Klarinet Archive - Posting 000343.txt from 2005/05

From: David Niethamer <niethamer@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] music and the clarinet (was: Wagner!)
Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 20:59:40 -0400


On May 24, 2005, at 6:39 PM, Matthew Lloyd wrote:

> Don't clarinettists discuss music?
>
Apparently not often on this side of the pond!

I clearly remember Gervase DePeyer asking (at one of the early Clarinet
Clinics at the University of Denver) when "we" would stop talking about
all the technical nonsense about the clarinet, and start discussing the
music. To a college undergraduate, that point of view was a revelation.

In reading one of the biographies of Brahms, I was surprised to learn
that a part of Brahms' beef with Wagner was Wagner's attitude that a
composer was an "Artiste" - somehow on a higher plane than ordinary
people. Brahms apparently felt that a composer should be an ordinary
person who happened to write and perform music, and not some sort of
"star" entitled to veneration and special treatment.

Contrary to those that feel this discussion has gotten into the realm
of personal attack, I think some posters have simply pointed out what
they feel is sloppy thinking about the subject. As we've heard here
many times, sloppy thinking leads to the acceptance of unsupportable
myths about the clarinet and clarinet playing, which may result in a
more youthful, but darker, tone. ;-)

David

David B. Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/index.html

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