Klarinet Archive - Posting 000509.txt from 1996/04

From: Teri Herel <EnsHerel@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Rabaud Solo de Concours
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 23:12:37 -0400

Tsk, tsk, tsk!
I call you a snob!

We have a vast wealth of literature from those "usual SdeC's". While I love
the Mozart and Brahms, I'd get mighty discouraged if that was the extent of
my clarinet repertory!
When I call to mind many of those "usual SdeC's", it makes me both sad and
irritated that these works are lumped together in such a nonchalant and
flippant manner. It makes me wonder if the lumper came to this conclusion
himself, or is merely parroting something he heard and is proud of himself
for knowing the phrase "French fluff".

While some of the Solos de Concours are indeed crap, the entire genre is not.
All I object to is the catagorizing of ALL of the Solos de Concours as
unmusical fluff.

In a message dated 96-04-17 22:08:48 EDT, niethamer@-----.BITNET writes:

>I own all of the above, because my undergrad teacher was a Solo de
>Concours freak - one of his only shortcomings ;-p. Give me Brahms and
>Mozart any day, and call me a snob!!
>
>IMHO, the Rabaud is a valuable piece for kids who don't have the fingers
>to do the Messager, with all those nasty F3 scales 6 to the beat faster
>than humanly possible. The Raboaud has 1.) a cadenza, 2.) a slow movement
>with nasty notation but not hard to play (teaches reading) 3.) an Allegro
>that requires a long melodic line over the whole range of the instrument,
>and 4.) last but not least, a page of the obligatory French finger
>wiggling that isn't impossible for an aspiring HS clarinetist to play. As
>Greg Baker pointed out, it's a bit more "musical" in effect than the
>usual SdeC.