Klarinet Archive - Posting 000011.txt from 2005/11

From: or3mondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: Re: [kl] Driving Dan NUTS
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 11:39:56 -0500

Mark wrote:

> I've heard more than one performance in
> which the instruments were more important
> than the musicians (or at least in the critical
> path, just like the electronics were) and the
> instruments failed.

> Your point?

Mark, my point is that if an *instrument* fails (a string breaks, a
taragato snaps in half as it did at one of the ClarinetFests, etc), I
don't feel _deceived_. Disappointed? Yes, certainly. Outright
conned? No.

For me, last night was like when Dorothy pulled the curtain aside and
revealed the phony "wizard".

As I've posted before, I enjoy electronic music and I'm not one of those
who insists that "If it isn't acoustic, it's not worth listening to".
But last night was a case of trying to pass off electronic as acoustic,
and it made me angry.

...when I stop and think about it, I attended a small band's jazz
performance last year when the electronics (same theater) went sour (a
buzz in all the speakers). The band leader asked the sound crew to
turn everything off, and so there was no electronic keyboard, but we
(the audience) still heard enjoyable music --- probably not as loud or
as 'punctuated' as usual, but still worth the price of the ticket. The
keyboardist added some percussion improvisations (I assume he was
improvising), and it was fun because he had the skills. Someone like
Bela Fleck or Pizzarelli (sp?) could have made good music if his amps
failed also.

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