Klarinet Archive - Posting 000238.txt from 2005/01

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: Rhapsody in Blue Gliss
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 11:00:29 -0500

At 09:47 AM 1/14/2005 -0800, Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:
>Just a comment.... not intended as a debate:
>
>Several posts in this thread have mentioned tat the 'accepted' way of
>playing the glissando doesn't match what Gershwin's manuscript
>requested. For example, one person (I've lost track of who) commented
>to the effect that the notation on the autograph is now meaningless.
>
>Taken out of context, the above statement above sounds almost
>sacrilegious, and the statement by itself doesn't reflect what the
>person was saying. But it *does* show that citing an autograph is
>sometimes not the entire story. In this particular case, there is
>'non-autograph' documentation that Gershwin approved of the modification
>to the autograph during a rehearsal. Perhaps (?) there is a
>performance part in existence that reflects what Gershwin wanted more
>accurately than the holograph itself.

In the case of Gershwin, we are blessed with recordings of performances in
which Gershwin himself participated, including both his Duo-art piano roll
and at least one recording with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra. Unfortunately,
this is not the case with Mozart! The Gershwin recordings, however, do
show tempos generally much faster than are commonly used today, so people
are clearly not following them blindly. One of the more interesting recent
performances is the Michael Tilson Thomas recording which uses the Gershwin
piano roll for the solo part and syncs the (original orchestration)
accompaniment to it.

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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