Klarinet Archive - Posting 000706.txt from 2003/02
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 04:02:32 -0500
On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:02:29 -0800, deal5@-----.net said:
> However, that D# wants to go to that E just as badly. It is a leading
> tone in its way, and I for one CRESCENDO on that D# to lead it into
> the E and then diminuendo subsequently on the descending scale back to
> C.
This is an interesting musical argument, because it points to the
watershed between one style of playing classical music and another. I
spend a lot of time doing my best to represent the one of those styles
that doesn't make 'wanting to resolve' necessarily imply 'crescendo',
and I think it's worth making a case for it here, even if only to show
the sort of thing I mean. I probably won't convince you by argument,
but that's as it should be, because we're dealing with deeper things
than words. And as I say at the end, I might even want to concede you
your point -- after having made some of my own.
First of all, an explanation of *why* you're unlikely to be convinced,
and a detailed source:
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/Phrasing.html
Another way of looking at that, which might be worth reading first:
http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/2001/05/000572.txt
Those two references make out a case for the idea that Schubert most
probably wouldn't have expected his performer to make a crescendo
reading what he, Schubert wrote at that point, regardless of what else
was going on.
But of course, that's not enough. The fact that the rules of eighteenth
century notation imply that you wouldn't *normally* make a crescendo at
such a point doesn't mean that such a crescendo might not be appropriate
there as an expressive *breaking* of those rules. (That's why the rules
are there, in a way, and I explain that in the first reference in
detail.)
So here is one reason why I think it might be undesirable to make a
crescendo given the situation. It's the sort of reason that I think
should be taken notice of more often.
The soprano sings, starting one bar previously, bar 235:
he------/e-el-ler-sie/wie----/ie----de----r/klingt.
The first bar is a top Bb, accompanied by 'tremolo' piano diminished
chord and our diminished ascending arpeggio. This high note can take
anything that clarinet and piano can throw at it by way of support, even
on modern instruments, without being overwhelmed.
But in the next bar, the soprano can be easily overwhelmed, if she
follows the natural pattern of the words, as of course she should. The
pitch drops to an E, and the weak and short syllables 'ler sie' await
the next strong, 'wie', which is again strongly accompanied by both
piano and clarinet.
If you do a crescendo on the D#, at the end of it you risk obscuring the
soprano at her weakest. I don't say that you should play the D# without
tension -- the ability to make a contained, and so unobscuring, yet
intense sound is a necessary part of a good player's kit -- but the
tension should actually release just before (rather than going to) the
6:4 chord in the next bar, just as the soprano allows the end of the
syllable 'sie' to release before the next word. She doesn't actually
*crescendo* on the syllable, even though the next syllable is stronger.
To do so would be subverting the way words are organised.
Still, how crucial is this argument here? Perhaps not very. Even if
the soprano is obscured, we've heard what she's singing once or twice
before, after all. You could even make out a case that her being
finally overwhelmed by the clarinet is a dramatic sexual metaphor
(clarinets are better than....:-)
But it *is* crucial at other points in the piece, and at very many
points in other classical pieces, as I try to make clear in the
references. Performances that use the 'going to' metaphor as the norm
particularly damage the clarity and simplicity of the 'Shepherd on the
Rock', and its clarity and simplicity is an important part of its
touching quality. Unfortunately, it's rare to encounter a soprano,
never mind a clarinettist, who understands this. You're better off
doing it with a good amateur than with a full-blown professional
interested in showing off her voice at the expense of the words.
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339
... Mary had a little lamb. The doctor was surprised.
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