Klarinet Archive - Posting 000416.txt from 2005/08
From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Brahms 4th Symphony - 3rd Movement
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 23:53:17 -0400
Not to dispute the value of the CD (I think it is wonderful deal and have
many volumes myself) but the same material can be found free of charge on
the web at:
http://www.free-scores.com/
I've begun using these more than the Dover editions mostly because I can
print them up and bind them for around $2 and have a score which will lay
flat for conducting study purposes. Of course, the same can be done with
the CDs, but I suspect everything available on CD is also available at this
web site (I haven't verified as such, though).
These are *old* editions and if I really wanted to delve into Brahms'
thoughts I wouldn't considering using them to reach even a tentative
conclusion (especially now that Dan has remembered the full Boehm C
clarinet). It is fun to speculate at times, though.
I can recall times where certain editions (I'm thinking Kalmus or Luck's
Music.. but I can't be sure) had Bb and A parts (on the flip side). I seem
to also recall these were less than stellar in their overall quality.
Legend has it that Irving Berlin went as far as having a special piano
created so he could compose in all keys but play only in one (Db, I
believe). Certainly there are cases where the composer wrote C scores and
left it to the copyists to sort things out (I seem to recall Prokokiev was
known to do this). Being an editor is a lot harder than one might first think.
The biggest mistake people make about transposing is waiting until they
have to play Beethoven or Brahms or whoever to do it. Get a beginning band
method and start on page one. Work your way through the entire book (it
shouldn't take very long, since you don't have to worry about learning the
instrument). Go to a book 2 or try some really easy etudes. Play some easy
duets with a friend and transpose them. A month or two of this and you'll
forget it was ever a problem.
-Adam
At 01:26 PM 8/22/2005, you wrote:
>Well I wasn't going to make too much on this point, but it may be a
>valid example of some discussion that has taken place on this list just
>recently about how knowledgeable the composer was to an instruments
>actual range and if they ever made this mistake. But Dan is correct in
>that only the manuscript would bear this out.
>
>In the mean-time, I just got off the phone with Gary Van Cott and could
>kick myself for not ordering his CD rom library for clarinet before now.
>I would have had the full part to look at right away and not had to
>worry about excerpts. Gary, being the true gentleman that he is will
>rush this to me so I will have it by tomorrow.
>
>A big public thank you to you Gary!
>
>Now getting back to the issue of transposition, I completely agree that
>this is a valuable skill and I have had to do this in the past. I guess
>after not having to do this for about 25 years I am not very confident
>in my ability being so rusty. I guess when one wants to play orchestral
>music that this should be expected.
>
>I also wonder how many editors in the past would take a manuscript that
>was written in a single key, say the key of C, and then transpose the
>individual parts out for the available instrumentation of the day as
>indicated by the composer. Kind of like what a book editor would do in
>cleaning up the grammar and punctuation in an manuscript. I have a
>feeling that some composers did compose in only a single key to make
>their lives easier, albeit lazy. I can just hear a composition teacher
>saying, "No composer worth their salt would ever compose in a single
>key".
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