Klarinet Archive - Posting 000543.txt from 2002/09
From: "Kevin Fay" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Dan's attempt to formalize his unstructured ideas
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 01:16:49 -0400
Dan's back:
<<<There were a number of postings made over the past several weeks that dealt with personal agendas in approaching the playing of this or that work, though I am not speaking about matters of artistic interpretation. It was more simple than that. One person mentioned how in this or that section of Stravinsky's second version of Petrouchka, he (or she -- I didn't pay attention) used an A clarinet instead of the one specified by Stravinsky because "it sounds better."
* * *
Maybe I read it wrong. Maybe I was blinded by the enormity of the hubris involved. And maybe the fact that no one came back to question the party making that statement caused me to feel depressed.>>>
I guess the hubris must be mine Dan (welcome back, btw) - I'm the original poster.
Now, I'm a guy that happens to own a clarinet in C. I get gigs becuase of it. As a general rule, I prefer to use the designated instrument, even in passages where "tradition" (although no one so traditional as you) has the passage played on the other horn, like the second movement of Brahms First, or the third movement of Shostokovich's Fifth.
What struck me as odd here is that Igor wrote it both ways, first on A, and then on Bb after apparently after changing his mind thirty-five years later. (Indeed, what's inserted into the 1947 edition is a photocopy of the 1911's passage.) My questin was even more basic, however - did Stravisnsky switch which horn, or an errant publisher? If we are to bend to the composer's will, surely we should ascertain what that is, and what is not but badly translated or published.
Now it's entirely possible that you "don't think that the use of the A clarinet facilitates the piece in any significant way, and . . . [f]rom my perspective that passage was easy on a B-flat clarinet." David Niethamer has a somewhat different experience, calling the passage in question "unremitting hell for 16 bars," and noting that "I have tried to play that passage on Bb, and can't reliably make it as smooth as I can on A clarinet - I play it on A." Of course, David is probably not the clarinet player that you must be. Since my experience mirrors David's I'm quite certain that I'm not.
. . . neither was the late Peter Hadcock, I suppose. In his book "The Working Clarinetist," he notes that playing the passage at m. 41, makes it, "(which would be in five sharps) quite hard to play, to say the least." He notes that "[g]enerally, everybody plays this passage on the A clarinet no matter which version of the piece is being played." (This would be consistent with David's observation that "Every rental part of 1947 Petrouchka that I've ever used had this insert. It's a tradition. ;-)") It's true that Art is not a democracy, but it appears that quite a few artists don't agree with you in this particular instance.
So, if I take this analysis to its own reductio ad absurdium, you'd be more accomplished than Messrs. Niethamer, Hadcock, or even "everybody"? Perhaps so.
My personal agenda is to play this piece as well as I can. If using the clarinet designated *by the composer* in the earlier edition assists in that endeavor, I'm likely to do that. (If using power tools would help, I'd do that too). If this pulls me out of the ranks of artists and pushes into the realm of craftsman, so be it - I think that I'll like the company.
kjf
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