Klarinet Archive - Posting 000269.txt from 2005/04

From: Tony Pay <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] nationalities (was test results)
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:43:06 -0400


--- Margaret Thornhill <clarinetstudio@-----.net> wrote:

> Tony wrote:
>
> > I suspect that quite a few of the older people here have, like me,
> > prototypical 'French', 'German' and 'English' clarinet sounds in their
> > minds, drawn probably from old recordings or performances by people like
> > Delecluse, Cahuzac, Geuser, Wlach (Viennese), Draper, Thurston and then
> > Brymer, Walton and de Peyer. Those people would be unable to tell the
> > nationality of the player of a recent recording, but they might want to say
> > paradoxically of someone like Paul Meyer, well, he's French, but he doesn't
> > *sound* French.
>
> > Because I find I want to say that myself, I think these categories have
some
> > independent reality, though to continue to attach them to nationalities is
> > probably counterproductive.
>
> thanks Tony--this is an interesting post, and I've noted the books about
> perception for further reading.

It might be worthwhile glossing the title "Women, Fire and Dangerous Things",
for those who might be interested.

There are several languages whose nouns have genders -- French, Italian, German
etc: "La table, il tavolo, la plume, la penna, il mondo, la monde, der wein,
il vino", and so on. The nouns that have a particular gender in a particular
language don't seem to have anything much in common -- and indeed they may well
have another gender in another language.

Lakoff cites a language (ISTR an American Indian language) in which a
particular grammatical category -- analogous to gender -- contains just, women,
fire, and dangerous things.

How this sort of thing can possibly come about is the subject of the book.

> I wonder if the current situation with tonal characteristics isn't just the
> result of globalization, like everything else?

I think so.

Tony

Please reply to tony.p@-----.

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