Klarinet Archive - Posting 000360.txt from 2005/04

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Dark vs Light Test
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 20:58:15 -0400


David Blumberg wrote,
>I volunteered to create the Dark vs Light test.
>Just checking to make sure that there is sufficient
>interest and participation to do it with. I'll be
>taking suggestions on what to base it on (same
>work with maybe several players playing it,
>different countries playing different pieces, etc).
>
>Also what comments would be asked for? (just light,
>dark, etc or that plus a descriptive word added to it
>and compare the answers)

Thanks for being willing to carry out this test! I use "light" and "dark"
with my husband, because we do define the terms the same way, but I'm
curious to get real evidence on whether we've been right to assume it's not
possible to use those terms on this list. I'd like to take the test, if
the samples are short enough for my geriatric computer (three and a half
years old!) to download them without choking and quitting.

I think it's a more valid test if all the players play the same passage or
pair of passages, or at least *similar* passages. It's hard to make a
meaningful comparison if (to take an extreme example) one player goes
zooming around presto, staccato, in the altissimo range, while another
plays something largo, legato, that's all down in chalumeau register.
Nearly everybody sounds "bright" to me in altissimo: to me, "too bright"
means shrill, and I often refer to altissimo (jokingly) as the whistling
teakettle range. But how do these people (or how do these *recordings*)
compare with each other when they're playing at similar tempos in the
*same* pitch range? Also, I think that samples in which the clarinet plays
either alone or with accompaniment that really is just accompaniment (way
in the background) would make it easier to sort out what we think of the
soloist's tone quality.

Lelia Loban
On the other hand, you have different fingers.

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