Klarinet Archive - Posting 000014.txt from 2000/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Beginnings of crescendos, ends of diminuendos
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 08:54:17 -0500

An illustration of the differing sounds relating to

(1) complete reed closure and

(2) lack of complete reed closure

is what happens at the beginnings of crescendos and the end of
diminuendos.

(I'll call these differing sounds 'sound1' and 'sound2' in what
follows.)

An example occurs in the first movement of the Schumann Fantasy Pieces,
on the second page 2/3 of the way down, where a pianissimo statement of
a version of the main theme by the clarinet falls to rest on a written
F#. prior to a crescendo to the final, desperate climax in the piano
before the fall into acceptance at the end.

In my view the effect of this passage is immeasurably enhanced if the
notes that precede the F#, and the F# itself (over a still, pregnant
piano chord) all have the same quality. Further, in the case of the F#,
this quality must be that of "being able to crescendo". Only then is it
possible to achieve a dramatic connection between what comes before the
F# and what the F# grows into, allowing a poignant release into the
ending.

The sound of the F# must therefore be *sound1*. Otherwise the sound
*changes quality* as it crescendos, because at the higher dynamic the
sound is inevitably sound1.

This sound1 is not so easy to achieve in pianissimo. So there has
arisen a habit of making an unwritten crescendo to the F#, which solves
the connection problem, but (I would say) throws away too much of the
magic stillness that Schumann implies by his scoring.

The quality is rather like the Debussy 'doux et penetrant' I mentioned
before.

In the final passage the transition to sound2 and then silence (the
final diminuendo) is not difficult in principle, though it may demand
particular attention to the control of intonation.

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

... "Bother", said Pooh, as he fell into the nitric acid bath

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