Klarinet Archive - Posting 000738.txt from 2004/10

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] A confession regarding K622
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 10:49:20 -0400

At 02:52 AM 10/25/2004 +0100, you wrote:
> > PS: Isn't it great to live in a world where one can go to Tower Records
> > and spend over $100 on various performer's opinions about K622? Would we
> > really prefer having less options fewer options
> > dictated by some self appointed taste police persons?
>
>Uh? Where did that come from?

Do you not see that people arguing against rap versions of K622 are acting
as the self appointed taste police?

I've been thinking about some real examples:

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn did a jazz version of Tchaikovsky's
Nutcracker Suite and Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. Sacrilege? Am I acting as a
bad teacher if I use these versions to introduce students to the originals?

Gordon Goodwin recently recorded a jazz arrangement using themes from
Mozart's 40th Symphony (featuring Eddie Daniels, to keep this every so
precariously on topic). Same questions.

Are jazz versions acceptable but rap versions not? What about calypso
versions? Country? Disco? Salsa? Where exactly would you suggest we draw
the line?

If someone reinterprets Mozart (something we do every time we play it, I
should add), you are more than welcome to dislike it, but please don't tell
me I'm wrong for liking it. Please don't tell me I'm wrong for sharing it
with others. Just be glad you have the option to listen to it (or not).

There was a time in the music world when people would have laughed at you
for playing on period instruments. Today, people seem to be more openly
critical about people who *don't* play on period instruments.

Me? I absolutely love living in a world where I can go to the store and buy
period instrument or modern instrument recordings. Karajan or Berstein.
Marcellus or Pay. Goodman or Shaw. Mozart or Salieri. Classical or rap.

Envy me, for I have choice.

>I once noticed I had accumulated 12 LPs of the Brahms clarinet quintet, and
>spent a couple of hours listening to their first movements.

LPs? What are those? =)

-Adam

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