Subject: Re: Re: Re: [Harp-L] The shapes of the covers

[EGS1217@xxxxxxx]

wow...absolutely agree with everything Tim says here, right on the  money.
 
...my earlier post about 'hearing and the brain' with the attached  links was 
written purely in response to vern's first post and not to any of  the others 
which followed.
 
  Remember, the digest necessarily disjoints threads, sometimes  making  
posts  appear to have been written long after they're actually  sent in:
 
Elizabeth
 
"Message: 6
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:41:47 -0000
From: "Tim Moyer"  <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re:  Re: Re: [Harp-L] The  shapes of the covers
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Message-ID:  <g58d1r+ccjn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="ISO-8859-1"

Vern Smith wrote:
> If differences of cover  design are imperceptible to the audience, 
> why bother.

The idea  of music is to provoke subjectivism in the audience.  Why 
remove it  from the performer?  

> The player is a listener too. If there is  a way to deny the player 
> knowledge of what kind of covers he is  playing, I predict that he 
> would not be able to to distinguish among  covers of  different 
> designs.  

Why would we want to  do that?  When I go to listen to someone like, 
say, Phil Wiggins play,  I like the fact that Phil selects his 
harmonicas based on how he wants  people to hear him.  Whether that's 
attributable to the cover shapes or  the comb material or the size of 
Phil's enormous hands is immaterial to me,  the listener, but it might 
be material - whether perceived or real - to Phil  as a performer.  

Likewise, when I go hear Phil Gazelle, I like the  fact that Phil 
selects his harmonicas based on how he wants people to hear  him.  
Whether that's attributable to the cover shapes or the comb  material 
or the precision of Phil's intonation and placement of his  microphone 
is immaterial to me, the listener, but it might be material -  whether 
perceived or real - to Phil as a performer.  

Rather  than trying to prove that it's all an illusion, why not just 
allow the  illusions to guide performers to bring their audience to 
subjectivity?   

Wrapped in warm wood,

-tim"




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