that my students are able to do.
These things are not the same for every student. In general, I will choose
what a particular student is required to do in order to be as awkward as
possible for them.
If someone finds it difficult to do a certain sort of legato, I will demand
that sort of legato of them in any passage in which it might be appropriate.
If someone always bases their expression on crescendo, I will demand that they
be expressive without using that crescendo.
And so on.
BUT -- this standpoint is always made clear from the start. There is no
suggestion that there is an ultimate authority, or that they are 'spozed' to do
these things 'from on high'. At the end of the course, they can do whatever
they want -- and now with the added abilities that they lacked previously.
In real life, everyone can always do whatever they want.
In real life, there ain't no SPOZED.
Now, in taking this attitude, I reckon I am telling the truth. But of course,
telling the truth lays you open to manipulation by people who habitually lie.
I recently spent some time telling someone the arguments -- definitive
arguments, IMO -- why 'swinging' a passage in the Copland Clarinet Concerto
wasn't a good idea, damaged the structure of the piece, and so on.
All that fell by the wayside because Sabine Meyer, in her role of 'bullshitty
person' -- which she does exceptionally well -- told that someone simply and
bluntly, without any explanation: "You should swing it."
So he did.
Why am I reminded of women, who fall for precisely the men who TREAT THEM
BADLY?
You want to know how to attract women?
GIVE THEM A VERY HARD TIME.
Tony
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