Klarinet Archive - Posting 000581.txt from 1999/05

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 00:58:39 -0400

If you'd really like to delve into the Premiere Rhapsody then I'd
suggest (from http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Debussy.html:
-------------------------------------------

"Courtesy of Larry Liberson:

A brief excerpt from The Music for Accompanied Clarinet Solo of Claude
Debussy: An Historical Analytical Study of the "Premiere Rhapsodie" and
"Petite Piece" by Dennis Quentin Nygren, 1982, Northwestern University.

You should be able to secure a copy of this from:

University Microfilms
300 N. Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48106

"One further example concerns the controversial notation in m. 201.
[...] displays this measure as it appears in (1) the clarinet/piano
autograph, (2) the Durand clarinet/piano edition, (3) the orchestral
autograph, and (4) the Durand orchestral score. [...] in three of the
four examples the first two notes of the triplet on beat three are
notated D#-E natural (written); only in the earlier Durand print (2),
first published in 1910, does the pattern appear as it has been played
by most clarinetists over the last seventy years (D natural-E flat).
Which notation represents the composer's intentions?

The "traditional" approach would favor the D natural-E flat notation.
This note sequence is heard in the majority of recorded interpretations,
including the earliest recording by E. Gaston Hamelin. Hamelin
apparently played the "Rhapsodie" for Debussy, and he also performed the
Paris premiere of the orchestrated version shortly after the composer's
death. Guy Deplus, who favors the "traditional" notation, informed this
investigator that Hamelin was a "very serious, scrupulous, and organized
man." He also argues that

"the first performance with piano was at the Paris Conservatory, for the
concours held at the end of the school year [July, 1910], and that
Debussy was on the jury. The piece was played [eleven times] from the
clarinet part edited by Durand, with the notes D natural-E flat, and one
continues to always play it in this manner."

A strong argument could also be made for the D#-E natural notation, as
it appears in both autographs and the Durand orchestral score. Debussy
had Durand send him a copy of the "Rhapsodie" (logically, the
clarinet/piano edition, rather than the autograph), so that he could
complete the orchestration while vacationing in August 1911. Why would
the composer change the notation in his orchestral autograph from the
way it appears in the printed clarinet/piano edition, if not to correct
an error? It also seems unlikely that Debussy made the same error in
both autographs.

One could also support this notation for purely musical reasons. D#-E
natural-G natural is the inversion of the last three notes of cell 1.
This exact cellular variant appears in the score many times, most
notably in the "cedez", m. 123, and enharmonically spelled (E flat-F
flat-G natural), in m. 203. In addition, it is difficult to justify the
concert C of the printed edition because this pitch is not part of the
underlying harmony. The striking dissonance of this C is not consistent
with Debussy's coordination of melodic and harmonic elements.

Ernest Ansermet and Pierre Boulez selected the D#-E natural notation for
their recordings with the clarinetists, Robert Gugholz and Gervase
dePeyer, respectively. Boulez and clarinet soloist, Robert Marcellus,
also introduced American audiences to this less familiar notation on a
Cleveland Orchestra tour in 1969."
----------------------------------------
I have not read the thesis (and would at this stage of my education
probably not be able to make much sense of it without extensive help
from my teacher).
-----------
----
Mark Charette@-----.org/clarinet
"Cards by Aimee", http://www.sneezy.org/Aimee
"The phenomenon is too variable for proper study" often
translates from "I don't know how to get musicians to do
anything twice the same" - A. H. Benade

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