Klarinet Archive - Posting 000734.txt from 2003/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 13:26:25 -0500

On Sun, 23 Feb 2003 06:51:36 -0800 (PST), leupold_1@-----.com said:

> I notice that you cite your posts as a common device. Do you have a
> catalogue of URL's at the ready, or do you conduct an archive search
> every time you want to reference historical Klarinet material?

I keep meaning to make a catalogue of posts of mine containing arguments
I may want to refer to, but the truth is that I can usually remember
some little phrase I used that's enough to pick it out quite quickly in
an archive search, so I haven't bothered up to now.

(The idea is to provide the opportunity to read the argument, whilst not
cluttering up the mailboxes of those who aren't too interested in the
first place.)

> > 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.

> The consolidated point made by these two paragraphs is not un-huge, in
> my opinion, i.e., that encountering the exact same musical phenomenon
> multiple times within a piece (be it opera, pure orchestral, chamber,
> or solo) -- in the case of Shepherd, the text itself -- requires a
> thoughtful approach relative to its purpose (as determined by musical
> context). Your suggested justification for a dynamic climax at the LT
> resolution involves a bit of faith and 'audience mindreading', as it
> were. Are the audiences of today musically sophisticated enough to
> pick up on the fact that they're hearing repeated lyrics, and that the
> literal meaning of those lyrics the 2nd and 3rd time around defensibly
> takes a back seat to other musical considerations (such as the one you
> suggest, the expression of a dramatic sexual metaphor)? Sadly, I
> would argue that they're not, in which case the "thought"-fulness
> behind any given interpretation of the passage is lost on them (which
> is not to suggest that a thoughtful approach should not still be taken
> and applied).

I tend to take the view that in vocal music, the words should always be
heard, and I myself don't make the D# crescendo for that reason. (I
don't take a breath either, I should say; but the fact that I've already
decided to come away from the beginning of the D# makes the breath at
least undamaging.)

The idea that the clarinet might 'decide' to overwhelm the voice at that
point for a sexually dramatic reason was really just a joke, sparked off
by the other thread. But now you mention it, I can see that we could
take it more seriously, and even extend it to build a particular
interpretation of the relationship between the voice and the instrument
throughout the piece. In order to develop the notion, perhaps *the
clarinet* could be the thought of as the shepherd himself, and the voice
his anima/lover. I'll think about it.

Anyway I agree with you that the notion would need to be more deeply
represented for an audience to feel the force of such a gesture at the
end. On the other hand, I think audiences can often appreciate such
extra-musical considerations, even if they cannot articulate them. I
remember writing in another post complaining about how Perlman played
the slow movement of the Sibelius violin concerto:

"There is a masterstroke in that movement towards the end, when both
orchestra and violin begin together in crescendo, the orchestra playing
the main melody; and, as this crescendo develops, the violin is
progressively and inevitably submerged, so that when the full orchestral
climax occurs, there is the sense of a universal statement; a sort of
total outpouring of emotion beyond anything personal. [The orchestra is
marked here, "Tutta forza", well beyond anything that the violin can
possibly compete with.]

"But then, miraculously, as the orchestra subsides after resolving the
shattering climactic dissonance, the solo violin is revealed again, in a
wonderful little ascending scale with a sigh at the end, as though to
say that the truth of the world is both universal and particular.

"Or so I think."

This might seem a bit contrived. But my arrival at this 'explanation'
occurred as a result of trying to figure out why I always burst into
tears at that point. So my reaction was deeper than my
intellectualisation, and I think that's true for all sorts of audiences.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

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