Klarinet Archive - Posting 000389.txt from 2004/05

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Hesitating to draw a musical parallel
Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 05:54:35 -0400

On 20 May, ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya) wrote:

> Furthermore, of the five people at the dinner table tonight (not including
> myself), one of them has never heard of Crunch'N'Munch, but she detests
> Cracker Jacks. The other four people know both products, and they prefer
> Crunch'N'Munch because its toffee coating is better, and the Cracker Jack
> toys are of no value to them.
>
> I hesitate to draw a musical parallel, but apparently 'tradition' loses
> in this case.

The interesting thing about this is *why* a musical parallel doesn't work,
and so why you're right to hesitate.

The whole point about the argument you quoted for why Cracker Jack shouldn't
be junked -- and why I said it was a good argument, of its type -- was that
the argument referred beyond the merits or otherwise of Cracker Jack in and
of itself, and spoke rather of how Cracker Jack was part of the structure of
baseball attendance, as evidenced by its mention in one of the songs
associated with baseball.

Of course, it's slightly silly to labour the point in this particular
instance; but it's still worth noticing that all your friends above are only
telling us about *their* likes and dislikes.

Well, big deal.

If you go down that road in music, you get stuff about, *I* like vibrato, *I*
don't like vibrato, *I* think so-and-so's sound is the true clarinet sound,
etc.

Which opinions, although we can't get away from them in ourselves, as I said
elsewhere, are very, very, very, VERY BORING.

A far more productive thing to do is to ask yourself how someone's playing
fits into the context it's designed for. How does it contribute to the
piece? Does it perhaps even cast any new light on what you think the piece
*is*? How does the relationship between the wind instruments work with that
sound, or that vibrato? Does it sound noble enough here, or agonised enough
there? Does it show you how a phrase you've always thought of as noble can
easily be thought of as something more like, 'self-doubting'?

Music is relational. And the great relationships of which it speaks aren't
relationships beween *damned opinions*. That *you* happen to 'like'
something in isolation does no work at all.

(Oh OK, what the Hell, BASEBALL is relational:-)

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

... I tried switching to gum but couldn't keep it lit

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