I recently read a novel whose content was not to my taste, but I liked the title: Voice Lessons. The idea is that the implied author of a book must have his or her own distinctive voice. This is a problem that I faced during my career as a translator, because the "voice" of the implied author must somehow represent the real author in the original language of the text.
I don't have a good singing voice. My range is limited, and I don't sing in tune very well. That's why I play instruments. Each instrument gives me a voice.
I have just returned from a twelve day dance seminar in northern Greece. I'm not a dancer - my wife is - but I enjoyed watching the dancing and listening to the traditional, local Greek music, played on folk instruments like the zorna, the lyra, the gaida (bagpipe), and the kaval, as well as on Western instruments like clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, and string bass. I took my clarinet on the trip, thinking there might be an opportunity to play with the local musicians, but the music they play is so different from the music that I play, there was no hope for me to join in.
Nevertheless, I did play clarinet almost every day, practicing long tones, a few scales and arpeggios, and some songs that I know by heart. I was a decent clarinet player during my teens, but I gave it up. I knew I could never reach the level of virtuosity expected of a clarinettist by contemporary composers, and I didn't like that music very much anyway (sour grapes). It was nice to get back to the sound of the clarinet, a voice I have largely neglected for a long time. I own a decent vintage Selmer USA clarinet, and it sounds pretty good.
