Klarinet Archive - Posting 000065.txt from 2001/09

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] ornamentation for Keith
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 17:54:53 -0400

There are a number of things to consider.

1. Less is more.

2. The invitation to improvise is greater is slow music than in fast
music. And in very fast music, there is almost no invitation at all.

3. Repeated material is almost always an invitation to improvise.
Consider (just as an example), the third measure of the solo part of K.
622. It's a very simple measure: f-d f-d.

There you have a case of an immediately repeated passage and the second
one is a candidtate for improvisation.

4. Leaps, particularly those with held notes where first you play low
and then you play high (or vice versa). In K. 622 (again solely as an
example) there are four consecutive measures roughly in the middle of
the first movement. Each measure contains a whole note. The four
measures are: b-flat (4 beats), c-sharp (4 beats), a (4 beats) and
d-sharp (4 beats). You have all sorts of room here for improvisations
usings arpeggios, runs, goodness knows what else.

5. The purpose of the improvisations are lost if the material is not
impetuous. So if you prepare your material in advance, prepare several
different improvisations for each figure and decide which one to use
only when you arrive at the passge. It is supposed to be SPONTANEOUS
improvisation, not prepared in advance and then repeated the same way
every time. What you are supposed to be demonstrating is your
imagination.

6. The word "improvisations" and "ornamentation" mean two different
things. When the composer writes a trill or a grace note or a mordent,
the composer is ornamenting, and you are supposed to know enough to
interpret his/her ornaments intelligently. When you add a trill or a
grace note or a mordent NOT in the printed text, you are improvising.

In general, ornamenting is the province of the composer. Improvising is
the province of the performer.

7. The improvisation of an eingang (and you have two in K. 581) requires
you to end on either the 7th or the 2nd of the scale before everybody
else comes in. You are supposed to be resolving a dominant 7th chord
and you cannot just end wherever you please. Look at the invitation for
an eingang at the very end of K. 581 in the measure that ends the Adagio
variation and immediately precedes the final Allegro. The eingang
starts on the penultimate note and it ends on the ultimate note. Try to
keep it short. About 10 notes at most.

8. If you are not scared half to death when you do this thing, then you
are not really improvising. Two people should know if you were scared,
you and the person who does your laundry.
--
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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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