Klarinet Archive - Posting 000270.txt from 2007/05

From: mikeraz@-----.com (Michael Rasmussen)
Subj: Re: [kl] Kell's Stravinsky
Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 19:54:05 -0400

> On 27 May, mikeraz@-----.com (Michael Rasmussen) wrote:
> > For another instance of different, is it better or worse, see this recent
> > post by Sherman Friedland:
> > http://clarinet.cc/archives/2007/05/gerry_mulligan.html

I'd written that in conjunction with your (Tony's) statement:

> DIFFERENT, and the only reason it's different is that for most of
> us it's too embarrassing to play that way...,"

Though I hadn't quoted fully, as you went on to say "we'd be too ashamed of
ourselves."

Obviously Gerry Mulligan wasn't too embarrassed to play that way.
He felt rather strongly that it was a good way to play.
I'd imagine Kell wasn't at all embarrassed by his playing either.
Nor would be the people who work hard to create that sound.

Sherman obviously thought Gerry's playing was wrong. Or at the least
misplaced, misinterpreted. As a young guy he challenged a musician he had a
lot of respect for. Pretty amazing.

I would have loved it had Sherman's story ended differently, with
the two of them playing the piece back and forth and discussing _why_
"we don't play this music like that." What an exploration of musical
thought and expression it could have been.

I'm not going to touch the series of "should" questions. The answers depend
too much on areas we don't share, have not even defined, a common ground.
Among them:
Should a performance be as faithful as possible to the composer's intent?
Is the score a starting point for new expression?

I will assert the world of jazz is not mysteriously better than any other
world. It's a rather limp assertion, as I would apply it to all genres.

All of the above is in response to these challenges from Tony Pay:
> I looked at this post -- please, all of you, look at it -- and would be
> interested to know how you think it's relevant.
>
> Is it that you want to say, we should consider ANY way of playing something
> acceptable?
>
> Or is it that, if people think you're a great player in a particular field,
> whatever you do outside that field is justifiable to some degree BECAUSE
> you're thought to be a great player in the field?
>
> Or is it that, on the contrary, it ISN'T justifiable outside the field?
>
> Or is it that we should have more respect for the great jazz musicians that
> we meet in music stores, however rude they may be to us? Or is it that we
> should have respect for the great jazz musicians that we meet in music stores
> that AREN'T rude to us, and have more respect for them than those that ARE
> rude to us?
>
> Or is it that the world of jazz is mysteriously better than the world of any
> other sort of music?
>
> It's difficult to know, you have to admit -- though I enjoyed imagining the
> very lovely young woman 'with whom [they] were all fiends'.
>
> I look forward to your explanation.
>
> Tony
> --
>
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> tel/fax 01865 553339
> mobile +44(0)7790 532980 tony.p@-----.org
>
> ... 1st we shoot all the lawyers, 2nd we strangle them, 3rd..
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------

--
Michael Rasmussen, Portland Oregon
Be appropriate && Follow your curiosity
http://www.patch.com/words/
The fortune cookie says:
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-- Publilius Syrus

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