Klarinet Archive - Posting 000965.txt from 2000/10

From: "Franklin Kercher" <kranwli@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Repeats
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 00:53:58 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: William Wright <Bilwright@-----.net>
Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 8:44 PM
Subject: [kl] Repeats

Many composers have done their thing with a simple melodies by Handel,
Hayden and Mozart. These are usually called "Variations on a Theme by
Mozart" etc. Try listrening to one of these and it may give you some ideas
that can be applied to your piece.

The conversation about proper key signature and major vs. minor
started me thinking about something else.

The melody that I wrote for myself was primarily to exercise my own
playing weaknesses -- triplets on the upbeat, crossing the break at
inconvenient moments, exercising my little fingers, and so forth.
But the truth is that I like my little melody, even though it's
only 14 bars long. So how would I extend it if I wanted to attempt a
complete piece of music? Where would I go with the theme? Or would I
add a new theme and attempt to splice the two of them together? When do
variations on the same theme become boring?
For the last couple of days, I have been listening to a classics
station (thank goodness for public broadcasting!!) with this question in
mind. How do (did) world class composers handle this question?
I am really surprised to notice how much thematic repetition there
is in orchestral music. Same theme, repeated many times with different
instrumentation and/or different harmony in the background.... but
still, the same theme. What really drove this home to me today was
Ravel's Pavanne for a Dead Princess. Beautiful music, enjoyable to
hear, I wish I could write like that, but where does it go? Nowhere,
IMO.
I don't mean that all orchestral music is this way, but it's
surprising how large a percentage of it is -- at least, how large a
percentage of the music that gets played.
This leads me to my final thought. If you're writing a solo for an
instrument that can't play chords, then you can't coax extra bars out of
instrumentation or harmony (except in the melody). Melody, which
includes rhythm of course, is the only tool available.
This gives me considerably more respect for Three Pieces for
Clarinet Solo, and so forth. A frequent attitude is: "What skill! This
composer managed an entire orchestra so well!" But perhaps it can be
said just as easily: "Short on melody, so the composer took the easy way
out and added instruments instead."

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