Klarinet Archive - Posting 000532.txt from 2001/10

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: "successful faking"
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 03:21:04 -0400

On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 10:04:07 -0500, Stan Geidel <sgeidel@-----.net>
wrote:
>
>I find this concept of "successful faking" rather disturbing. First, if
>you are "faking," then clearly you are not "successful" in playing the part.
>Second, and more importantly, it seems to me that if you set out to "fake
>it" convincingly, you would need to prepare. Why not put that preparation
>time into learning the actual part?
>
>Lacy, am I missing something here? Perhaps you are talking about very
>specific items, such as playing an occasional harmonic in the midst of an
>extremely fast passage (e.g., overblowing "open G" to produce high D), or a
>trill fingering that is out of tune but acceptable under certain
>circumstances? Again, please forgive me if I've missed the beginning of
>this discussion, but surely you are not talking about anything more than
>those examples I've given...

We may have a difference in terminology or interpretation here. What you are
describing, Stan, I would call "creative fingering". If can sound high D in
a rapid passage more successfully by overblowing an open G, then there is no
reason I should not do so. I do not believe that reduces my "success" in
playing the part. I am not contractually obligated to use the One True
Fingerings for my notes, especially once we get into ledger lines.

For me, "faking it" is when a less agile player has trouble with a sixteenth
note run and chooses to play the first two notes out of each four. As
another example, the wonderful band transcription of Rossini's Semiramide
Overture has the clarinets playing measures of staccato repeated sixteenths
at approximately quarter note @-----. The audience experience is the same
even if some of the players are only playing staccatissimo eighth notes
instead. That's "faking it".

In our community band, it is often necessary for me to advise the "less
agile" players on how to do just this kind of "faking it" while still
maintaining the impact of the piece.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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