Klarinet Archive - Posting 000363.txt from 2004/05

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Rosen on text and performance
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 07:06:36 -0400

Tony=A0Pay wrote:

> Perhaps what disconcerts us about new and
> unfamiliar music is not so much what is
> *there* as what is *missing* -- the missing
> elements having previously been assumed by
> us to be essential constituents of music itself.
> [snip] [...example of Mendelssohn Italian
> Symphony]

I wonder if the same thought applies to instruments?

I was struck some years ago by an 'expert' (I don't remember who it was)
who explained that while Stradivarius violins are fine instruments,
nevertheless the best of modern violins are better instruments because
of technological improvements in tools, acoustic research, broader array
of available materials, etc.

Compare this to the last two violin concertos that I attended (Gil
Shaham & Joshua Bell). The programs announced that both of these
musicians were playing multi-million dollar Stradivarius violins, the
kind of instruments that have their own individual names. Clearly
Shaham and Bell perceive that these instruments are worth the huge
investments. When reading the artists' quotes about the 'richer
sounds', etc of their violins, I couldn't help thinking about "bright"
and "dark" and "I can't define it, but I know it when I hear it" ---
such as clarinetists frequently argue about. How many of these
qualities are truly essential and/or superior?

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org