Klarinet Archive - Posting 000026.txt from 1996/02

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Improvisation and other things that clarinetists don't do
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 21:12:40 -0500

At 4:36 PM 1/29/96, ncrocker@-----.EDU wrote:
>> But that brings me back to the question: What's to discuss? :-)
>
>Why not discuss this? Sure, so most of can agree that improvisation in
>performances of Mozart's music is required. How many musicians can *do*
>it? How many performances and recordings involve spontaneous
>improvisation? As I do a mental inventory of the recordings and
>performances I have heard of Mozart's music, I can think of only a few.
>I think it's part of playing Mozart correctly. I also think that those
>who do it are still in the minority.
>
>It seems to me that somewhere along the line, people stopped improvising,
>and with the recent interest in authenticity, the practice is being
>revived. Is this true? How do we learn to improvise? If all of us with
>half a brain can agree that Mozart REQUIRED improvisation, then why
>is it that most musicians don't perform it that way? If it's so
>obviously necessary to performance, and not done frequently (or
>well) then why shouldn't we discuss it?
>
>Nichelle Crocker
>
>

I agree completely.

When I said, "What's to discuss?" I was emphasizing (through irony) the
point that this should indeed be the very center of our discussion and our
mission as clarinetists. This is one of many problems that I see with the
present world of clarinet playing.

Very few players do it (improvisation in classical music, that is), and,
clearly, all should. It goes along with the many other things that most
clarinetists don't do, and should. And it falls back in the laps of
clarinet teachers that don't know how to do it (and should), and therefore
don't teach it.

Let's take a few examples. How many clarinetists do you know that:

1. Produce and use all kinds of vibrato well?
(Did you ever know a violinist, cellist, oboist or flutist that
was not taught vibrato?)

2. Circular breath?
(Do you know any professional violinists that cannot play
double stops or saltando bowing?)

3. Double tongue?
(Do you know any cellists that cannot play spiccato?)

4. Play difficult concertos from memory?
(Do you know any pianists that use music when performing
Rachmaninov's 2nd Concerto?)

5. Play expressively and with great color?

6. Improvise in appropriate contexts?

I think all of this points to the fact that the general musicianship level
of the clarinet playing profession is substantially lower than that of
other instruments.

And one of the causes of this, in my opinion, is the overly orchestral bent
of clarinet pedagogy. In other words, we spend too much time in music
schools working on orchestral excerpts and not enough time on solo and
chamber music, and score analysis, and study of OTHER instrumental writing
or voice writing....

I know severally highly reputed, very well known, clarinet teachers that
will actually have their students spend entire years (sometimes two or
three) doing nothing but orchestral excerpts! What a waste! (How many
violinists, pianists, sopranos, cellists, harpsichordists, gazoo players do
you know that do this?)

This is not music making.

We have institutionalized the mechanisms to keep clarinetists musically and
technically handicapped. Until we change the institutions, it won't
change.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! But those are the sad facts.

--------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net