Klarinet Archive - Posting 000825.txt from 1998/10

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Three Pieces
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 19:32:38 -0400

On Tue, 13 Oct 1998 12:51:00 -0400 (EDT), hschen@-----.edu said:

> > On Thu, 08 Oct 1998 22:27:27 +0100, Tony@-----.uk said:
> >
> > > Just a few things to think about:
> > >
> > > Stravinsky said they were 'snapshots' of improvisations.
> > >
> > > Why is the loudest dynamic in the second piece, mf?
> > >
> > > 'How many people' are there in each of the movements? Are there
> > > *any*?
> > >
> > > Following on from this last, what high-level analogy might there
> > > be between these three pieces and the three movements of the
> > > Schumann Fantasiestucke?-)

> I saw nobody contribute their thought on these interesting issues.
> Perhaps Tony would like to talk a little bit more about it? The three
> pieces is one of my favorites.
>
> Hsuan-Yi Chen

A related discussion is one about 'register'.

I once heard a talented young woman clarinettist, in a competition that
I was adjudicating, play a piece of music called, 'The Willow Tree'.
I said afterwards to her that if that was the way she played 'The
Willow Tree', I'd be interested to hear her play 'My Passionate Affair'.

This sort of thing is deeply misunderstood by some otherwise talented,
and indeed famous performers. Heinz Holliger springs to mind.

How would *you* play the musical equivalent of, "Would you like to have
a cup of coffee with me?"

You could say that a way of thinking about possible registers is to
group them under the headings 'personal' and 'narrative'. (I don't have
a developed taxonomy -- perhaps there is some terminology in studies of
literature.) How does that sit with the two pieces 'The Willow Tree'
and 'My Passionate Affair'? How about the Stravinsky, or the Schumann?

By the way, surely someone can do better with the 'mf' question than
what's been suggested so far!

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
tel/fax 01865 553339

... 90% of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at.

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