At 12:44 PM -0800 2/23/08, Chuck Israels wrote:
HI Darcy,
I haven't been following all of this discussion (sorry), but there
is a not so superficial issue with scordatura for anything but short
passages. Players depend on deeply ingrained kinesthetic patterns
for controlling their instruments (obviously), and some are more
adept at the cerebral re-patterning that goes with different tunings
than others. I can play the cello a little, and the bass tuned in
5ths (too much real estate to cover for my taste, but some people
find it advantageous), but comfortable access to the hand movements
and fingerings I need in the heat of jazz improvisation I can only
get in my "home" tuning of 4ths. I know this is a limitation of my
brain function, but I don't believe I am alone in being disturbed
and a little distanced from my musical responses when I have to cope
with unfamiliar tunings. I'm sure this can be overcome with
practice, (people double on clarinet and saxophone, and some know
the old system of clarinet fingering and can switch back and forth
from it with relative ease) but not everyone wants to do it.
Hi, Chuck, and you're absolutely right, and it's no limitation of
your brain function. You can't do something you've never done before
unless you learn to do it and practice doing it. The most obvious
example is that most classically-trained players and singers can't
perform jazz and do it not only with proper styles but with intuitive
instincts for what is right, let alone improv. (The opposite, of
course, is also true.)
And you're also right that not everyone WANTS to do it. Fine. The
point, then, is that folks should not seek employment in a situation
where they will be required to do things they haven't learned to do,
not that they couldn't learn to do them if they wanted to. Passive
resistance to specific instructions or requests by a composer simply
show a too highly developed lack of any sense of adventure.
Perhaps orchestral auditions should include a warning that the
players will be expected to make any adjustments to conventional
techniques required by the composers whose music is played. How
about it, Ray; would professional orchestra players agree to that, or
are they too hidebound conservative? There must be provisions for
conventional unconventional doubles, like banjo, mandolin, and of
course the saxes and occasional tenor tuba. And is there an
equivalent to scordatura tunings for strings in the brass and
woodwind sections? (Percussionists may be more open to challenges
than any other players in the orchestra!!)
Just my 2 cents.
Chuck
I'll see your 2 cents and raise you a nickel!
John
--
John R. Howell
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
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