Klarinet Archive - Posting 000682.txt from 1997/05

From: Alan Stanek <stanalan@-----.edu>
Subj: Breathing in the Baermann book
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 05:45:57 -0400

April Shallenberg wrote recently about the breath marks in the Baermann
_Complete Celebrated Method for Clarinet_. The edition she most likely
refers to is by Gustave Langenus.

The suggested breath markings are very helpful in teaching phrasing.
Another useful edition of these etudes is the Baermann 16 Melodic Etudes
Opus 63 as found in David Hite's _Melodious and Progressive Studies_,
Book 1, published by Southern Music Co., San Antonio. Hite has deleted a
few of the breath markings found in the Langenus edition that don't make
musical sense IMO. He also has added metronome markings that help a
great deal in giving the student a more definite tempo.

Much music from the period when these etudes were written is based on
four bar phrases, often in 2 + 2 bar sections. Often, the first 4 bars
are followed by another 4 bars in a sort of question/answer format.

This brings us to another topic - types of phrases. When two phrases
seem to flow together they form a _period_ or "sentence". These periods
can be parallel or contrasting, etc. If the phrases are contrasting, one
might suggest to students that they try to play each phrase slightly
differently in order to preserve the contrasting nature of each phrase.

April, good luck as you play and learn from these wonderful melodic
etudes.
--
Alan Stanek, Professor of Music at Idaho State University
Phone: 208-236-3108; Fax: 208-236-4884; E-mail: stanalan@-----.edu
http://www.isu.edu/departments/music

President, International Clarinet Asociation http://www.clarinet.org
Come to the ICA 1997 ClarinetFest at Texas Tech University, July 9-13
http://www.ttu.edu/~music/clarinetfest