Klarinet Archive - Posting 000121.txt from 1998/07

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the V word
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 12:23:07 -0400

Dan--

Those are great questions. Would you be so kind as to provide the answers?
(This is not a snide comment--I'd just like to know). Is there a book
available (aimed at clarinetists) to provide these and more?

I have taken a ton of lessons over the years from some very fine/respected
teachers, all of whom neglected to mention this stuff.

kjf

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu]
Subject: Re: [kl] Mozart and the V word

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.82
> Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart and the V word

>
>
> Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
> > 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.
> >
>
> I heartily disagree with you here. You are stating that there is one,
and
> only one correct way to perform a piece. Considering all the
possibilities -
> simply the fact that there are many different recordings of the same piece
AND
> that the public accepts and purchases them - this statement is in the
realms of
> saying that "we are the only intelligent beings in the universe."

Please do not put your words in my mouth. I said nothig in the slightest
consistent with your interpretation. You simply believe what you believe
and any statements to the contrary are misinterpreted by you.

You are a free agent to do whatevery you wish, but with that attitude
you are going to have a ton of problems when you wind up playing with
people who know the nature of performance practice. I don't think you
are on top of the subject yet because all of your comments make vague
and imprecise references to "playing the way the composer intended."
When I hear fluff like that, I recognize that it is empty bravado.

Performance practice has little to do with playing the way the composer
intended. Instead, it is a set of rules that everyone contemporary to
that composer understood and put into their playing. If you want to
give yourself a test of this matter, think about what you would do
in the following cirumstances"

1. The text says "collando" and it's Mozart. What do you do?

2. You have a trill and it's Mozart. How do you begin it?
How do you end it.

3. You have a melodic passage in a slow movement and it's
Mozart. First should you improvise on the text and second,
if you decide to do it, what guides you in your improvisations?

4. You are asked to play K. 581 and the players ask you which
edition you wish to use. What's your answer?

5. In the c-minor serenade, K. 388, you are playing second
clarinet and a lengthy passage in the first movement has
an alberti bass in eight notes. They are no slurs, but the
bassoonist suggests that you slur them. What do you say?

6. In the piano/wind quintet, slow movement, you share a turn
with the oboe. How do you play it?

7. In the E-flat wind octet, K. 375, would it be OK to play
the first 8 measure by memory as you march in, already
playing, to your seats?

8. Which repeats do you take or not take in minuets with trios?
In minuets with two trios?

9. Should you do all repeats in variations?

10. Should you do all repeats? Why? Why not?

11. You are playing clarinet in Cosi Fan Tutte. How many
clarinets should you bring to the first rehearsal?

12. You are playing in the on stage band in the supper scene
of Don Giovanni. You have to come dressed in costume and play
three wind octets. How many clarinets should you bring with you?

13. You are playing in Magic Flute? Is there any reason to call
the personnel manager and ask what instruments you should bring?

14. You are playing Titus, 1st clarinet. Any special
considerations?

15. You are playing the Sinfonie Concertante, K. 297b and
are interviewed, being one of the solists. The interviewer
asks you to describe the clarinet part. What will you say?

16. You are playing a work of Mozart that has no dynamic at the
beginning. It is not a printer's error. Why dynamic do you
begin with?

These are all performance practice issues and you don't have much of a
choice
of what you will be saying or doing in these things. You are not a free
agent to make up the rules as you go along and if you believe you are,
then prepare yourself for a rocky career.

>
> > 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.
>
> A piece of music definately has an historical context. It was almost
guaranteed
> to have been developed because of the practices and conventions of the
time.Here
> is where I feel there is a conflict: We are no longer repeating these
same
> practises or conventions now, and therefore should we go back and attempt
to
> recreate the same performance for which the piece was originally intended,
we will
> fail miserably in creating the same atmosphere and understanding in the
> listeners. Sure, it may sound the same, look the same, even smell the
same. But
> the listener won't understand it the same way, because times have changed.
We now
> have electricity. Enclosed concert halls with large capacities, modern
> instruments, modern air conditions, different physical size, and so on.
So how, I
> ask, can two civilizations so different in all these aspects be expected
to "hear"
> the same thing when it is played?
> It's all in the interpretation of the listener, and this, I say, is not
> recreatable without locking the audience in a time warp for their entire
lives so
> that they are 18th century Viennese. (or whatever appropriate date and
locataion)
> Then your arguement will be valid.
> Until then, we must accept that we have changed, and that to give our
minds the
> same sensation as was had by our ancestors, we must stimulate it in a
different
> manner.
>
> > 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.
>
> I agree here, however it is not really relevant to the topic at hand
("Should a
> piece be performed only as its composer would have heard it")
>
> > 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.
>
> Again, completely right. We have no clue, and so statements as were made
are not
> useful.
>
> I am very much into achieving correct performance practises. In fact, I
will be
> going into early music performance next year (on recorder). I have been
less
> likely to follow performance practice with the clarinet as with the
recorder, for
> some reason. I will try to change that. But that is not to say that I
will try
> to exclude modern performance techniques and styles from pieces that do
not come
> by them naturally. i.e. I will perform and create anachronisms - and know
that I
> am doing so.
> Because I am a performer who is not performing for an audience who knows
the 18th
> century practices intimately. However, when I know such is the case (as
in an
> early music only concert), I will do my best to recreate the composer's
original
> intentions (which we know can change quite dramatically from 1st hearing
onwards).
>
> And in fact, I will even promote the early performance practises at other
times.
> But I will not limit myself exclusively to that one method.
>
> Michael
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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