Klarinet Archive - Posting 001030.txt from 1998/01

From: Edinger/Gilman <wde1@-----.com>
Subj: transcriptions
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 19:50:28 -0500

In reporting my first-time experience of a clarinet choir arrangement of
Barber's Adagio for strings, I perhaps erred in assuming that there were
four parts played (I _did_ write the number with a question mark), but
this was influenced no doubt by the fact that the original piece, as Tom
Labadorf pointed out, was from a string quartet suite. Tom also
astutely suggested that a literal transcription would result in
screeching at the climax, but in fact there was no screeching, probably
because the piece was modified (shortened, I think, as someone else
suggested), and in fact the "climax" was over before I had realized it
(I was waiting for the "effect" too, but it never came, and just as
well). But of course it didn't have the same impact as the original.

Tom asks why transcribe from original instrumentation if that's not
what the composer intended? The answer, of course, is "So that
clarinettists can play Adagio for Strings, flutists can play K 622,
concert bands can play the William Tell Overture, etc." Is it good
art? Maybe not. Is it required to experience music in its perfect form
in favor of not experiencing it at all? I don't think that either. I
believe it was Vaughan Williams who addressed this issue in general when
he declared (referring to the playing of music), "If something is worth
doing, it's worth doing badly." I believe he was a lot more than
half-serious about this. But where do you draw the line? How
democratic can art be?

Haven't we been here before on this list?

OK, Mr. Leeson, do your thing. (Please!)

Bill E.

PS - I heard a musicologist some years back say that Barber was not at
all pleased that the Adagio always seemed to be associated with sad
occasions, esp. deaths. It was not written with that intension at all.
But naturally, when Barber died, you heard the Adagio in memory of
Barber for a week on the radio and in concerts for a year.

   
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