Klarinet Archive - Posting 000976.txt from 2001/02

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Just how important is the minuet, anyway?
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 13:55:33 -0500

In his treatise "On Playing the Flute," Quantz gives a list of tempos, as
gauged by heartbeats. Minuet tempo figures out as 120 beats per minute.
While, Quantz came a few years before Mozart and was in an insular and
conservative court, this tempo is at least an indication of the practice.

120 is slower than we usually play these days. As a practical matter,
though, I always try minuets at 120, and it works most of the time, including
in K. 581. Certainly the tempo was quicker in purely instrumental minuets,
such as Haydn symphonies, In K. 581, however, I feel a strong dance affect,
which calls for a slower tempo.

I play only the pickup and downbeat of the K. 581 minuet in 3 and then go
into 1, or at least a mixed 3-in-1. There's a dreadful risk of just
chugging along if you stay in 3. Particularly at 120, you need to avoid
heaviness. In the second strain, at measure 15 it's tempting to drop into 3
for the repeated G-F#-G/F#/G/F# re-transition to the opening figure, but it's
safer, and I think more idiomatic, to stay in 1 and keep any ritard nuance
moving, especially since you play it 4 times, and anything big will get worn
out by repetition.

I listen to the first trio in 1, and I think the string players do better in
1, even with the leaps and complex harmonies. It needs smiles, not frowns.

The second trio has for me the strongest dance affect of all. It's closer to
a la"ndler than a minuet. I think it just has to be felt in 1 rather than 3,
with the "Viennese waltz" swing -- strong first beat and slightly early
second beat. The phrases are like being on a trapeze -- each is a continuous
swing, which is nearly impossible in 3.

Has anyone done research on Viennese waltz and Austrian la"ndler tempos and
instrumentation? I'd like to see that applied here.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org