Klarinet Archive - Posting 000593.txt from 2001/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Recognizing what is on the page
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 05:52:49 -0400

On Sun, 16 Sep 2001 23:08:37 -0400, dnietham@-----.edu said:

> on 9/16/01 10:54 AM, David Hattner wrote:
>
> > If your secondary material is in thirds below the primary material
> > (and this also applies to playing 2nd clarinet in orchestrta fairly
> > well) I find it best to 'shadow' the principal player. In other
> > words, drop your dynamic and play 'into' the sound of whatever
> > instrument you are playing below.
>
> As a principal player for most of my professional life, I can tell you
> that I'd actually like more volume/strength/support - call it what you
> like - when the second player is playing in octaves (or any interval,
> for that matter). True, I appreciate a sound that matches mine, and
> blends well.

This looks inconsistent, but actually isn't, I'd say. Sometimes the
music wants what David H is describing, sometimes what David N is
describing. A really good second player will be able to do both, and
moreover to recognise when each is required. And as David H pointed
out to start with, a really good first player, on any instrument, will
be doing the same thing with all the rest of what is going on.

One way of putting it is to say that it depends on the 'register' of
what the first player is playing. If the register is one of 'standing
out' (or perhaps 'personal') -- say, IMO, the opening of the slow
movement of Brahms III -- then the rest of the winds, including the
second clarinet, should defer. On the other hand, as in the slow
movement of Dvorak VIII, or the 'Hebrides' Overture, sometimes the two
clarinets should sound more equal, because the musical line *is* the
pair of them, not just the first shadowed by the second.

Sometimes, too, the first clarinet is just the top line of what can be
thought of as a 'chorus'. Opinions differ about when this is
appropriate, but I don't think of the opening of Tchaikowsky's 'Romeo
and Juliet' as a clarinet solo. Rather, it's a solemn wind chorale. To
play it as a clarinet solo with accompaniment destroys the us-ness of
its statement.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... If the police arrest a mime, does he have the right to remain silent?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org