Klarinet Archive - Posting 000073.txt from 1998/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 1998 05:19:39 -0400

I believe this to be a thoughtful note with some very interesting
elements to it, but one point is, in my opinion, rife with error.
See below.

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.85
> Subj: [kl] Mozart and the V word

> OK, I've kept quiet about the VIBRATO thing for years, as I have always felt
> that there is no one correct answer, but this gets into my field of
> "expertise" - assuming I have one.
>
> There seems to be a common misapprehension that prior 1800 nobody used
> vibrato. Some of the blame can be put on the success of the "early music"
> movement in getting across the message that the heavy vibrato of latter
> times was not used by pre-romantic instrumentalists. This does not mean that
> vibrato was not used, it just was used differently. Through out the 18th C.
> it was considered an embellishment, just like a trill or turn. You used it
> on selective notes, and in what they would have called "good taste" -
> generally the longer notes in slow movements. At least that's the impression
> one gets from the string and woodwind tutors of the time, such as the one by
> Mozart's Pop (the early clarinet tutors that I have seen don't mention
> vibrato pro or con). The key is not to use it on every note (i.e. somewhere
> in between most modern string players and clarinetists).
>
> Finally, there is nothing wrong with playing a piece in a manner
> inconsistent with the way it was performed at the original concerts, just as
> long as you understand what you are doing, and are not pretending to be
> playing it as composer x would have imagined it. In a non early music
> performance, you should play the piece in the any manner that most allows
> you to project the emotion you intend to the audience. No good 18th century
> composer would disagree with you on that.

There is a great deal wrong with playing a piece in a manner
inconsistent with the way it was performed at the original concerts.
In fact, if you execute in this fashion, you do not understand what you
are doing.

A piece of music is not a collection of notes that can be executed
in any way that pleases the performer. A piece of music has
historical context and cannot be divorced from that context. That
context includes, but is not limited to, performance practices,
interpretation of markings that are consistent with their definition
at the time of the work's composition, and something called "style."
To play a Mozart work in a Brahmsian style is to compliment neither
the work nor the style. It's a gimmick, a show off element, but not
intelligent music making.

People who play a piece "in any manner that most allows you to project
the emtotion you intend to the audience" generally have no idea what
it is they are doing with an instrument in their hands. Their attitude
is ego-driven and reverses the roles of composer and performer in terms
of importance. What the performer thinks is not as important as what
s/he knows. And the slightest knowledge of performance practice mandates
that a performance divorced from the practices of the epoch in which
the work was written is doomed to artistic and musical failure.

To suggest that any 18th century composer would agree with such a
questionable thesis signs your view with someone else's name? How
do you know what an 18th century composer would agree to? It is
generally the case that the less one knows about performance practices,
the less the importance given to them.

>
> Steve Goldman
> Glenview, IL
>
> sjgoldman@-----.com
>
> ---Original Message-----
> From: Alexis [mailto:jisa@-----.com]
> Sent: Sunday, July 05, 1998 12:06 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Beginners and Reeds, K. 622
>
> snip..
>
> Tristan wrote:
> <<Also; dare I speak the evil, try a little bit of vibrato on the dolce
> sections, see if you like the
> sound there... >>
> Not evil precisely, but is vibrato in a Mozart clarinet concerto really
> appropriate? It seems a bit anachronistic to me.
>
> Alexis
>
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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