Klarinet Archive - Posting 000137.txt from 2004/09

From: Robert Wood <instruments@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Klezmer info
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 08:10:39 -0400

Question: Would Ward Swingle's early album (Bach) be called Baroque
Style, Baroque Music ? How would Stokowski's Tocatta & Fugue in g minor
(?) for organ, orchestra, cannons and such, or William Malloch's stuff-
be categorized.......and could we engrave the category on the head of a pin?
(Fortunately, Bach never loses).
BW

Fred Jacobowitz wrote:

> Ormond,
> I believe you have missed the point. Klezmer style refers to a
> PERFORMANCE PRACTICE, not to a compositional style. One can play music
> from the Baroque and call it a Baroque music concert but one cannot
> say that they are playing it in the Baroque Style (a performance
> practice) unless one adheres to what we know are the corrrect
> performance practices from that era.
> By the same reasoning, one can play Jewish melodies which were
> written originally to be played in the Klezmer style but one cannot be
> said to be playing Klezmer unless one uses the requisite performance
> practice, i.e. ornaments, tempi, etc. When you go to a concert
> advertising "The Beatles' Music" you have the right to be told that it
> will be played on, e.g. steel drum with a Reggae beat. I know that I
> would be angry and feel deceived if I was not told that the
> performance practice used deviated markedly from that which one would
> expect, given the musical content. You wouldn't call such a
> performance Rock, would you? I mean, by definition, the Beatles' music
> is Rock. So why call stuff Klezmer when all it has in common with the
> real thing is musical pitches?
> 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.
> Don't forget, this all started when a person wanted to learn how to
> play Klezmer. Substitute "Rock 'n Roll" for "Klezmer" and tell me that
> any old way of playing the melodies is correct. I dare ya...
>
> Fred Jacobowitz
>
> Ormondtoby Montoya wrote
> However, there is a larger issue involved (imo).
>
>>
>> Lelia's statement implies that playing (say) Baroque music in a
>> different style than what they played back then is not a sin either ---
>> unless one's goal is precisely to play it the way that they did back
>> then.
>>
>> The usual statement is that we should play in the manner that the music
>> demands. Serve the music, etc. The issue is that humans are not a
>> constant, neither geographically nor culturally nor over history nor
>> religiously nor <whatever>. Thus music "demands" different things from
>> different individuals, different cultures, etc.
>>
>> Perhaps I'm wrong, but that's what I perceived Lelia to be saying,
>> although she was addressing a subset of all music.
>>
>>
>>
>

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