Klarinet Archive - Posting 000083.txt from 2002/05

From: "Joseph Wakeling" <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Approaching contemporary music as a student
Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 09:02:23 -0400

Hi Paolo,

> However, as a student of clarinet, I run into lots of wonderful music of
> Mozart, Weber, Brahms and all the masters, more or less up to Stravinsky.
My
> question is how long should a student wait before approaching contemporary
> music as well.

I'm in the same boat as you on this one - I love contemporary music but my
technique isn't up to the standards of much of it! But I reckon that if I
put the work in I could certainly play "Abime des oiseaux" (I don't think
it's any harder than the Stravinsky Three Pieces). The John Cage Sonata for
Clarinet is another one that I like a lot. There's also the "Prelude" by
Penderecki that I bought recently, which looks just about playable - there's
a glissando from high F# to Super C that could be tricky but I think apart
from that it's OK.

Bernstein's Sonata is great fun to play and I think the Copland Sonata
(transcribed from violin) and Concerto are well worth a look. (They aren't
really "contemporary" contemporary, but they are great pieces!) And one of
these days I will get round to a serious look at William O Smith's work.

And apart from all that, there's always the option of writing your own stuff
which you can play. ;)

-- Joe

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