Bassoon Bait Brings Byte Barrage! (Was: Re: LOOPING PHILOSOPHY(condensed))

[John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.com>]

Kim Flint wrote:
> 
> At 11:44 PM -0500 8/11/97, John Pollock wrote:
> >'Kay, my mind's open... Show me any example of a DJ's work that can make
> >me feel like, say, Ry Cooder's solo on "Lipstick Sunset" or Amos
> >Garrett's on "Midnight at the Oasis"-- please!
> 
> >For that matter, point out the killer bassoon solo...
> 
> I like the way bassoon sounds, why are putting that one down? After 
>playing
> guitar all my life, working for a guitar company, and generally being 
>with
> it forever, I would be quite happy to spend a year listening to bassoon!

(sigh) I was not putting it down.  Nor, for that matter, was I putting
DJs down.  I was stating my agreement with Motley's point, which _I_
took to be that it's easier to play music expressively on some
instruments than on others.

I mentioned the bassoon precisely because I've read and been told that
it is a very difficult instrument to play at all, harder still to play
with technical proficiency, and harder yet to play expressively.  It
lacks the guitar's or violin's ability to do double stops or chords, and
I suspect (though I don't know this for sure) that a bassoonist would
have a tough time doing the glissandi that are so readily achieved on
guitar or violin.  Thus, from my perspective, it's no surprise that
bassoon solos are rare in the mass media compared to guitar and violin. 

I think I can fairly sum up Fred Marshall's contribution to this thread
thusly:  "Instruments don't make great music; great musicians do."  If
that's not exactly what Fred meant, it's nonetheless how I feel.

But Motley's contention that it's easier on some instruments than others
is, I believe, inarguable.  At the least, I feel it deserves a more
respectful response than it received from Kim.
--
John Pollock
mailto:johnpollock@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock (Troubador Tech)