Klarinet Archive - Posting 000555.txt from 1995/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Neidich, Pay, et al and ornamentation
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 12:42:31 -0400

David gave a very thorough perspective of several performances of the
Mozart concerto, and then asks a tough question: what constitutes
good ornamentation (and then phrases the toughest question of all;
i.e., what would Mozart have liked).

As for what Mozart would have liked, I neither know nor care. The
purpose of ornamentation has nothing to do with pleasing Mozart
were he present at my former performances of the work. I do not
improvise to emulate Mozart or to try and do it his way (though I
wish that I could know what it was he did). To do so is roughly
equivalent to my doing improvisations in jazz so that I mimic
Charlie Parker. That is not what a jazz improvisation is for, and
likewise, improvisation in classical music is not to please the
composer.

What constitutes good ornamentation is a question not dissimilar
to that asked about pornography of the U.S. Supreme Court, to which
one justice immortalized himself by saying, "I don't know how to
define pornography, but I know it when I see it."

I think I can tell good ornamentation from bad ornamentation when
I hear it, and, for the moment, that is the only test I am going
to apply to it; i.e., if I think it is good or otherwise.

As for when to improvise, the rules are fairly clear:

1) the invitation to improvise is greater in slow movements
than in fast ones

2) ornamenting an already ornamented line is contraindicated

3) repeated passages are explicit invitations to ornament;
thus any time a musical thought is repeated, either
immediatately or at a later point in the composition, the
player is invited to play the repeat in a fashion that
is measurably different from its original presentation

4) large intervals are an invitation to fill in between the
extreme ends of the interval

1) less is more

2) the purpose of improvising is not to demonstrate one's
technical capability, though one has to be competent to
improvise

3) improvisations that are the same for every performance
run counter to the general style of the period

4) improvisations should be made up on the spot and not
prepared in advance

You will notice that I have carefully avoided stating what I believe
the purpose of improvising is.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================