Klarinet Archive - Posting 000175.txt from 2002/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] baroque ornamentation; was: Dover Scores
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 12:50:49 -0400

Glen Shannon quotes me as follows:
>I think that modern clarinet students
>have enough common sense to balk at learning a baroque composer's
>idiosyncratic ornament notation system to play just one transcription
>(although I think it's a shame that Couperin's system didn't catch on and
>become the standard).

He left out the first part of that sentence. I originally wrote,
>Besides, I'd eliminate that barricade entirely by writing
>out the ornaments (far fewer of them in this piece than
>in most of Couperin's music), because
>I think that modern clarinet students
>have enough common sense [etc.]....

Glen Shannon then writes,
>>Common sense? In the historical-instrument world
>>we spend countless hours learning and internalizing
>> (and bemoaning) composers' idiosyncratic ornament
>>notation systems, and people earn advanced degrees
>>by studying them. Of course, the fact that you're using
>>modern instruments in the first place might obviate
>>the required use of the authentic ornaments, but just
>>because you're playing a relatively young instrument
>>doesn't mean the world didn't exist beforehand, or
>>that it should be completely ignored.

Since when have I ever advocated ignorance of the past?

Intermediate keyboard, voice and conducting students do need to memorize
Couperin's detailed, two-page chart of how to play his symbols, but IMHO,
it's unreasonable to expect young clarinet students to learn that system,
when nobody else adopted it and when there's no Couperin in the clarinet
repertory. Since F. Couperin wrote a few pieces with sketched-in parts for
unspecified instruments, IMHO it's reasonable to add an early period clarinet
to some of those works, but although he outlived Denner by a few years, F.
Couperin, in all of his prolific career, *never* wrote *any* pieces that
included scoring specifically for clarinet, or chalumeau for that matter.
(My sources are _Grove's Dictionary_ and a standard reference by Philippe
Beaussant, tr. Angela Land, _Francois Couperin_, Oregon: Amadeus Press, tr.
1990 after Paris, 1980.)

Maybe there are some Couperin transcriptions included in modern volumes of
miscellany for clarinet students. However, there's *not one* transcription
of Couperin listed in the klarinet composer archives or any other lists of
clarinet sheet music I've looked at. So if the repertory's not there, then
how can I be arrogant enough to expect people to learn that notation just to
play my transcription for two-and- a-quarter minutes?!

No, the right thing to do, the polite thing, IMHO, is to explain and
translate: to write out those ornaments fully, the way Bach wrote out
ornaments. My goal is more precision, not less. I want to help modern
students to play the ornaments as Couperin meant for them to sound (given the
difference between a harpsichord and a clarinet, of course).

That hardly means I'm ignoring the world that existed before the clarinet!
On the contrary, I'm trying to make that world accessible. I think that's
useful, because although adults record "The Mysterious Barricades," IMHO only
the cryptic notation prevents a transcription from being playable by
third-year clarinet students, as soon as two of the kids grow big enough to
handle contras a little bit. (Neither contrabass plays anything faster than
a quarter-note. The range is easy on all four parts.)

This music might be an antidote for young students infected with
Altissimo-itis, who think they won't really be alive until they're squealing
around the Whistling Teakettle register in thirty-second notes. "The
Mysterious Barricades" isn't about gob-smacking the audience. Nor is it
about how sternly the teacher can flog lazy little varmints into using the
Dick Tracy Secret Decoder Ring on the notation. It's about using well-
formed tone quality, exact intonation and long tones with excellent breath
control to create a mood.

My 2 cents.
Lelia

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