Klarinet Archive - Posting 000400.txt from 2004/12

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: [k] Klocker
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 04:51:55 -0500

Dan,

That was most interesting. I am curious as to how this is known. Is there an
eighteenth century performance manual that says "Thou shalt do a cadenza
when thou hast a fermata upon a chord of ye second inversion, and if thou
failest to do it or makest it an eingang instead thou shalt be strung up by
thy nether regions with used catgut and denied pizza for three weeks"? In
other words, do we have documentary evidence? Or textual musical evidence,
such as a large number of pieces in which "cadenza" is indicated which all
have the same underlying chord? Or is it a performance tradition, referred
to more elliptically? Or a guess?

Keith Bowen

> Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:01:20 -0800
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
> Subject: RE: [kl] Klocker
> Message-ID: <FJEKIMDEOJFJPBKBMDOPEEINDAAA.dnleeson@-----.net>
>
> There are really two issues involved in this question, the
> first of which cannot be answered on the basis of taste.
>
> Does Klocker execute a cadenza at the place(s) indicated by
> the composer? That's easy enough to figure out. A cadenza is
> called for by the intersection of two events: (1) there must
> a fermata indicating a pause of indefinite duration while the
> cadenza is executed; (2) the underlying chord structure must
> be a tonic chord in the second inversion; i.e., with the
> fifth in the bass.
> So if the composer requests five cadenzas in the manner just
> described and Klocker creates them at the five places
> indicated, the answer to your question is "No." In fact one
> could argue that if he did only four cadenzas he is
> underachieving rather than overachieving.
>
> But if the fermata occurs and the underlying chord structure
> is not a tonic chord in the second inversion (but is instead
> a dominant seventh chord), and Klocker interprets this as if
> it were a request for a cadenza (instead of a request for an
> Eingang, or lead in), then the answer to your question is "Yes."
> But somehow, I don't Klocker misundstands the situation, so
> that gives rise to the second of the two issues involved.
>
> Let's assume that he is putting cadenzas in where they have
> been called for. Then we leave the safe world of classical
> form and enter the world of subjective opinion; i.e., are his
> cadenzas intelligent?, do they do what they are supposed to
> do?; is the length of each cadenza adequate and neither too
> long nor too short?; has he created a cadenzas whose purpose
> it is to show only his technical skill and command of the
> instrument?; blah, blah, blah?
>
> As for answering this second issue, I can't respond unless I
> heard him do two performances of the same work. That
> statement is made seriously. If two performances had him
> executing the same cadenzas again, that is one perspective to
> be discussed. If the cadenzas change from performance to
> performance, that is another issue.
>
> So which question are you asking?
>
> Why do you always answer a question with a question?
>
> Who always answers a question with a question?
>
> Dan Leeson
> DNLeeson@-----.net
>

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