At 6:50 PM +0100 3/16/10, SN jef chippewa wrote:
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:02:23 +0100
To: finale <[email protected]>
From: SN jef chippewa <[email protected]>
I believe instrumental technique has always advanced as composers
write dumb/difficult/impossible things
henry, i am going to assume that your comment wasn't meant to be
nearly as reactionary, simplistic and mean-spirited as it sounds to
me.
Not at all, Jef. It's a plain fact that a number of pieces were once
considered unplayable, until a new generation of players came along
and took them up as a matter of course. If the Tchaikovsky Violin
Concerto wasn't one of them, then it was another similar one. And of
course both Beethoven and Stravinsky demanded things that were not
part of conventional technique at that time, but are now learned by
students. Just read Berlioz' instrumentation treatise to get his
comments on the players of his time!!! And the violin pieces by
Biber, Tartini, and other baroque composers that were considered
virtuoso pieces really ARE studied by students today, but of course
that has a lot to do with improvements--or at least changes--in
equipment more than anything else.
But my comments--if they are what started this--were to the effect
that a composer should understand what he or she is asking for,
should know whether it's standard, has been done before, or is in
fact a brand new concept, and that it would be prudent to expect some
inertia from the more conservative players. And most particularly
should know in advance that it's going to work and what it will sound
like.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[email protected])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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