Klarinet Archive - Posting 000865.txt from 1998/11

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fingering Quiz #1
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1998 07:20:34 -0500

I think this is probably going too far. The passage is never solo for
clarinet - even in the "echo" passages that follow the fortissimo ones it is
unison with the low strings. I don't know how awkward this passage is for
the bassoons (in the fortissimo measures), but it isn't especially bad for
the strings. This is not to say that the angularity and jumpiness wasn't
intended to build a sound painting of the gnome(s) in the painting. I'm
certain this was Mussorgsky's intent, but it's too long a leap to the idea
that the passage's awkwardness for Bb clarinet was a basis for Ravel's
orchestration of this passage.

Karl Krelove

----- Original Message -----
From: John Dablin <johnd@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] Fingering Quiz #1

>I don't have any great technical insights, but I do have a thought about
>style. The passage is music describing a gnome (or gnomes, I'm not
>sure), and if you hear the piece these gnomes move about with sharp,
>jerky movements, rather clumsily. I don't think you would want to play
>it too elegantly and smoothly. I wonder, was Ravel so clever that he
>deliberately scored the phrase to be difficult to play evenly?
>--
>John Dablin
>Aylesbury UK
>
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