Klarinet Archive - Posting 000074.txt from 1996/07

From: C&K Hill <hutchill@-----.AU>
Subj: Re: The tongue and music of the classic period
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 1996 21:53:14 -0400

Welcome back Dan - to your continuing health!

I couldn't agree more with your exhortation to obey the slurs - but not just
as "tonguing" but as the phrasing. (Students and performers: Read Antony
Pays's article in the latest edition of "Early Music"- his expression is a
bit obtuse- heaving going - but the concepts seem really appropriate.)

A good way to get an idea of this approach is to practice the exercises
starting from page 120 in the Leferve Method. (reprinted by Minkoff, Geneva
-it is in a series of methods from the Paris Conservatoire at the bginning
of the 19th century, and will be in many university libraries). The etudes
starting on page 132 are particularly good for this.

If you play them using the the slurs as phrasing- lightening the ends of ALL
of the slurs even the really short ones - your playing and your mindset will
be changed after about forty minutes. Then play the opening of the Mozart
Concerto and it will seem completely different.

OK, OK the method is from Paris in 1802, not Vienna in 1791. But it does
give us an idea of the wealth of detail that players were being taught to
use in completely mixed patterns. The Backofen method gives a picture of
articulation that is coloured by the technical possibilies and limmitations
of the instrument. Similar thematic material is articulated differently in
different keys because some intervals would be almost impossible to produce
legato- here tonguing is indicated so that there is a tiny gap in which the
player slides their fingers. (and hopefully doesn't miss!) It is used to
strenghten the sound of some forked fingerings, or draw attention away from
the occasional bad note. (I'm giving away trade secrets here.) The Baerman
editions of Weber demonstrate this approach par excellence.

So, on the rare occasions we come across a whole passage of semiquavers say
in the Mozart concerto from bar 134, or the 2nd clarinet part in the Gran
Partita theme and variations, variation II - might we not adopt something of
this approach here? While I have quite a quite fast and very accurate
tongue, I find these passages actually sound best when there are a few
slurs. I am more able to accomodate the melody of the first clarinet in the
Gran Partita. The first clarinet does not play like a metronome!

The alberti in the concerto section bubbles along when I tongue all the
notes on my period clarinet and this seems to suit the character at this
point - but on modern clarinet the all tongued version very rarely sounds
bubbly to me. (Neither does the all slurred version!) Perhaps in this
passage a few slurs would help get the modern player get same musical
effect. It reminds me of the difference between the spirit and letter of the
law.

The onus on us is to be very discriminate- there are hardly any passages in
the rest of Mozart's output that need any interference.