Klarinet Archive - Posting 000869.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Need suggestions - clarinet and string orchestra
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 22:05:59 -0500

Steve White wrote:
> Okay Dan,
>
> For two pizzas I'll bite. Knowing that I did this on my senior recital - I
> must not be a decent person. If you are referring to the one sidedness of
> the parts favoring the Clarinet, I'll generally agree - thought the quartet
> I used did not have the chops to play the mozart, and none of us had the
> time to do the Brahms.
>
> Steve White
>
> P.S. Where do I send the Pizzas?

Well, I doubt if I can come up with 35 reasons so you don't owe me any
pizzas, and this is very much personal opinion. There is no truth when
it comes to enjoying or disliking any piece of music. So because I don't
like something (or analagously like something very much) does not mean
that you are obliged to do the same, or even that I am right.

For, me the Weber quintet (in fact most of Weber's music in general, but
certainly the quintet and the concerti in specific) are tawdry examples
of the worst in music. It is music that salutes empty technique applied
to vacuous and unimaginative accompaniment. You can't even get a string
quartet to do that piece willingly. There is a direct pipeline that goes
from the Weber quintet to the Goldman band in New York's Central Park
where the one armed trumpet player Jimmie Burke would do the 25
variations on the Carnival of Venice with accompaniment so vapid and
often stupid that one wonders if there is anything to music beyond the
ability to play fast. I always felt that Burke's finale would have him
set himself on fire and then whistle "The Burning of Rome," because
musically there was nothing more that he could do when he played the
triple-tonguing variation at the end where he got to high C above Q.

It may be fun for the audience, but then again so is a troupe of seals
juggling balls on their noses. It's jolly and entertaining in a way but
it isn't great music.

In the Weber, his melodies are pleasant enough, but he never does
anything with them. He has no idea how to develop something, so his
sonata forms are just a lot of fast playing to no useful purpose.

There is just no drama in his clarinet quintet and whenever I am obliged
to hear it, I can't wait until it is over because it commits the
greatest of all sins, worse even that having carnal knowledge of a
McCormick reaper!! It bores me with trite melodies, repeated endlessly
with no discernable difference between the first and the n-th repetition.

When you hear the first 8 measures of the Mozart quintet, you know, you
sense, you realize that you are in for something special. When you hear
the first 8 measures of the Brahms quintet, you become speechless as the
musical audacity of the man. But when you hear the first 8 measures of
the Weber quintet you might as well go home because he has nothing more
to say.

On second thought, you do owe me two pizzas. Just on general principle.

Dan

--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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