Klarinet Archive - Posting 000196.txt from 2011/01

From: <kathleenwilliams76@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Appreciation of music and cricket
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:43:52 -0500

Learned friends,

I have completed part one of my project on comparisons between the Concerto and Quintet. Over an hour, but promise it to be highly entertaining and informative, with a mixture of talking and playing.

Now that I've had time to ponder, I do appreciate Dan Leeson's technical viewpoint of music. Let me illustrate by comparing appreciation of music to appreciation of my favourite sport, cricket.

Now, cricket can be appreciated on many levels. Sure, there is the obvious enjoyment factor, sit in the crowd, cheer wildly when a batsman hits a good shot, give the opposition fielder on your part of the boundary a hard time, throw your beer cup in the air during the mexican wave. To highlight this further, let me tell you of the Barmy Army. These are a group of Englishmen who tour the world following their cricket team. Up until recently, England wasn't doing so well. That didn't deter these faithful followers, no matter how badly their team went, they still sang their songs and cheered and clapped all day, being roundly sozzled and sunburnt at the end of each day. Imagine their joy recently when their team won a series on Australian soil after 25 years......

So that is one way to enjoy cricket. Cricket is also a game of numbers, and can be approached from a statistical standpoint. How many runs a batsman scores, how many wickets a bowler takes, where the runs are being scored etc. I won't bore you. That is another way to enjoy cricket if you are mathemitically minded.

There are those who say cricket is deadly boring and how can you play for five days without a result. These people are not appreciating the psychological element. Cricket is a game at all times, 11 against 2. 11 fielders and two batsman. Now, the fielders close to the batsman try to psych them out with snide comments about having relations with the batman's wife etc called sledging. Sometimes the batsman bites back with a 'chirp', othertimes he lets the bat do the talking and score lots of runs, or he can fail miserably and get out. A bit like 'hey batter batter batter batter' in baseball. Bowlers bowl to plans, batsmen have goals, one side is trying to get on top of the other side.

But enough boring stuff about a game most of you have no concept about. My point is, like cricket, like movies, like most things in life, music can be appreciated on many levels, and one level is not right and the other wrong. Approach it from a technical standpoint, analysis of motifs, themes, harmonic progressions, lovely, if you are into that. Enjoy it from an emotional perspective, which the majority of us do, fabulous. Look at the psychology of music, on a much deeper level. Sometimes you appreciate more than one level.

The important thing is, there is no right way to appreciate music. Dan is not right or wrong, I am not right or wrong, Barenboim or Meyer are not right or wrong. When the video uploads, and it is a 10G file, which will take close to 24 hours to up load, enjoy it purely as my point of view, one of millions. You don't have to agree with it, you may love it, but it is completely up to you, and your reaction to it is unique and should not be challenged.

I hope I have restored some sanity

Kind regards, Kathy Williams-DeVries
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