Klarinet Archive - Posting 000203.txt from 1995/04

From: "Steve L. Gordon" <SGordon688@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Copland
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 1995 23:51:49 -0400

I have 2 different album covers that offer some information, including a
reference. Both offer a quote from Copland: "The Clarinet Concerto is cast
in a two movement form, played without pause, and connected by a cadenza for
the solo instrument. The first movement is simple in structure, based upon
the usual A-B-A song form. The general character of this movement is lyric
and expressive. The cadenza that follows provides the soloist with
considerable opportunity to demonstrate his prowess, at the same time
introducing fragments of the melodic material to be heard in the second
movement. Some of this material represents an unconscious fusion of elements
obviously related to North and South American popular music. (For example, a
phrase from a currently popular Brazilian tune, heard by the composer in Rio,
became imbedded in the secondary materal in F major) The over-all form of
the final movement is that of a free rondo, with several side issues
developed at some length. It ends with a fairly elaborate coda in C major."

Here is a reference: quoted from the album cover. "Arthur Berger, discussing
the Clarinet Concerto in his book on Aaron Copland, remarks that since the
work was written for Benny Goodman, 'it inevitably exploits the "hot" jazz
improvisation for which that clarinetist is noted. But the very episodes
that evoke the sharp-edged, controlled, motoric style of Goodman's brilliant
old sextet are often the ones recalling most strongly the stark, disonant
devices that gave Copland the reputation for being an esoteric in the early
thirties...The jazz elements make their entrance into the Concerto in the
course of an extended cadenza that connects the two movements, and they
dominate the fast, second part of the work. The tender first movement is of
lyrical cast, with the grace of ballet and the general mood of a slow dance.
It was not at all surprising that a work with a first movement of this
character and a second movement evocative of jazz shoud have established
itself by 1951 (shortly after its concert and radio premieres) in ballet
repertory as musical underpinning for "The Pied Piper" of Jerome Robbins.Yet,
with all its readily assimilable exterior and the unproblematic dance content
that render it sericeable to the theater, the slow section, like the jazzy
part, has its subtleties, too. These are contained largely in the
instrumentation, which is confined to strings, harp and piano. From a piano
recuction of this score one would never suspect the luminosity that is
imparted to the string sonority by the delicate edging of figures in the
harp"

The Album is "Copland" on Columbia Materworks, 1963. It has the concerto and
Old American Songs.

   
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