Klarinet Archive - Posting 000694.txt from 2004/03

From: "Patricia A. Smith" <arlyss1@------.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Identity
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 11:29:24 -0500

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

>....well, this thread has caused me to think about the various sources of a person's "sense of identity". And in this sense, the conversation has not been wasted.
>
>I'm sure that each of us has wanted to play a piece of music in a
>particular manner, and the conductor/teacher/etc has directed: "No, it needs to be played <some other way>", or "No, the composer intended <some other way>", and yet we have felt (even if we didn't say so out loud): "It won't be me if I play it that way."
>
>
This makes so much sense. Thanks for saying this! One thing that makes
me wonder also is the fact that, in a lot of cases, the composer only
gives us so much on the page to go on. And, on top of that, the
composer is dead! Unless you plan to go have a seance or something,
well, what are you going to do? Past your best scholarship, etc., that
is? There will ALWAYS be, for the best musicians, that little matter of
personal taste and interpretation. And yes, there will be people who
will disagree as to whether a particular interpretation of a particular
work is 1) in good taste; or 2) was what the composer intended, etc.

Ormandtoby Montoya also wrote:

>Practical matters always play a role in both sex and music, but it's worth noticing (I think) that there can be a fine line between egotism and a deeply felt need to "be oneself" --- especially since music is mostly a form of expression.
>
>....anyway, my point is that musical preference can be as deeply
>connected to a person's feeling of identity as sexual preference can, and this thread can be viewed as an analog of the
>"stay-out-of-the-music's-way" discussion. That is, would you attempt to tell another person to "stay out of the sex drive's way" because the sex drive demands to be performed a certain way?
>
>Probably there are as many variations of the sex drive as there are of the 'musical drive', and every analogy has its faults; but I think this thread helps to illuminate an aspect of music.
>
An interesting aside to all this, is, there were several of us in
undergrad school who believed that, once a person had experienced
relations of the sexual nature, that unlocked one's musicianship in a
much deeper way, that it made us better musicians. You can bet that
there were a number of us who, shall we put it delicately, rushed
ourselves into experiences that, on a number of levels, we were not
quite ready for? *G*

At the same time, yes, this thread has illumined a LOT about our
humanity, and how it informs music and its performance. That is why,
IMO, machines of any sort will never be able to replace human
performers. There is not the interest and the spontaneity, the
unpredictability that is inherent in a live, human performance. That is
what makes human music making so real, so immediate.

Patricia Smith

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