Klarinet Archive - Posting 000103.txt from 2008/07

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Once again, a C clarinet issue
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:23:41 -0400

On Wed, 9 Jul 2008 16:50:59 -0700, "Daniel Leeson"
<dnleeson@-----.net> wrote?
> Tim, somehow I am unable to grasp the center of your concern.
>

No doubt. It's really more of a rhetorical question than a serious
academic exploration.

> On one hand, I have said and continue to say that player created
> ornamentation was (and should be today) a part of a performer's bag of
> tricks.
>
> On another hand, I try to make players aware that the instrument called for
> by the composer is not one of the variables that the performer should feel
> free to change at will.
>

I suppose that's really the crux of the matter. In your view,
ornamentation is a variable that the performer should adjust, while
instrumentation is not.

For me, as I think about it philosophically, it's not immediately clear
that those two positions are quite as black and white as that. In both
cases, we are talking about having the performer participate in the
music-creation process: in one case by adjusting the notes written by
the composer, and in the other case by adjusting the timbre of those
notes. We are presenting something that differs from what the composer
intended. It just struck me as odd one morning that one such
"adjustment" would be considered OK, while another "adjustment" would be
considered taboo.

> I don't see the contradiction that you allude to. Help me out here and
> explain the matter a bit better. Maybe then I will be able to get to heart
> of what is troubling you.
>

I think we've already spent more time on this than it's worth. This is
really the kind of philosophical matter that is best explored in a pub
after a few too many single-malt scotches.

--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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