Klarinet Archive - Posting 000172.txt from 1997/06

From: "Craig E. Countryman" <cegc@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Improvisation (3): ATTN: Dan Leeson
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 16:55:12 -0400

Well, actually the first article I read on the subject was your article
on OCR. This rather surprised me: people improvise on Mozart? So I
looked into the subject a little further by reading about Mozart
himself, and about his time period. As it turned out, improvisation was
very common in the period, and it's exclusion is a lot more
unbelieveable than its inclusion. Then, I went to the local symphony
concert and heard the concert played. The soloist, who happens to be a
dear friend and a masterful player, hit every note on the page, but
there was no spontaneity, no improvisation. Since I have begun to look
at the concerto, in a rather informal matter, I thought that to make it
truly "Mozart" I should improvise, and that through playing the piece I
could perhaps learn some improvisational skills that would be applicable
in other areas of my playing.

To be honest, I have not really sat down and discussed this with my
teacher because I have been focusing on other things, such as Copland,
Poulenc, and Bass Clarinet, and Mozart has taken the back burner.
However, after doing some research on the subject it interested me, and
I wondered what others thought of it, if they have applied it, and some
suggestions and how to apply it and how to get started...

I suppose I will put the ball back in your court for now, is there
anything else I might consider or tell you?

Craig