Klarinet Archive - Posting 000834.txt from 1997/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: klarinet-digest V1 #339
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 13:40:34 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.75
> Subj: Re: klarinet-digest V1 #339

> > <<One story we heard from Ozawa was that Bernstein, had parts for the
> > Philharmonic, arranged so-that it was in 2/4 or 3/4 (I forget which)
> > and the orchestra played the accents in the appropriate place.>>
>
> I have had the distinct displeasure of playing under a conductor who
> wanted to "help" the players by re-barring anything with mixed meters,
> which includes nearly everything by Stravinsky. This practice, of course,
> is no help at all, and destroys any semblance of the intent and effect of
> the music. For some reason, such conductors never want the orchestra to
> play syncopations, giving a downbeat on every accent.
>
> Always beware of conductors who say that they are going to do something
> out of the ordinary in order to "help" you. Almost invariably, what they
> actually want to do is help themselves.
>
> Ed Lacy
> el2@-----.edu

I admire Ed's comments, but he is too verbose. He says, "Beware
of conductors who ..." He could have shortened that to "Beware of
conductors."

As for rebarring, I once played the Prokoffiev quintet and it has a
movement with all kinds of meter complexities. But there is also
in the publication a rebarred version of the movement. None of us
could play the rebarred version. It was in 2/4 and infinitely more
difficult than the one with the wild rhythm changes. And even
when we got the 2/4 version to work a little bit, it was corny
and awful.

>
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================