Klarinet Archive - Posting 001140.txt from 1998/01

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Re: Re: Adagio for clarinet choir
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 05:40:47 -0500

At 11:00 PM 1/26/98 EST, Tom Labadorf wrote:
>The decision to transcribe or perform a transcription is a judgement call,
and
>(as I mentioned in an earlier post) I wouldn't trust just anybody's
judgement.
>This is not a black and white statement. There are great transcriptions that
>work as well or better than their original, and Gary Van Cott mentioned a
>couple. I have no problem trusting the judgements of Maurice Ravel, Gunther
>Schuler or any other perhaps unknown who would demonstrate this good
judgement
>in 1) knowing *what* to transcribe, and 2) knowing how to transcribe.
>
>I am a member of a band that must perform a different program each month.
>Programing transcriptions is an inevitable way of filling out repertoir and
>avoiding repetition, but too many of these pieces are what I would consider
>compromises.
>
Sometimes compromises have to be made. Often they are made to keep the
music from being impossible to play. This, of course, must be done with
great care and discretion. I have played two different transcriptions of
"L'Italiana in Algieri" for example. One was quite good, the other
suffered from excessive simplification. But the second one would be
appropriate for lower-level school bands, and would still expose the
students to many good things in the music. But record it for commercial
distribution? I don't think so.

>I support everybodies "right to choose." I'm not telling anyone what to do,
>just advising caution. If in doubt of the quality of a transcription, listen
>to the original then listen to the transcription. This should make you
>judgement clearer.
>
A transcription does not have to be superior, or even equal, to the
original to be valid, good music. On several occasions I have performed a
work in band with which I was unfamiliar (Fingal's Cave, Rienzi Overture,
Polka and Fugue, for example), and then gone out a bought an orchestral
recording of the same piece (mostly because I could not find a band
version). I like them both, and don't bother with judging which is better.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.