Klarinet Archive - Posting 000172.txt from 2005/11

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Conversion
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 19:37:10 -0500

Weak analogy. I don't know what Mozart meant. I only know what
he did. And it is no interest to me to speculate what he might
have done. I don't know and I don't care. I'm concentrating on
what he did.

Same thing with Mahler. I know what the history was at the time,
and I think I know what pressures were exerted on Mahler. And I'm
not critical of his actions. I am critical only when he is
referred to as something that he was not.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Michlin [mailto:amichlin@-----.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 3:41 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Conversion

Dan,

Your logic sounds similar to the following:

Since it is entirely impossible to know with certainty whether
Mozart would
have approved of substituting a contrabassoon for the double bass
in the
Gran Partita, then we must assume that he would have.

An argument we would both pounce on in a heartbeat.

It is just as likely that Mahler did what he did for political
reasons. My
recollection of the evidence (I am away from my books right now)
is that
the political reasons are more likely owing to his various
positions as a
conductor, but there is no clear consensus as to why he
converted. It would
have been in his best interests to keep his reasons to himself,
anyway,
especially if he did so for political reasons.

To assume that he converted for religious reasons is to do
exactly that,
assume. I know of no evidence supporting this assumption, but I
would be
more than happy to be corrected.

I think the answer is simply that we do not know and never will
know.

-Adam

At 07:15 AM 11/9/2005 -0800, dnleeson wrote:
>Since it is entirely impossible to know with certainty what
>Mahler's mindset was at the time of his conversion, then we must
>assume, because of the gravity of the act, that he converted for
>religious reasons. And certainly, from the Catholic point of
>view, a baptism is irrevocable.
[...]

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