Klarinet Archive - Posting 000222.txt from 1995/03

From: Thomas Labadorf <Labadorf@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Yet MORE Weber
Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 02:14:19 -0500

Nichelle,
This may be a dollar short and a day late, but here it is anyway.

Well, it seems there are two ways you can go in interpreting Weber (and any
music from past periods). One is to interpret this music using contemporary
equipment and mind set. Today's audience and performer's standards are
different (not better or worse) than those of the mid 19th century.
Therefore, we should expect this period music to be performed differently
today than originally conceived simply because we have different values. I
believe that life in the mid 19th c. was at a slower pace than it is today,
and life's paces affect the way we approach it. In other words, play the
music the way it makes sense to you, and it will probably make sense to
whoever is listening to it.

If you are looking for an authentic performance, you have to decide how
authentic. Are you interested in just tempo or do you want to completely
reproduce a performance as it was originally done, including using period
instuments for solo and orchestra? What improvisation, if any, was
costumary? (You can ask Dan Leeson about this.) These are the answers you
have to seriously research. If you want to play like a 19th c. clarinetist,
you have to think like one.

A good start is the Harvard dictionary (ed. Don Randel). "Polacca [It.].
see Polonaise." You see, you were right. A polonaise is a dance form. How
did this dance step accent beat patterns in the music? (Sometimes dances had
rhythms that could only be approximated by standard notation.) A good
resourse is The Clarinet: Some Notes on Its History and Construction by
Geoffrey Rendall. It has some great plates showing pictures of clarinets
much like the one Baermann used. Someone else on this list suggested finding
the original manuscript score to see what Weber originally wrote. Check the
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians - always a great start in any
project. This could start you down a seemingly endless path that would give
you better answers for your questions than other clarinetists opinions. I
don't mean to diminish anybody's opinions, but if you pursue this avenue,
people will be asking YOU for answers.

Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.

Tom L.