Klarinet Archive - Posting 000105.txt from 2006/01

From: fgarcia@-----.net
Subj: Re: [kl] Schumann Fantasy Pieces
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 12:26:19 -0500

Mr. Pay,
I was hoping I'd get a nibble at my Schumann question. Your description
is exactly what I needed. I tend to go on instinct and emotion, which
is of course good sometimes, but lacking in intellectual resolve at
times. If one plays an E natural, one is basically playing a diminished
arpeggio with (as you called it) a C appoggiatura on the 3rd beat. And
we lose that tortured and tense Eb. So I'll tell my pianist not to
change a thing!

My pianist and I prepared Weber's Grand Duo Concertante to play for
Margot Garrett at my accompanist's lesson. During rehearsals my pianist
wanted to play the 1st movement too fast... but I let her choose the
tempo for her lesson because I wanted to hear what Margo would say (I
realized that my "It's just too fast" wasn't carrying enough weight).
Margo described the problem as that the music goes by so fast that the
listener has little time to assimilate it (or something similar to
that). When she said that I exclaimed "Yes!" much like I did when I
read your reply. Thank you for your time and response.
Frank Garcia
On Jan 15, 2006, at 9:19 AM, Tony Pay wrote:

> On 13 Jan, fgarcia@-----.net wrote:
>
>> Good afternoon all,
>> I just had a rehearsal today on the Schumann. My question is about the
>> piano in the 1st movement, measure 31. There is an E natural in the
>> ascending arpeggio in the left hand. In the right hand there is an Eb
>> on the 2nd beat which is later cancelled at the end of the measure. I
>> have the Henle and Peters editions, both of which have Eb's on beat 2.
>> As I have performed this a billion times or so, I was stumped by my
>> pianist asking which is correct.
>
> All the evidence is that it's an Eb -- so it's an Eb:-)
>
> The editors that replace it with an E natural are in my opinion the
> sorts of
> editor that changed the harmony under the 'wrong' second horn entry in
> the
> Eroica symphony.
>
> It's quite difficult to capture the magically positive quality of the
> Eb in
> words. Here's a try:
>
> The Eb is a dissonance that could be thought of as an appoggiatura
> (like the
> C natural a beat later) to the diminished 7th harmony created by the
> clarinet
> and the piano LH.
>
> The C natural, though, resolves at the distance of a whole tone rather
> than a
> half tone like the Eb, and so there is diminishing tension through the
> bar...
>
> ...however, there is a pedal F in the piano. The Eb is less dissonant
> with
> that -- in fact, it's a harmonic of that F. So there is an added
> softening
> effect as a result.
>
>> ... does anyone really know what Bobby wanted in measure 31?
>
> I think it's pretty clear he wanted an Eb.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE
> http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... Honk if you love peace and quiet.
>
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