Ralph R. Hall [email protected] Ralph R. Hall http://www.brasshausmusic.com
Robert, Of course Gunther Schuller's description is good and exact but points us towards two difficulties. The first is one of nomenclature: we very often talk about the same thing but use different words to identify and different descriptions to explain. This must be confusing - even irritating - to the lay reader of this list. I think, basically, we are all talking about the same subject and even coming up with more or less the same answers. I think Wendell's emphasis on the appropriate vowel sounds between the articulation is good and accords well with Schuller's description. I also, I believe, have consistently tried to make the tongue less important than the body of the note it articulates. We virtually come to the same conclusions but from differing points of the compass and using different methodologies. The second difficulty is how we get this across to those less experienced, i.e. the pupil, the student and the enthusiastic amateur. If one read out Schuller's thesis verbatim to one of the above, a blank look is the likely response; and if you actually did this, then you would be a very poor teacher. Schuller is preaching to the converted. This returns us to point one, it's all a matter of interpretation by the individual teacher (according to the type of pupil) and so the variety of descriptions and reinventions of the very same 'wheel'. Amongst many other analogies, the one I use most for the subject under discussion is that of a Frankfurter sausage - Wiener in the U.S. - being cut up neatly into many small, equal portions by the action of a very sharp knife. The knife, of course, is the tongue and the cuts are almost imperceptible, thus preserving the shape of the whole sausage. I suspect that this is precisely Schuller's meaning - now interpreted for a pupil. Ralph R. Hall _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
