Klarinet Archive - Posting 000898.txt from 1999/12

From: klara <klahall@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Staccato (was, Tschaikovsky No. 6, 1st clarinet - Responses)
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 23:10:21 -0500

On Sun, 26 Dec 1999 17:06:47 GMT Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay) writes:
>On Sun, 26 Dec 1999 00:33:19 EST, klahall@-----.com said:

>So, just to be clear: you were talking about a legato involving the
>tongue, then. (That's a use of the word 'legato' that I'd need spelled
>out here.)

Yes. Sometimes this tongue legato is *almost* indistinguishable from a
slur.

>So then, when you do that slowly, the tongue moves gently, and is
>precise. You'd written before (quote level adjusted to conform with the
>above):
>
>> > > Then i practice slow motion legato; half speed or quarter tempo,
>> > > then immediately play at/near tempo. many passages sound good
>> > > with this because at faster tempo the interruptions are in
>> > > proportion longer and sound more staccato.
>
>...so the idea is that the tongue does the same sort of action, and
>therefore in fact stays on the reed longer in proportion.
>
>Is that right?
>
Exactly.
I usually to draw this TaaaaaaaaaTaaaaaaaaTaaaaaaaa and TaTaTa. and
the T's can be thick or thin lines.

[snip]
>I think *we* need different names for staccato, too. I wrote, in
>http://www.sneezy.org/Databases/Logs/1999/09/000395.txt as follows, in
>part:
>
>> I want to hear a staccato that makes it clear to me why it is being
>> used. There is brilliant staccato; and also staccato to make notes
>> light, staccato to make notes heavy, staccato to make audible, bubbly
>> staccato, 'travelling' staccato and many more.

These word descriptions will be very helpful!

And amplify and refine the "all music is either a song or a dance".
Which kind of emotion/motion.

>> I could have said
>> virtuoso staccato instead of brilliant staccato and not been
>> misunderstood, but this is a detestable use of the word 'virtuoso'.
>> True virtuosity consists of the ability to make a piece sound
>> necessary in its own terms, so that the response of the public might
>> well be to say, "What wonderful music!" more than, "What a wonderful
>> player!" Thus staccato should always be studied relative to a musical
>> context.

As ideally any other aspect of playing to become music.

I don't enjoy hearing players who can tongue fast but who have specific
and unvarying tone color when tongue sixteenth. As sometimes happens in
that final section of Der Hirt auf Felsem.

>...and we need more detailed examination of how we might do that.
>
>A metaphor I use to establish that the proportion of note to silence may
>be variable is a rather silly one, to do with fairy princesses.

Silly often works.

>The idea of the metaphor is that the staccato-cycle:
>
>> note/silence/beginning-of-next-note ....(corrected)
>
>is represented by 24 hours in the life of a two fairy princesses.
>
>They're fairy princesses because, as we know, a fairy princess rests
>very lightly on her bed. In fact, she's so sensitive that according to
>one fairytale, she can feel a dried pea under a dozen mattresses.
>
>In the metaphor, the proportion of time the princess is asleep in bed
>corresponds to the proportion of time the tongue rests on the reed --
>gently, you notice.
>
>One fairy princess gets up late, and goes to bed early, while the other
>gets up early and goes to bed late.
>
>(There can be lots of acting-out for younger students.)
>
>The life of one princess corresponds to short staccato, while the life
>of the other princess corresponds to lightly interrupted legato.
>
>But the point is that there is no difference in the lightness with which
>the two princesses rest on the bed. A sequence of abrupt, short
>staccato notes has just the same tongue action as a 'legato staccato' --
>which is what I take it you were talking about above, Ann.

I laughed out loud. Silly with a point.
You sir, are a magician.

At the beginning of one workshop, Kato' Havas commented to the group,
"You look so grim and serious. If i were your instrument , i would run
and HIDE." She often refers to the instrument as a living creature that
complains when pinched and poked.

>This is quite counterintuitive, I think. Short staccato sounds as
>though it corresponds to violent tongue action.

And there are times that the violent tongue sound is called for in the
music and effective. A spice, not the main dish.

>
>So the metaphor is sometimes useful.

Life without metaphor is indescribable.

sometimes i can make up lyrics for a passage for students. (which my
college teacher did) one i remember because it fit perfectly "i play the
SAX-o-phone, it has a LOVE-ly tone"
The teacher i work with now has visual imagery. He often describes
certain colors or kinds of light. He identifies differing articulations
as beads on a necklace. Some are side by side, some have spaces. The
beads can be varying sizes, materials, etc.

annhall

Much of useful simplicity is counterintuitive--the simplicity that is
beyond complexity.

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