Klarinet Archive - Posting 000356.txt from 2003/10

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: who speaks?
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2003 10:53:05 -0400

Ed Lacy wrote: (I appreciate his and Tony Pay's replies)

> It isn't our job as performers to become too
> much emotionally involved in what we are
> playing. It's our job to make the *listener*
> "feel" the music. If you play in such a way that
> you bring yourself to tears, you will probably
> fail to elicit a similar reaction from an
> audience. In my opinion, many players
> confuse this issue. Becoming greatly moved
> by the music we perform or by the beauty and
> emotionalism of our performance ensures
> nothing about the response of the listener.

Perhaps the summary of this thread could be that there are two types of
players, those that play for themselves and those that play for the
audience. And I hope that sometimes the two types fuse in a single
person. Perhaps in some way this is why some students become
dispirited --- too much emphasis on one path to the exclusion of the
other.

We've all had the experience of being bored silly by the person at the
cocktail party who laughs too hard at their own jokes, but the jokes (in
our opinions) aren't funny at all. We're probably discussing the same
issue in regard to music.

Thank you.

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