Klarinet Archive - Posting 000224.txt from 1995/06

From: Dick Williams <dwilliams@-----.EDU>
Subj: first things ...
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 1995 17:07:02 -0400

O.K. I gave my $.02 last year; but, like everybody else, I
want another $.02.

Musical performance is typically a complicated and tripartite
activity: it usually involves a composer, a performer and an
audience. It is even more complicated when the composer and
the performer are required to communicate through the print
medium.
LESSON: The printed page presents opportunities for errors
and print cannot completely express the musical intent of
the composer.

Errors in print come from composer through the score (eg.
The FireBird), or on a part from a copyist (as I believe
is the case in the Tchaikovsky 6-th) or, more recently,
from the computer (last week again, a measure which was
short 1/2 a beat). Performers like Dan Leeson take great
pains to understand what the composer meant and composers
like Tom Izzo take great pains to eliminate these errors.

It is wonderful when the performer can discuss
with the composer the intent. I remember once asking a
composer whether some written sextuplets were not to
be double triplets. He answered that he had no rhythmic
concept in mind nor even any pitches! He simply wanted
a rapidly upward moving "whoosh" from the ww's. ---
LESSON: Sometimes the musical intent cannot be reduced to
the printed page.

When we cannot talk with the composer about the printed
music, we can use other sources to discover intent. What
equipment was available when the music was written? Who were
the performers of the time?
LESSON: Performers should consider the cultural milieu at
the time composer wrote the piece.

Most of us can more accurately produce the intent of Mozart
on a modern Boehm or Oehler clarinet than on a 5 key or a
Mueller 14 key clarinet. Some of today's performers DO USE
the period instruments; even more use (modern)Oehlers for
Central and Eastern European composers and Boehm for other
composers.
LESSON: Not all of us can afford the wide variety of
equipment for which music has been composed.
LESSON: Even if I had clarinets of every type (and in every
key) I wouldn't do justice to the composer's intent with
those instruments!

A personal note. Sometimes I am unable to play what appears
on the page. I come as close as I can on the equipment I
have available. I find many composers amazingly receptive to
this attitude.

Dick Williams, dwilliams@-----.edu

   
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