Klarinet Archive - Posting 000229.txt from 2002/03

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Orchestral Excerpts
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 20:34:10 -0500

David Naden says: >>International Music Company publishes 8 volumes of
orchestral excerpts. Any good music store should either have them in stock
(well, maybe not every volume), or can order them.<<

Volumes 1-4 of the International excerpts series, compiled by Robert
McGinnis, are still in print. Volumes 5-8 were compiled by Stanley Drucker
and contain mostly 20th century music. Unfortunately, neither he nor
International thought to clear the copyright permissions, and they got sued.
As part of the settlement, volumes 5-8 are permanently out of print. If
you're lucky, you can find them in used music bins or occasionally on eBay.

You can't really depend on volumes 1-4, either. They're full of typos, and
the excerpts are very short. Audition committees know this and downgrade you
if you play one of the mistakes. Also, they often throw passages at you that
are not in the books. For the items on every audition, like Midsummer
Night's Dream or Daphnis & Chloe, you simply must learn the entire 1st (and
2nd) clarinet part.

Also, there are lots of difficult non-solo passages that appear on auditions.
In the first movement of the Tchaikovsky 6th, for example, there's a page of
16th note repeated patterns that aren't in any of the scale books, at a
furious tempo. This is often asked for on auditions, and unless you have the
whole part and have it worked up, you're dead. The same thing goes for
Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphoses.

If you're in a conservatory, you can check the parts out from the library.
Otherwise, Jeanne stocks them for not too much.
There's no short cut, I'm afraid.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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