Klarinet Archive - Posting 000106.txt from 1995/03

From: David Gilman <dagilman@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Please help - Mozart K.622
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 1995 20:45:40 -0500

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>Date: Thu, 2 Mar 1995 21:50:33 -0500
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>From: "Stephen C. Baker" <SailDesign@-----.COM>
>Subject: Re: Please help - Mozart K.622
>Comments: To: Klarinet@-----.bitnet
>To: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET
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>
>Hi. I'm a sophmore in highschool. I'm looking for a
>kind-hearted fellow clarinettist to give me some advice.
>I'm going to be playing Mozart's Concerto K.622 for
>the RI Solo and Ensemble Festival and I was wondering
>if anyone could give me any tips. I'm playing movements
>two and three and the thirty-seconds in the second
>movement are giving me nightmares! There's also a question
>of tempo in the third movement. On my music it says that
>the quarter note@-----. The only person I've ever heard
>play this piece (on record) is Jack Brymer with the
>Academy of St.Martin-in-the-Field. He plays it quite
>a bit faster. What do you guys think? Fortunately,
>it's the most fun I've had playing in a long time
>or I'd have gone nuts!!
>
>I don't mean to bore you with questions, but... have any
>of you know any thing about Berklee College of Music? I've been thinking
>of applying there and doing concurrent enrolement my senior
>year of highschool (If I get in!) Is the thought worth it?
>
>I have one more favor to ask and then I'll go away...I also have
>to do a report for Algebra (ugh!) and I was wondering
>if any one out there had any thoughts on "MUSIC AND MATH"
>as a subject for a paper. Please, Please, Please help me!
>
> Thanks bunches:-) Lis Baker
>
>
Lis,
I think what someone said before about those 32nd notes was right:
feel free to take them slowly. This strikes me as one of the very few
places where you can get away with a bit of rubato in Mozart. Just let your
expression come through, and have fun with it.
As for the third movement, my teacher takes it at MM@-----.
Personally, I think 80 works fine too. Just keep it lively and fun, as well
as very precise. Your accuracy and musicality are much more important than
one editor's metronome marking, which is really just a guideline anyway.
There are lots of great references on music and math. Most of them
involve acoustical physics. Don't get scared--you don't need that much math
for much of it. Here are some suggestions:

1. The Scale and the Harmonic Series
a. Harmonics and Instrument Tone: Each note is not just one
pure tone, but an entire harmonic spectrum, with each partial tone
determined mathematically. And, proportions of each harmonic partial
contribute to the unique tone of a given instrument. You can include some
neat graphs for this too.
b. Harmonics and Intonation: How are notes related? A note
is brought up one octave by exactly doubling its frequency. The other
intervals are also determined by simple ratios. How do we "overblow" a
note? We jump to a higher harmonic partial in the harmonic spectrum of our
instrument. Just like a string player produces a harmonic by gently
touching the string in a mathematically determined place. Or, why is the
sum of a perfect fifth and a perfect fourth not exactly equal to an octave?
[There are lots of interval comparisons like this that don't come out
equal.] The difference is called a "comma," and you can read all about it.
This is very important to us clarinetists because our register key takes us
a twelfth above the fundamental (lowest note in the harmonic spectrum),
instead of an octave. Why? And how could this create intonational problems
for us relative to flutes and saxophones who overblow an octave instead?

2. Instrument Design [more advanced]: why are tone holes undercut?
How are horn/woodwind bells designed? There's something called the "horn
equation" that determines the last one.

Those are just a few possible topics. You can come up with many
more. Some good places to start are general books on the physics of music.
Many are written for music majors who've had just about as much math as you
have. Check the forewords or prefaces of various books on the subject in
your local library to see just how much math you need to read them.
_Scientific_American_ has published a great collection of articles on the
physics of music by Arthur Benade on the acoustics of woodwinds, brasses,
strings, etc. But these are quite advanced, and you should probably look to
a general reference first. I have a good one at home entitled
_The_Acoustical_Basis_of_Music_ or _The_Acoustical_Foundations_of_Music_
[something like that]; I forget the author's name. In any case, I'm sure
your local library has something like it.
I hope that helps you get started. If you have any more questions,
just e-mail me directly. Good luck!

David Gilman
dagilman@-----.edu

   
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