Klarinet Archive - Posting 000594.txt from 1998/07

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: The Mozart concerto and Mark - or _any_ young student
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 1998 12:53:39 -0400

As some of you know, from time to time I teach all the woodwinds. In the
case of all our instruments (except the saxophone - thus far at least I
haven't been subjected to Mozart for saxophone) I find it very difficult
to deal with a situation where a high school student has played the Mozart
concerto (or concertos in the case of the flute).

One almost always come to the time when the college student must study
these works. Personally, I tend to save them for the senior year in
college, because the musical difficulties are so great that I want to wait
until the student has gained as much musical maturity as possible.

Almost invariably, the student will protest, "But, I already played that -
when I was in HIGH SCHOOL!" Most of them take it as a definite insult
that a professor will ask them or force them to play a piece which they
consider of a level of difficulty of a "high school" work. Then, when
they find out the level of detail with which I want them to consider the
work, they become bored or impatient or both.

What is the solution? Should we ask teachers of high school level
students not to assign Mozart? I don't think that will work. There are
several factors at work when a teacher assigns Mozart to a 15- or 16-year
old student. There may be a "vanity" factor at work here - "My student is
playing _Mozart_." Some students may have pushed or agitated their
teachers into assigning Mozart because some other player they admire has
played it.

Perhaps at a minimum, teachers could forewarn students that they will be
expected to play the work again during their college years, and give them
an idea of why this is the case.

To my way of thinking, the Mozart concerto for any woodwind player's
specific instrument is something that should remain in the repertoire for
life. Anyone ought to be able to have the Mozart concerto ready to play
with two weeks notice, and we can continue to learn more about playing it
throughout our lives.

I will slightly disagree with Dan Leeson on one point. When we listen to
orchestral auditions for woodwind players, as we will be doing in a few
weeks for flutists, I don't object to listening to Mozart over and over
again. In fact, our repertoire list for auditions _requires_ the
exposition of the first movement of the appropriate Mozart concerto as the
solo piece. It's not that everyone has to play it the same way, or that
we have a pre-concieved notion of how it should be played. But, one can
tell within a few measures many things about a player by listening to
their rendition of Mozart. Rhythm, technical facility, tone production,
articulation, musical sensitivity, how much thought the player has given
to the way he/she plays the instrument, and much more. This is where you
can separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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