Klarinet Archive - Posting 000920.txt from 2003/02

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Shepherd on the Rock
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 22:09:03 -0500

Here's my Shepherd on the Rock story, plus my two cents on the arpeggio.

At the Clarinet Congress in Richmond maybe 15 years ago, I played SotR in a
master class for Leon Russianoff. He was an exhibitor, and I had been
wandering around trying various instruments, mostly playing the ascending E
major arpeggio from the first section. In addition to seeing what the
instruments could do, I was of course showing off (or, as my friends used to
say, "Shawing off"), really pushing a crescendo up to Wagnerian volume on the
high B.

Luckily, two of the clarinetists were also a good pianist and a soprano, so
we had the complete group rather than just me playing the clarinet part for
the master class.

The night before the master class, there was to be a concert, but a huge
lightning and thunder storm knocked out the power. There was power in
another building with a stage and piano, so the three of us went in there to
rehearse. After about 15 minutes, we saw people in the dark in back, and I
soon recognized Russianoff. He kept creeping down, and soon he was on the
stage, capering around and giving the three of us over half an hour on SotR.

I played the E major arpeggio in my "orchestral" manner, and he stopped me,
saying "Why do you do that? I heard you playing that way in the exhibit
hall, but it's all wrong -- zoom, zoom, roar, roar -- I'll smash you up
against the wall with my volume. It's a song, and you have to match what the
singer is doing. She ends with a decrescendo before that entrance. You
don't have to do anything to get louder. You naturally get louder as you go
higher. Just let it grow out of the singer's phrase and float up to the high
B. It's about beauty, not strength."

It's the same at the end. The singer is in the middle of her high note when
you begin the diminished seventh arpeggio, and she doesn't finish until you
get to the end of the descending scale. What could be more featureless than
a diminished seventh arpeggio? It's definitely background, and you have to
keep it that way. Like the first arpeggio, this one gets its energy from the
singer's high note. If anything, you should decrescendo as you go up, since
the high notes naturally sound louder with the same breath pressure. This
also helps keep the staccatos light on the descending scale, where you have
to stay under the singer, who jumps to a much lower note to end her phrase.
You have plenty of time for your own solo after that.

So, for yet another reason, Tony is right.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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