Klarinet Archive - Posting 000024.txt from 2007/03

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Hearing is believing, or is it?
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:17:12 -0500

Keith Bowen's response to the matter of the note from Danyel
about the impact of gender specificity gives the impression
(impression hell; it says so outright) that Keith believes his
ears (and mind, of course) to be capable of identifying certain
specific performers; i.e., he knows when Brendel is playing
because he can identify his touch (?), his technique (?), his
interpretation (?), his ethnicity (?) whatever. Keith does not
state the source of his knowledge, so I ascribe it to a mystery.
Maybe he can do it. I can't, which does not mean much.

Every musician is, or should be, proud of their ability to hear
things, such as accuracy of pitch, precision of rhythm,
correctness of tempi, etc. By broadening that sensitivity so as
to be able to recognize the identity of the performer (or
characteristics of a specific performer's musical interpretation)
appears to me to be more ego than science.

I didn't believe it when Danyel said it, and I don't believe it
when Keith says it.

The legislation of technical truth based on a person's assertion
that they recognize that truth in some unknown but mystical
manner causes me to take out my blue blanket, like Leopold Bloom
in The Producers, and hide from reality.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

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