Klarinet Archive - Posting 000611.txt from 1997/01

From: "David B. Niethamer" <niethamer@-----.EDU>
Subj: To Be Sung Upon the Water (Argento)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 16:56:52 -0500

David Blumberg wrote (if all the attributing quotes aren't too confused
by now!):

>>> I remember seeing, hearing a piece entitled "to be sung upon the water"
>>> for soprano, clarinet, cello?
>>> Anyone out there know that one??
>>>
to which Mark Charette, FAQ-Master, responded:

>>I tried:
>>sung and water
>>as the search terms on http://sneezy.mika.com/clarinet/Databases
>>and out popped:
>>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>-----
>>Composer : Argento,Dominick (1927-)
>>Title : To be sung upon the water; barcarolles and nocturnes
>>Type : Trio
>>Composer's Sex : Male
>>Date :
>>Instrumentation : clarinet, high voice, piano
>>Arranger : Sue Thomas
>>Publisher : Boosey & Hawkes
>>Grade :
>>Comments : Piano reduction
>>--
The Argento is for clarinet, high voice, and *piano*, not cello. Mark,
I'm not sure where this "arranger" business comes from, or who "Sue
Thomas" is. Not shown anywhere in my copy. Texts by William Wordsworth.

It is not a piano "reduction" - real piano part.

Argento says "high voice". The original recording (Desto LP DC-6443) was
with tenor John Stewart, Donald Hassard, piano, and Charles Russo (NYC
Opera, Manhattan School, etc) clarinets (Bbsoprano and Bass). I've done
it with soprano aned tenor, and find the tenor version more satisfying,
due to the blending of the bass clarinet and the tenor voice, which is an
octave lower than the soprano.

Jonathan Cohler wrote:

>I've played this piece before, and as I recall, you have to double on both
>clarinet and bass clarinet.
>
>Nice piece.

IMO, a great piece. Yes, you do have to double, and Argento doesn't
exactly make your job easy. There's a lot of loud bass playing followed
by high, delicate soft stuff from the Bb. You really need to have a good
Bb reed, especially. I'm not a big fan of the bass clarinet. But this is
one of the pieces for which I'll find a reed and practice bass - I love
it. My favorite is #5 (there are eight songs), which uses no clarinet at
all - a gorgeous polytonal song "In Remembrance of Schubert" which makes
my spine tingle every time. If you can find the Desto recording, there's
a wonderful note about the piece from Argento himself.

>I think I heard David Niethamer play it in 1979 at the Lebanon Valley
>Clarinet Workshop. Hey Dave, am I right??

Hey, Dave - you're right!! A few times since, too.

In another post, Mark "the Database" Charette gave us a "little list".
I'd like to recommend Ned Rorem's "Ariel" to all who won't be too
depressed by the Sylvia Plath poetry. I got to rehearse this for Rorem
once, and he was very helpful, especially about the treatment of the
text, and all the options the singer has depending on their sort of
voice. The last of these songs is "Lady Lazarus", and the last line is
"Out of the ash I rise with my red hair...and I eat men like air!"
followed by a blood-curdling glissando from the soprano to as low a
"pitch" as she can manage.

On a more pleasant note, there's the Spohr "Sechs Deutsche Lieder", all
of which are charming. One of these is a "three note song", according to
my understanding, a sort of 19th century parlor trick for composers. The
harmonizations and clarinet embellishments hide those three notes pretty
well. Easy for almost *any* singer!! ;^)

Add a flute, and you can do Lester Trimble's "Four Fragments from the
Canterbury Tales". The Prologue, The Knight, The Young Squire, and the
Wife of Bath, in four terrific characterizations. Pub C.F. Peters.

There, all my favorite chamber music with clarinet and voice.

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
niethamer@-----.edu
dbnclar1@-----.com
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/