Klarinet Archive - Posting 000839.txt from 2000/08

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Phrasing With the Harmony
Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 07:20:23 -0400

Tony Pay wrote:

>In his excellent post on the third movement of Beethoven 8, Ken Shaw
>said, in part:

>> PHRASING IS BASED ON HARMONY

>> Harmony is the basis of phrasing. A chord is like a bone in the
>> skeleton. Changes of chord are like joints. The muscles have a shape
>> and can move parts of the body only because they are attached to the
>> skeleton. To understand how phrases work, you must know what the
>> underlying harmony is and what it's doing.
>>
>> Thus, you should take a pencil and look at the harmony in the score.
>> Put in a vertical mark every time it changes. These marks will show
>> you where your phrases begin and end, or at least change direction.

>I think it's worth while disagreeing with this bit, but in a very
>specific way.

[snip]

Tony is right, as always. I wrote that section as I did, and left out Tony's
points, I suppose partly out of laziness and partly because the post was on
the verge of being too long already.

In my defense, it seems to me that phrasing in accordance with harmony has to
come first and is 90% of the job. You can't phrase against the harmony
unless you know what the harmony is in the first place. You can't be "free"
in a vacuum, but have to be free *from* something you know, and as a
considered, informed decision. I would insist that a student learn to hear
and phrase with the harmony before going on to what are to me even more
advanced ideas.

It's the same principle as requiring a student to learn scales and be able to
play a passage perfectly evenly, so that

grow out of and part of the line - but have to separate

Bernie

will be in The C.

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