Klarinet Archive - Posting 000182.txt from 1995/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Playing her favorite arias on clarinet
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 09:40:57 -0400

First, a welcome to Mickie who I gravely misidentified as a he on my
original positing to her. I apologize to her and also to her husband.

Mickie says that one of her passions is opera and she wants to be
able to play the famous arias on her clarinet in the future. I share
with her that that feeling seems to have been in the minds of many
clarinet players because there was an epoch when all it seemed that
clarinet players did was to play these incredible fantasys based on
this or that opera, or this or that composer. They were invariably
the same general form in that they would begin with a brief introduction
(on the piano of course), at which point the clarinet would be introduced.
It would play the main theme of a well known aria, "Caro nome," for
example. It was invariably played unadorned and with the simplest possible
accompaniment. All was calm. All was quite.

THEN, IT WOULD HIT THE FAN!! The trick was to see how many notes per cubic
inch it was possible to sqeeze into the shortest amount of time. Variation
after variation would follow with each getting harder, wilder, crazier,
faster, more dense, etc., until the end, at which point the soloist
lay on his back in full collapse and the women in the audience swooned.

I am not being sexist in this last sentence. This was the Victorian era,
and women were supposed to swoon when overcome with emotion.

These fantasy pieces are not so easy to come by any longer, but they can
be found here and there, often in collection. There is a giant one called
"Fantasy on Rigoletto" or something like that, and as a child I used to
play one called "Cujus Animam" which was from a religous work of Rossini.
There is a lovely one arranged by Simeon Bellison from the Beethoven
variations (for 2 oboes and English horn) on Mozart's La Ci Darem la Mano
(for clarinet and piano). It never seemed to end.

I was glad when the epoch lost favor. I could never play the really hard
ones!!

Be patient, Mickie. They will still be there when you are ready to take
one on.
====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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