Klarinet Archive - Posting 000154.txt from 2009/10

From: "Alexander Brash" <brash@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] New articles published on the web!
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:45:35 -0400

There are plenty of phrases I used when I was younger that I think now
never had any meaning. They meant something to me then, but I now think I
was mistaken in thinking that. It's simply changing my mind. Although in
this case I think it's just a change of language, not concept.

I'd also offer the thought that every human being is entirely inconsistent
"on our face." I'm quite fond of the Emerson quote "a foolish consistency
is the hobgoblin of little minds" - I think in particular many of my
teaching experiences in music have reflected that. How often do we try and
apply a small and arbitrary logic to justify musical decisions and teach
them as gospel?

Note the phrase "foolish consistency" though - namely the kind of patterns
that most people come up with and live by. There's a much deeper
consistency throughout music and life, which instead of being restrictive,
is liberating.

For example, Dan Leeson's expositions on Mozart performance practice, I
think, are liberating, not restrictive at all, even though it seems to
eliminate a lot of "choices". Jonathan's arguments on vibrato, similarly.
It seems perscriptive in some way, but I view it as being prescriptive
about adding an entirely new dimension to the space of decisions you can
make, thereby expanding your total possible choice.

Not the most well formed thought, but hopefully it gets the idea across.

On Wed, October 14, 2009 8:18 am, Mark Charette wrote:
> Alexander Brash wrote:
>> That post is FOURTEEN YEARS OLD. I apologize for the caps, but
>> seriously.
>> Expecting someone to maintain internally consistent language over that
>> period is absolutely ludicrous - people learn and grow and change over
>> time, as does their precision and choice of language.
>
> But ... it had meaning for Jonathan 14 years ago. Today it has no meaning
> to Jonathan - but he offered recently that it never had meaning. That
> seems inconsistent on it's face.
>
>
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