Klarinet Archive - Posting 000496.txt from 2004/04

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Beethoven 9th
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:06:09 -0400

I'm playing a concert this weekend that includes a commissioned premier by
Philadelphia composer Richard Brodhead and the Beethoven 9th Symphony.
Rehearsing it reminded that there is a passage that I've wondered about
through past performances of the symphony. I wondered if anyone on the list
has any explanation.

The passage in question follows directly after the "Turkish March" section
of the last movement (if you've played the symphony, you'll know where I'm
talking about). After the clarinets finish playing there are 17 bars of rest
while the orchestra moves back toward D major, then 52 measures with the
entire wind section and choir playing (and singing) the main Ode to Joy tune
in D major with the strings playing a running scalar counter figure (triplet
eighths in 6-8 meter) - all fortissimo, flat-out tutti --- except for the
clarinets! We're the only ones on the entire stage counting rests. What
follows is the slower "Seid umschlungen..." starting in G major, where the
clarinets change from Bb to A. The preceding section (the D major recap of
the main Ode theme) would have been perfectly playable on an A clarinet even
in 1824, and there were 17 measures before it during which a change from Bb
could have been made. Does anyone have any insight into why Beethoven chose
to leave only the clarinets out of this section? Was changing clarinets so
much more difficult in the early 19th century that 17 measures wouldn't have
been long enough?

It's just one of those things I wonder about while counting rests.

Karl Krelove

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org