Klarinet Archive - Posting 000534.txt from 1995/09

From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Jay asks about the Prokovief
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 13:15:27 -0400

Dan,

When you discussed the Prokofiev Overture's pedigree and its
klezmer basis, I dug out an old message I had sent you back in Klarinet
antiquity (actually in November 1994) when there was a similar
thread of inquiry about the Overture.

With your indulgence, I'm retransmitting the portion of my
message relevant to 1) my theory about the style and 2) the
genesis of the composition based on one seemingly authoritative account.

Regarding the orchestral version, I have a recording with a
British orchestra, in which Keith Puddy is the clarinetist and Vladimir
Ashkenazy is the conductor. The clarinet part sounds identical to the one
in the sextet version, but not having seen the part, I would defer to
someone like you who has seen both parts.

My old message on the Overture (suitably edited) is as follows:

>From josassoc@-----.com Mon Sep 25 15:35:39 1995
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 01:12:42 -0800 (PST)
From: Josias Associates <josassoc@-----.com>
To: leeson@-----.edu
Cc: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET
<KLARINET%VCCSCENT.BITNET@-----.EDU>
Subject: Re: Some advice on Prokovieff Sextet

On Tue, 8 Nov 1994, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> I always played it like the Brahms quintet; i.e., serious music, dignified,
> dull.
>
> Now with the resurgence of Klezmer I want to rethink the piece. Is it a
> Klezmer work? Should it swing or is it irrelevant to Klezmer performance?
>
> I just don't know.

Dan,

I have performed this thing numerous times, and the style
question seems to come up less among clarinetists than it does
with certain string players who expect to be hearing traditional
middle-European klezmer music. They seem to think that, if the
clarinetist merely plays the solo part dirty or unrefined, the piece
will miraculously become the klezmer music they are certain
Prokofieff intended.

While the music does have some klezmer-style construction, it is
my opinion that it was the composer's intent to write a piece of classical
folk music and not a klezmer-style selection. He built in folk quality
in several ways. One was through the use of extreme dynamic contrasts
such as in the repeated use of exaggerated arched phrases (up and down
hairpins). Another way was in the frequent use of throat-register
passages, which, according to my theory, he believed were not possible to
play smoothly and refined, because of the limitations of the instrument.
What he hadn't bargained for was the improved technique of modern
symphony players who seem to be able to make everything sound smooth and
refined. A third way in which he built in folk quality was in the
remarkable second theme, a melancholy plaintive lament introduced by the
cello -- a lament containing an unforgettable and haunting set of chord
progressions.

> Furthermore, when the piece began to be popular in the 1040s (and Prokovieff
> was still alive then), it was rumored that the two main melodies of the piece
> (which are NOT folk songs, but simply sound that way) were creations of
> Simeon Bellison who was then 1st clarinet with the NYP.

I've heard various stories about the genesis of the composition,
some asserting that the themes were completely original Prokofieff
inventions. In his book, "Guide to Chamber Music," author Melvin Berger
has this to say (pp. 338, 339) about Prokofieff and the Overture:

"...........While living in New York in the fall of 1919, he was asked by
a group of former classmates from the St. Petersburg Conservatory to
write a piece for them on Jewish themes. The group, called Zimro,
consisting of a string quartet, clarinet, and piano, had come to America
to raise money for a conservatory in Jerusalem by giving concerts of
chamber music works by Jewish composers. [My note here: Method books
assembled by Simeon Bellison in the 1940s identified him as being a
member of the European touring group, "Zimro."] Since Prokofieff was not
Jewish and did not know Jewish folk themes, they gave him a notebook
filled with traditional melodies to use as a source.
"Prokofieff refused at first; he did not approve of writing music
based on borrowed themes. But one day as he was glancing through the book
of Jewish songs, 'to while away the time,' he began improvising at the
piano on a few of the melodies. Suddenly, he said, he 'noticed that
somehow whole sections began to take shape. I worked all of the following
day and sketched out the entire overture.' It took him ten more days to
complete the score, and Zimro gave the highly successful first
performance in New York on January 26, 1920."

> I'm open to all suggestions and that includes (1) leave it alone - it's
> Brahms, (2) swing like the Klezmaniacs, etc.

Dan, my feeling about this piece is that it doesn't require the
addition of schmaltz to succeed. Although I can't prove it, I'd be
willing to bet that Bellison played it as written, with devoted attention
to the Composer's dynamic contrasts, which impart a good representation of
the folk style within a classical framework.

Connie

Conrad Josias
Engineering Consultant
Josias Associates
La Canada, California
josassoc@-----.com