Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 1995/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Impossible-to-play parts
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 17:03:24 -0500

Yesterday we had our first rehearsal of an all-Gershwin concert and most
of it was quite uneventful. I have played Rhapsody in Blue a gillion times
(and with my new found knowledge thanks to this list, I only play 6 measures
and then go to sleep), American In Paris (some tough parts, but no big deal),
Porgy and Bess arrangement of Robert Russel Bennet (Bennet was a genius at
arranging and everything lies just fine), an a work that I have never
played before.

By the way I am talking bass clarinet here.

The new work contains what I consider an impossible-to-execute passage
and it has it twice!! The work is "Cuban Overture" of Gershwin and the
first of the two passages occurs in m. 2 for 3 or 4 measures, and then it
repeats a measure or two later. After that things calm down a great
deal, though it is not the easiest piece to execute. But those first two
hits leave me prostrate.

I can't execute it. It requires speed that I find impossible to achieve. It
is not that the passage is insane. It is not. Instead it is just a brief
pattern executed at incredible speed over and over again for several
measures. I worked on it for an hour and cannot get it up to performance
speed. My coordination just falls apart at around 80% of performance
speed.

And so I thought (since this board has a tendency to get into issues that
don't interest me and so I begin to snore), that I would begin a new topic
entitled: "STUFF I JUST CAN'T PLAY!!!"

And I am going to make the first entry per the above comments:

1. Cuban overture (passages noted above)

Will the rest of you b.c. players out there tell me how the hell you play
this passage this fast?

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

   
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