Klarinet Archive - Posting 000201.txt from 1993/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Mozart and the clarinet
Date: Sat, 27 Nov 1993 12:46:17 -0500

When I first registered for this most delightful board, I indicated
that among the things that I would like to have a discussion about was
playing Mozart on the clarinet. Specifically, I suggested that a
discussion of performance practices for music from the classic period
would be a very worthwhile thing and that there was a lot I needed to
know about the ways to perform Mozart.

I got back two very interesting comments, one from my pal Diana in
Ithaca and one (I apologize for forgorgetting the name) from Ball
State University. Both of them suggested that a knowledge of
performance practice was uneccesary and that it was better
to play the music in a way that satisfied the player rather than
a set of seemingly arbitrary practices from the late 1700s. That
is what I think you said, but perhaps I misunderstood you.
If so, I'll eat a lot of crow and you can send me a pie in the face.

So now what I amot of cr to do is put down some point that might
be appropriate to this discussion so that we can have
have a terrific, global conversation that has some substance rather
than a shoot-from-the-hip opinion about a subject so important to
clarinet players. Here are what I think should be the basic elements
of the discussion (though I will back-pedal all the way to the Pacific
Ocean if anyone wants to bring up something else -- I'm not the boss,
just a participant).

In order to play any of Mozart's solo clarinet music, there are three
things for which the player must be adequately prepared:

(1) the technical excellence of his or her playing; this is a given
and not something that requires a lot of discussion.

(2) the text that one will use in playing the work; this is a non-
trivial issue that deals with the fact that much of Mozart's solo
clarinet music is lost and what we play from are editions from the
early 1800s that have a number of questionable items associated
with them such a phrase marks, dynamics, and even actual notes.

(3) the practices to which we, as performaers, will adhere during
the execution of the work, practices which have changed substantially
during the last 200 years and include a variety of topics, some small,
some very big; i.e., improvisation, the playing of repeats in minuets,
the difference between lead-ins (of which there are many) and cadenzas
(of which there are NONE!! in any Mozart solo work), etc., etc.

I suggest that the vast preponderance of clarinet players who are about
to undertake the performance of any Mozart solo clarinet work, pay
the bulk of their attention to item 1, maybe a bit to item 2,
and little if any to item 3. I am also asserting along with my
suggestion that that is a very poor way to run a clarinet railroad.

All opinions on any or all parts of this discussion will be treated
with courtesy. But all facts and evidence brought in to support
those opinions will be treated with much greater respect.

I close with this remark: most clarinetists feel that they are
equipped to give a factual opinion on a Mozart work if they have
heard it or played it. I once played a concert with a fabulous
player who asserted (on being given a new edition of the work to
be played), "Don't tell me how this piece goes. I've been playing
it for 30 years."

I assert that mere performance of a work does not give a player
any special knowledge of the work outside of how the melodies
appear. It does not provide them with any insight on what
constitutes a characteristically correct performance of that work
unless they have also spent time dealing with textual and performance
practice issues. No where is this need shown to be of greater
importance than in both Mozart's concerto and the clarinet quintet
where a vast body of discussion has arisen about how to play the
cadenzas in these works, despite the fact that there is not now, nor
has there ever been cadenzas in these works. That there are fermatas
which invite something is clear. But what is being invited are not
cadenzas. And this matter is infinitely more subtle than simply
a question of the name of the thing that is supposed to be done at
those junctures of the work. That is what happens when one gets to
the opinion that a knowledge of performance practices is not relevant
to a performance of certain works.

This is all my opinion folks (with some evidence to back it all up),
so no flames!! Just good, healthy discussion from which we can all
learn (myself being ready to learn the most). It is not easy to
discuss this topic dispassionately because we all feel so strongly
protective of this music and we get pissed off when someone comes
along and wants to do it in ways that we think degrade it.

We are all friends, no?

Dan

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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