Klarinet Archive - Posting 000313.txt from 1995/09

From: Laurence Liberson <hardreed@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Orchestral excerpts
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 23:31:00 -0400

>I would like to place a vote against using the Bonade Orchestral Excerpts
>for Clarinet. There is a small disclaimer at the bottom of a beginning
>left hand page that Bonade put there saying that these were the way
>players of his time played. Upon comparison anyone will find that
>articulations have been changed, and there are numerous note mistakes.
>Is there any truth to the fact that Bonade indeed transcribed all these
>excerpts from memory (hence the mistakes)? Although this text is a
>fabulous example of musicianship, with many excellent examples of a way
>to play these excerpts, I don't think it is a wise choice to be learning
>from this book.
>
>On the other hand learning from the parts is a good idea--very accurate,
>but expensive if you consider the amount of parts you will need.
>
>Very often today the competition for jobs is so keen that it isn't wise
>to walk into an audition playing anything other than the articulations on
>the page. This is something a committee could count you out for (as well
>as a million other things). Do anyone else feel this way?

>Christopher Zello
>Milwaukee, WI
>czello@-----.edu
>http://www.uwm.edu/~czello/
>

There are a lot of different orchestral excerpt books around (Bonade,
International, Cailliet, etc.)...trouble is that many of them have errors in
them!

These books are good as a general guide to the "exposed" parts of the
repertoire, but they are not a substitution for the complete part...which
brings us to the next problem: From which edition should one learn a part?

I'm sure some of you have practiced from your own parts in your studio only
to be 'shocked' at seeing different articulations or maybe different
notes(!) when you took your seat at a rehearsal or and audition. (The same
thing can be said for scores!).

Hopefully, you will find some sort of consensus in studying the parts,
scores and (horrors!) recordings to give you a good idea as to what is
"correct".

Frankly, the best way (and unfortunately, the most expensive) to learn the
repertoire is by studying the full score: so many people take auditions
without having a clue as to what the rest of the orchestra is doing! While
it is, of course, most necessary to have command of your own (clarinet)
part, it is imperative that you are aware of how it fits in the texture,
etc. of the rest of the band.

Admittedly, I have not taken an audition in some years (and don't plan on
taking one anytime soon -- at least in this life, hopefully!), but I have
spent a good deal of time sitting on the other side of the screen. While
each and every committee looks and listens for different things, I can tell
you my own personal feelings, for what it's worth:

If you want a chance -- any chance at all! -- of landing a job in a symphony
orchestra you must

1. Play in rhythm (and you better count out your rests carefully, 'cause we
are!).
2. Play in tune with yourself...If you can't play close to in tune with
yourself, you'll be hopeless trying to play in tune with the rest of us!
3. It really does help if you know the tunes...We're also listening for
balance -- real and inferred. We *do* know the tunes and therefore, we will
know if *you* know them. However, if you are a very talented player, we
would probably not hold that against you. (Articulations, too...if we feel
positive about a certain player, we might ask them to play the excerpt in
question once again with our preferred articulation, for instance.)

After that, it *really* gets subjective, i.e., sound, style and such.

I can't speak for anywhere else, but we have fair auditions (all behind a
screen -- prelims *and* finals) and we want the best person we can find. We
have hired terrific musicians who have never played a professional job in
their life (including a couple right out of high school!).

We go out very freely and spend a lot of $$$ on horns, reeds, mouthpieces,
etc. If you want to strive to get a job in an orchestra, go all the way and
buy the full parts, scores and recordings of the standard 20 to 30 audition
pieces and dedicate yourself to learning them well. It's one thing to learn
the solos out of an excerpt book -- it's quite another to learn those same
solos, in context, with the full part. You'll never be surprised that way!

Larry Liberson
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
hardreed@-----.com