Klarinet Archive - Posting 000874.txt from 2003/02

From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:08:17 -0500

I'm a little hesitant to step into this so late, and with a couple of
relatively trivial points, but I finally got around to getting out my copy
of Der Hirt tonight just to review for myself what the printed (Schirmer)
version I own actually contains. I had a couple of thoughts that had never
before occurred to me.

1. Is the Eb really a "leading tone," as was suggested in one of the early
posts? If I take the spelling of the chord as (a) authentically Schubert's
and (b) deliberate, I see what looks like (I'm sure there's a formal name
for it, but I don't know what it is) a diminished seventh on a raised IV
(subdominant). It progresses, not surprisingly to a I 6-4. But the real pull
comes from the E (the raised IV root) to F. The Db (not a C#, which might
imply a slightly different intent) can be easily heard (or at least I easily
hear it) as a 7th of IV, which absent the raised root, would progress DOWN,
not up, very smoothly to the fifth of a V (dominant triad). That a cadential
I 6-4 interrupts (is demanded by the chromatically raised root of IV - the E
natural) forces the (concert pitch) Db back up to D, but eventually it
returns down to C as part of the penultimate V7. So I'm suddenly not so sure
that the "pull" of the Db upward to the D, while the voicing in the clarinet
part certainly suggests it, is all that important in the overall harmonic
scheme. This makes me question the appropriateness of any kind of driving
crescendo through the (transposed) Eb to E even without Tony's argument
(with which I feel even more comfortable now than I did an hour ago).

2. Someone, I think maybe Tony, said the eighth-note B at the bottom of the
ascending scale five measures from the end was there to "make it work out"
metrically, or something to that effect, the point having been that the
scale is a unit and shouldn't be broken up by a breath after the eighth. But
if Schubert had not meant for there to be a "pause in the action" at that
point, I wonder that he didn't keep the sixteenths going and simply add a
chromatic "spacer" anywhere in that measure. And if having the B (the third
of the V7 that's driving this whole passage) fall on the strong beat of the
next measure weren't a consideration, he could have put an F# in the next
measure after the F-natural and all would have been well metrically with no
break at all in the rhythm. That Schubert didn't do that but, instead, let
the rhythm momentarily pause, leaves me feeling unconvinced that a catch
breath there is such a disruptive thing (which I think was the suggestion
that started off the whole discussion).

These sound like the kind of thing I always imagine theory professors
staying up late at night arguing, but I'd be interested in responses from
those who've been in the discussion longer than I.

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elgenubi@-----.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2003 9:02 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Shepard on the Rock
>
>
> I asked a small question about breathing at the end of this
> piece. I have
> been out of town for a few days and am trying to digest some of
> the comments
> since I have been back. Thanks, all.
>
> Wayne Thompson
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>

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