Klarinet Archive - Posting 000128.txt from 2004/02

From: Gary Van Cott <gary@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] BBC Interview about Rhapsodie in Blue
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:29:14 -0500

You can't blame Gershwin for these, at least not directly. He wrote the
Three Preludes for piano.

The gliss in Rapsody in Blue was created by Ross Gorman as a joke during
rehearsal and Gershwin liked it so much he asked him to leave it in
and add as much of a wail to the upper notes as possible. (Cambridge
Music Handbooks: Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue by David Schiff, quoting Grofe
in notes on page 102).

Gary
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At 06:09 AM 2/11/04, you wrote:

>Collins sounds wonderful. The Gallidoro clip is better. I can see why
>the old guy is a legendary player. What I'm a bit mystified about is why
>I'm supposed to be surprised that the opening of Rhapsody is difficult. I
>didn't need Collins' explanation to at least sense that's involved. I
>would think that unless you've thoroughly mastered the techniques of
>maintaining fingering, embouchure, and the resulting tone during an
>extended slur, you will sound like an idiot trying to play this
>music. Gershwin must've hated the clarinet about as much as Giuseppe
>Verdi hated dramatic sopranos: he wrote wonderfully for the clarinet but
>nothing here is for the faint of heart or technically unsophisticated. In
>a moment of gross stupidity I once acquired the sheet music for the Three
>Preludes. Forget #1 and #3: I don't even know the names of some of the
>notes he wrote into those things. But even #2 puts demands of rhythm and
>articulation on a player that make anyone less than fully schooled
>technically sound they should go back to "Twinkle, twinkle." I don't hear
>music you grow into: you'd better have grown there before you pick it up.
>
>Ken
>--

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