Klarinet Archive - Posting 001351.txt from 1998/10

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Tempo di Polacca
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 11:18:44 -0500

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.edu>
Date: Friday, October 30, 1998 9:59 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Tempo di Polacca

>Mr. Galper,
> You have a legitimate point. However, there is room for other
>tempi. Back then, musical terms were used quite freely and inacurately.
>For example, the Clarinet was spelled clarionet, clarinette, klarinet in
>ENGLISH publications. Mozart often re-spelled names such as 'stodla"
>(instead of Stadler, his basset-horn-playing friend). The terms "alla
>Polacca", Polonaise, Tempo di Polacca, etc. could mean virtually ANY kind
>of Polish dance. Chopin's polonaises were not always in the tempo of what
>dancers NOW know as a polonaise dance.
> I personally think that the feeling of a dance is much more
>important than an exact metronome marking. Look at the last movement of
>the Weber Qintet. It is also an "Alla Polacca". 94 is just too slow for
>it. ( and it is in duple meter, not triple!)

True terms are fluid and often used inaccurately and perhaps 94 is too slow
but on the other hand at tempos of 160 or more, it no longer sounds like
music at all.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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