Klarinet Archive - Posting 001011.txt from 2000/10

From: Shouryunus Sarcasticii <jnohe@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Repeats
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 23:53:18 -0400

On Tue, 17 Oct 2000, Neil Leupold wrote:

> Hey Bill, I know a book that might interest you. It's by a couple of
> guys named Donald Grout and Claude Palisca. The title is "A History
> of Western Music," and it's a quick read, which should provide you with
> an insight or two on how composers dealt with melodies and thematic
> development over the course of a few years.

Quick read?! For WHO?! My edition is TWO INCHES THICK! Heck, there's
so much stuff in that book that it takes not one, but TWO courses at NMSU
to casually glance through it.

(I was actually hoping we'd use it more for the Period Study Courses, but
so far I've taken Classical Intensive, and we use a different text...ah,
the ways they find for us to spend more money.)

In all honesty, though, Bill - get the Grout. It's a friggin DEEP read,
but it covers what you NEED NEED NEED to know...and THEN some. (So much
so that I have trouble retaining it all.)

As for thematic development, my main suggestion is to start in the baroque
period and see what Vivaldi and co. started with the concerto
grosso...later that will evolve into what we call 'sonata form,' which, I
would guess, is where you find your themes in relatively high repetition
(the Classical Period of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven is where this form
is perfected). After Beethoven's 3rd symphony, you may find repetition
exhaustive, and that's mainly because Beethoven was a meticulous freak who
did things his own way, but loosely conformed to sonata form even still.
Once you have a good understanding of how sonata form works, I think you
might change your view on repetition - it's a rather ingenius technique,
really, and allows much more creativity than say, a rondo (not that the
rondo is particularly inferior...K622's rondo is a brain bender to say the
least!).

J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SCSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
"Never put passion before principle. Even when win, you lose."
-Miyagi-san, KKpt.II

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