Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2004/08

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tony=20Pay?= <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Audition Excerpt Issues
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 08:26:55 -0400

--- Lauren Peterson <lepeter@-----.edu> wrote:

> Within that bar, there is a part that oscillates between a B natural and an
> A# (middle register), then goes from a B natural to a C# (altissimo) before
> going up to a D natural and oscillating between it and the C#.
>
> Perhaps all that description is unnecessary...my question is, is there a
> good, clean C# that would be appropriate for that kind of line? I've
> experimented with different A# fingerings and different C# fingerings, and
> have had no luck finding something that works.

If you mean, B/A# 'over the break' and then C#/D above the next break, I think
the standard fingerings are the best.

This post might or might not be useful to you:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1998/09/000993.txt

...and there's another one, about making little exercises out of such passages:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/2001/09/000255.txt

> My next question is with the Brahms "Variations on a Theme of Haydn",
> Variation 5. There are a lot of "brick wall" dynamic changes (very similar
> to those you might find in all the Beethoven excerpts), and I'm just
> wondering if there are any words of wisdom (exercises, warm-ups,
> techniques, etc.) that might be helpful in rehearsing these segments? I am
> looking for some new ways of practicing that might help shed some light on
> how to execute these dynamics more easily.

I *think* you're talking about having to play more quietly, suddenly. Is that
it? If so, the technique involved is 'support', which means, very roughly,
'blowing louder than you play'. A detailed description of how I personally
think about the matter can be found at:

http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1999/04/000786.txt

Another wrinkle that I think it's useful to understand about such passages is
that even if you have to drop suddenly to a lower dynamic, it's often true that
the *very end* of the phrase just before is *lightening*. So for example, in
Beethoven 8, Trio, first half, last 3 bars: the first bar is the end of an
ongoing crescendo, and the last two bars are piano. But it would be a coarse
player indeed who sustained the final F# strongly to the barline. (The F# is
in fact the resolution of the appoggiatura E, and so must be 'coming away',
even though there's an overall crescendo.) Therefore, with at any rate the
very end of that F# 'quiet', it's possible to begin again, with another F#,
*louder* than the end of the previous one, but still piano.

Some people think that you're chickening out to do this. But it's possible to
do it in such a way that you don't minimise the shock of Beethoven's writing,
but still make the beginning of the final two bars audible and stylish. After
all, it's no good if it doesn't 'work'.

(So, to the accusation of 'chickening out' I say: driving over the cliff ain't
winning!-)

Tony

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