Klarinet Archive - Posting 000165.txt from 2005/07

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Music for clarinet and baritone/tenor voice
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 23:49:16 -0400


On Jul 8, 2005, at 10:53 AM, Dan Leeson wrote:

> The question is what is the gender
> of the singer in Schubert's song. Because the song is generally sung
> by a
> woman there is an implication that the text only works if the singer
> is a
> woman. But it turns out that it does not seem to make much of a
> difference.

Does the fact that Schubert wrote the song for a particular woman to
sing matter at all in this case? (IMO, it does) You know, all those
discussions we've had about respecting the intent of the composer (as
far as we know it)?

> And since a great number of Schubert's songs can be sung either by a
> man or
> a woman (though not all -- the Erlking is strictly a man's song
> because of
> the constant reference to "Father, father" by the child referenced in
> the
> song --

I don't know whether Schubert intended specific songs for male or
female voice. But, in matters of the texts, some are silly for males to
sing, others for females. I played a set of Baermann's transcriptions
of Schubert songs for clarinet, and discovered that the three I chose
were most often sung by male singers. Thus, the range of the clarinet
in comparison to the piano part was a little out of whack (technical
description - sorry!!). I explored a few CD's of women singing
Schubert, and discovered that, nice as Baermann's choices were in
general, there were better choices where the range of the clarinet fit
better with the range of the piano part.

> I think that SOTR might work for a man. However, the fioriture of
> the vocal part in the allegro is such that you will find few men
> capable of
> handling it. All things being equal I prefer a woman singing the text,
> but a
> man accompanied by a basset horn (not a bass clarinet) might be very
> nice.
>
OK, who are you, and where is the real Dan Leeson - the one who
respects the wishes of the composer - with a vengeance!! A male voice
with the right range would be able to sing it, sure. But would this
vocal sound, an octave lower than the original, work in conjunction
with the clarinet and piano parts? I confess to not having studied this
to see if it would work, and I further confess that someone else is
going to have to spend the time to try it - doesn't seem useful to me.

Argento's "To Be Sung Upon The Water" says simply "high voice", but
having played it with both a soprano and a tenor (on different
occasions!) I think that Argento must have meant it for a tenor. The
recording he supervised used a tenor. And the tessitura of the tenor
voice in juxtaposition with the bass clarinet is, IMO, a much more
interesting sound than the higher octave of the soprano voice. Even the
very quiet Bb clarinet obligati work better above the tenor range than
they do competing with the same notes of a soprano voice.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a reed for my tenor sax, so
I can practice K. 622. It "might be very nice."

David

David B. Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/index.html

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