Klarinet Archive - Posting 000082.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Roger Shilcock's message on audition
Date: Mon, 10 Oct 1994 12:03:26 -0400

For those not familiar with the story, I posted info about a conductor who
dropped a player from the audition list because, when asked to perform some
excerpts from the Mozart concerto, he did it on a B-flat clarinet.

Roger thinks that the conductor should have been the one who got fired and
that the performer should be judged on his performance skills; i.e., he might
have executed the work beautifully so why boot him out of the audition for
so minor an infraction.

I admire Roger's perspective on these problems. He always has a good
come back. But on this, I do not agree with him. I think it has to do
with what a player has a responsibility to do; i.e., simply play all the
notes, or to have a sense of the entire piece. Playing the Mozart concerto
on a B-flat clarinet says, at a minimum, that the player divorces the
music from the key in which it is written. "What difference does it make
which notes come out as long as the combination of them produces all the
tunes one needs to hear?" In my view, that piece cannot be done in any
key other than A major and still retain its structure. In any other key,
it is no longer the Mozart concerto, but is instead a work that has lost
the tonal center demanded by the composer.

To some, that is important. The conductor who bounced the clarinettist
was one of those. To me it is important too. But that does not mean
that we are right. It is simply one perspective as opposed to another.

The matter is not academic. There is an edition of the Mozart quintet
with all the string parts transposed so to allow the work to be played
with a B-flat clarinet. Is the audience hearing the work in its total
dress as conceived by the composer (who used A major for a purpose) or
isn't it the same piece.I don't think it is. And I would question the
overall musical judgement of any player who did it this way. It shows
an insensitivity to the relation between a composition and its key. At
least it shows that to me, but that's only my view.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
(leeson@-----.edu)
(dnl2073@-----.edu)
Any of the above three addresses may be used. Take your pick.
====================================