Klarinet Archive - Posting 000252.txt from 1996/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Olivia asks about the 2nd Weber concerto
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 1996 21:41:55 -0500

Olivia has gotten some terrific advice on what to do with the many problems
of the Weber 2nd concerto. I can add nothing to amplify what has been said.
Instead, I take a different turn.

Olivia, the Weber concerti was written at a time when florid, highly
ornamented music was the norm. I am not being critical, just repertorial.
And if the composer made the work florid, the soloists made it even more
florid with homemade additions the work. And the next generation of players
then added even more, gilding the lily until it became a caricature of what
it was when the composer created it. This is particularly true of slow
movements where the norm was 57,832 notes per cubic cm.

Most of the editions of Weber 2 have retained these accretions and, on buying
one, it is impossible to know what is Weber and what is 2 centuries of
addition.

Perhaps, just perhaps, some of the difficulties that you are trying to deal
with exist because some phenomenon in 1875 didn't find the piece difficult
enough.

I think you should consider examining an edition that claims to be Urtext.
You'll be shocked when you find it, and that may help you more than trying
to play what exists in 85% of the published editions.

It was excesses such as these that caused the middle and late Romantic
composers to insist that their music not be ornamented. And then, after
a while, the whole purpose of ornamentation got lost in the shuffle.

The next time you go to a band concert and hear some trumpet player do
the Carnival of Venice variations ending up with a triple tonguing
finale, you will know exactly what it was that the Romantic era found
disconcerting about the whole business.

Go buy an Urtext edition and see if that helps.

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

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org