Klarinet Archive - Posting 000902.txt from 2003/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: RE: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:08:45 -0500

On Tue, 25 Feb 2003 22:13:25 -0500, karlkrelove@-----.net said:

> 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.

If he hadn't wanted to break the rhythm, the best solution would have
been to put a C# in as a third sixteenth. I think you do need the B
natural on the next barline.

> 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).

What's more important for me is to feel the two bars from the low B to
the top B as 'one thing' -- a 'leading note scale', if you will, and
that's another reason for wanting the middle B on the barline. The low
B eighth just sounds like a harmonic emphasis on the beginning of this
rather grand, look-we-have-come-through-type scale, and in fact I always
play that note quite long, so perhaps I was mistaken in my original
suggestion, even though putting in the C# doesn't sound too bad.

It's *taking the breath* that almost inevitably breaks it up. I also
find that it makes the B sound 'too short'.

> 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.

Performers, rather than theory professors, I think:-) But this is the
sort of 'discussion' I usually have with myself, when I study a piece,
rather than with anyone else. And for me, it usually doesn't happen in
words, but is a part of the process of practising.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
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