Klarinet Archive - Posting 000037.txt from 2002/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Transcriptions: Fr. Couperin, "The Mysterious Barricades"
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 15:50:25 -0400

I'm leery of generalizations about transcriptions, even though *generally* <
grin> I'm in favor of playing what the composer wrote, on the instrument the
composer specified. But some works lend themselves exceptionally well to
transcription, and at the top of that list I'd put a rondo by F. Couperin,
"The Mysterious Barricades," from the 6th Order of his "Second Book of
Harpsichord Pieces" (Paris 1716-17), IMHO one of his best short keyboard
works. Since each of the four voices spans a fairly narrow compass of notes,
it's easy to find an instrument for each range within nearly any family of
instruments. To make matters even more convenient for a transcriber, the
four voices are so distinct that the parts never cross, though they sometimes
meet. Of the many recordings of the original version, I especially like Alan
Cuckston's on "Couperin Pieces de Clavecin Book 2," Naxos 8.550460.

Some critics think Couperin, the naughty fellow, meant the "barricades" as
women's underwear, but I see no need for such literalness when the musical
barricades are there for anybody to hear, in those parts that never cross one
another, for instance, and also in the curious way that a plaintive melody
seems to try gently but urgently to form and then *go* somewhere--find its
way back to the tonic. I guess I do hear a kind of literalness, but for me
it's a harmonic labyrinth, where the leader takes the voices in and then
tries to find a way through the maze and back out.

The beginning of this little accompanied melody begins, not on the tonic, but
on a rest, a silence that *implies* the tonic (the listener's ear fills in
what the key signature must be), then wanders through a one-measure door,
past a double bar, into the labyrinth of repetitious variations, where it
must stay in perpetual motion as it tries to lead its voices out again.
Except for that all-voices rest at the beginning, there is no point in the
entire piece when more than one voice at a time gets to rest. The
not-quite-melody constantly seems to pull to and fro against the harmonic
modulations, as if it's trying to find its way back to that door to the tonic
that was never quite explicit, but the little melody can't fully develop and
escape. The chord can't quite manage to push past the walls of the
composer's construction. Couperin lets the harmony just start to sit down on
that tonic with the treble perching on a teaser of an ornamented eighth note
fermata at the end of each couplet, but then Couperin nudges the ornament off
this precarious perch and makes everybody go wandering around and around the
maze again, looking for that open door, until the very last note, a nice
satisfying tonic chord at last. Well, hmm, maybe there is a sort of sexual
metaphor in there somewhere....

Various wind quartets have recorded transcriptions, but after checking the
klarinet archives and some other web sites, I can't find any version for
clarinet quartet. I wish some clarinetists would get together and record
"The Mysterious Barricades," because I think it would sound gorgeous with two
soprano clarinets in Bb and two contrabass clarinets in Bb. There's a good,
legible, cheap keyboard score published in Dover 0-486-25795-9, of Couperin's
_Complete Keyboard Works: Series One: Ordres I-XIII_. These four clarinets
could read the music directly off that harpsichord score without even
transcribing it, if the second soprano has full Boehm keywork, if the soprano
clarinetists can both read bass clef (this is one of the few baroque
harpsichord pieces in which both hands stay in bass clef throughout), if the
contrabass players can both read bass clef but play one octave higher than
the written note, if nobody minds hearing the piece down a tone from
orchestra pitch and if soprano 1 can read Couperin's individualistic notation
system for ornaments, which (unlike most baroque composers) he specifies in
detail. Only soprano 1 will have to read ornaments.

The clarinet arrangement would parallel the unusual harpsichord range and
show off the beautiful chalumeau of the soprano clarinets in close harmony,
which I would find interesting because there aren't too many pieces for
non-beginners that keep soprano clarinets below the clarion register
throughout. The range for soprano Clarinet 1 would be from open G down to
chalumeau G. The range for soprano Clarinet 2 would be from throat Eb down
to chalumeau Eb. Contrabass 1's range (playing an octave above the written
note) would be from clarion Bb down to chalumeau C. Contrabass 2's range
(playing an octave above the written note) would be from throat F down to
chalumeau G. The keyboard part ends on a five-note chord, but since the
three lowest notes in it are all B-flats, just leave out the highest Bb, give
the two low B-flats to the bass voices, and let sopranos 2 and 1 take the
clarion D and G respectively. If there's no full-Boehm soprano 2 available,
then it might sound all right to use a regular Boehm soprano Bb and take the
low Eb up an octave; but I think a better choice would be to transpose
everybody up a full step to put the piece into clarinet C and thus back into
the original orchestra Bb. Or you could leave everything alone except
soprano 2, and for that, substitute an Eb alto clarinet transposing into the
key of G. Since this is an inner voice, it's okay if the alto clarinet has a
more muted tone quality than clarinet 1.

Much as I love Couperin's original, I don't think I've ever heard an
arrangement that sounded bad, and I especially enjoy these two:

Arrangement by David Henderson, played by David Schrader, soprano sax; Bill
Aron, alto sax; David Henderson, tenor sax; and Kevin J. Stewart, baritone
sax, on The San Francisco Saxophone Quartet, "Straight from the Street," 1994
CD, Dorchester DRC 1003

Arrangement by Samuel Pilafian, played by Enrique Crespo, tenor tuba;
Dankwart Schmidt, tenor tuba; Walter Hilgers, F bass tuba; and Samuel
Pilafian, CC contrabass tuba, on "Tuba! A Six- Tuba Musical Romp, Angel CD,
CDC 54729 [This CD also features one of my favorite late 20th century
compositions, "Meltdown," a jazz-classical fusion on the Dies Irae by the
group's other CC contrabass tuba player, Jonathan Sass.]

Lelia

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