Klarinet Archive - Posting 000136.txt from 2004/09

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Klezmer info
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 00:37:51 -0400

Fred=A0Jacobowitz wrote:

> I believe you have missed the point. Klezmer style
> refers to a PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, not to a
> compositional style.

We're moving on to new issues, which can lead to interesting
discussion.....

Are you saying that, if I had the skills, I could perform "St. Louis
Blues" or the Mozart concerto in such a way that I could properly call
my performance "Klezmer"? I agree that performance practice is an
important part of Klezmer, but appropriate scales and harmony (and
perhaps instrumentation --- can you perform Klezmer on a bagpipe or
harpsichord?) are essential also, aren't they?

> And noone says you have to specialize in the
> Klezmer style in order to like the melodies and
> play them. Just don't go around advertising a
> Klezmer performance. That is dishonest.

In spirit, this is why I included "unless one's goal is to play it the
way that they did" in my post.

We could debate whether the boundaries of any musical style can be
defined with precision, and thereby honest advertising can always be
separated from dishonest advertising. But that's not the issue here.
(at least, I don't think it is?)

If I understood Lelia correctly, she wasn't discussing 'truth in
advertising'. Rather she was commenting that a demand for authenticity
can be carried to such an extreme that it becomes a musical prejudice or
an act of musical discrimination (in the nasty sense of the word) rather
than only a musical specification.

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