Klarinet Archive - Posting 000187.txt from 2003/10

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] What to do
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 06:39:11 -0400

On Tue, 07 Oct 2003 07:53:15 -0700, leeson0@-----.net said, in part:

> In the case of the passion of Brahm's clarinet quintet, all of the
> composer's extraordinary eroticism needs to be in the head of the
> player. In my case that took me a number of years to figure out.
>
> Now maybe Tony was a faster starter than me. But I have a recording I
> made of the f-minor Brahms at 20 and it embarasses me to hear it. All
> that groping in the dark and heavy breathing and constant moaning. It
> was 100% crotch playing and 0% mature, adult passion.
>
> But then again, I was a slow learner.
>
> There is an old adage that says, "The most sexual organ in the body is
> the brain."

People have said this sort of thing to me before. I remember a friend
of mine observing that, for him, "Music is all about sex, really."

But actually, I think it's the other way around.

As Dan points out, there are of course strong hormonal aspects to
passion and eroticism -- the 'sex drive' element, we might call it.
In fact, I'd say that the problem of adolescence is the struggle
involved in coming to terms with including that sex drive element in our
notions of relationship, which they tell us we've already pretty much
established for ourselves by the age of 5.

Music speaks of those notions of relationship, which include
'belonging', 'loving belonging', 'not belonging', 'loss', 'wanting to
belong', 'not wanting to belong', 'anger', 'anger at not belonging', and
so on.

So, for me, the sexual aspect of these notions of relationship might
heighten how we approach them in music; but the notions themselves are
already available to a young player.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?"

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