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Hi Dan
I'm so sorry you're unsubscribing from the Shamash list. You know, I
think you might have misunderstood my remark, which I intended to be
humorous. I hope I'm a better clarinetist than a comedian, because I'm a
terrible comedian! Don't be hurt. People are always telling clarinetists
things we don't want to hear, so our feelings get hurt too - if our playing
sounds natural people think it's easy, if we use ornamentation that isn't
found in other kinds of music people think it's a mistake due to lack of
training, like a crack in an untrained voice. It took me 32 years of study,
research and practice to play clarinet as imperfectly as I do. I have a
degree in classical music, but I play klezmer because it is more beautiful to
me. My whole heart and soul are buried in this music. I did not grow up with
it, and nothing about it is easy. If you listen to the old recordings and
think that Naftule Brandwein and Dave Tarras sound like untrained voices, you
might discover something else if you listen a little more closely. That's
what I meant. When I listen to them, I hear a voice that's telling the truth.
You know something, for all the scratches and pops in those old 78' rpm
records, they reproduce the tone and emotion of a human idea better than this
high-tech internet medium. Sometimes it's very easy to misread someone's
tone in here because internet just doesn't capture it. You're a person who
cares very much about Jewish music, and so are the other people in here.
It's an imperfect medium but we can use it to build community, if we're
careful. I hope you come back.
B'shalom
Margot
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