Klarinet Archive - Posting 000467.txt from 1999/07

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Poulenc Sonata for 2 clarinets
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 10:29:44 -0400

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 19:53:06 -0400, fsheim@-----.com said:

> Well, since I saw the performance of the Poulenc Sonata for two
> clarinets performed in Ostend, I thought I would pull out my copy and
> give it a go. Not bad, except for a part I never was able to cut at
> the correct tempo. It is the 32nd note figure in the third movement
> that appears for the last time in the next to the last measure.
> Regular fingerings just don't work for me. Can anybody suggest some
> alternates for the e-f#-b that fly? Also the A part's c-d-g.

Might depend on your instrument, Fred, and I don't know about flying,
but how about:

e/f#/b (overblown throat Bb)/(add 2 top trill keys)/(normal)

I find that one works very well.

c/d/g (normal)/(overblown open g)/(normal)

or, (normal)/(2nd trill key down from top)/(normal)

I've usually used the open one, but the second one works too.

The open one helps you play with a rather rowdy quality that suits the
piece, in my view. (Rather like the 'cross' high b/d thirds in the
Nielsen concerto.)

Apropos regular/fake fingerings, there's an effect I once noticed that
has been useful to me to recall. It's that, when you've practiced a
passage using a fake fingering for a bit, you sometimes find that the
regular fingering has got a lot more tractable. So looking for fake
fingerings can actually help with the regular ones!

I don't really know the explanation for this. But fake fingerings often
make more obvious demands on flexibility of tongue position and
embouchure, so it seems plausible that we learn to vary those more
effectively, and when we return to the regular fingering we reap the
benefits of that.

Added evidence for this is that I often find that the solution to a
'difficult' passage begins when I become aware that the uneven response
of the instrument is not the unevenness that the structure of the
passage calls for, and what I therefore subconsciously want to hear.
Suppressing the 'too brilliant' note, or encouraging the 'too dull'
note, so that the underlying patterns are represented tonally, usually
makes what seemed like a fingering difficulty turn out not to be a
fingering difficulty after all. Rather, it's a control problem that may
involve subtle changes of diaphragm-action, tongue-position or
embouchure (or combinations of these), and will yield to a simple 3-note
exercise.

With this realisation, the whole problem lightens up and often
goes away entirely.

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

...The early bird catches the worm...but the second mouse gets the cheese.

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