Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 2006/10
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Ornamentation Performance Practice
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 13:50:33 -0400
There is a very strange phenomenon about traditions. The more
commonplace they are, the less they are written about. Let me
give you an example.
The vocal tradition of ornamentation was so commonplace in 17th
and 18th century Italy, that absolutely no one wrote a book about
it. Everyone knew what was happening and, hence, it was felt
that there was no need for discussion of it. There were books
such as "Madame Zifetti's famous addenda to the arias of
Donizetti," and that kind of thing, but no one gave any general
rules for it. You simply had to grow up in the tradition. Do you
think there were general rules about how to play dixieland
clarinet in 1920?
One of the few things that was written about it were criticisms
about the fact that there was too much of it going around, and
for goodness sakes let something of the composer's material shine
through the improvisations based on it.
You are not going to find a comprehensive document that talks
about what was done, who did it, when it was done, under what
circumstances, and how to do it.
You can find ornament arias, perhaps the most interesting one
being the Corri variations of the aria Voi che sapete from
Mozart's Figaro as sung by Cherubino. I have a recording of that
version and can put it up on the list for every one to hear. You
will recognize it at once, since it is a very famous aria, and
here the Corri variations turn it upside down and sideways.
It is that kind of evidence that has been forward to suggest that
improvization was commonplace.
Years ago, I found a set of parts for the octet version of the
Gran Partitta. This was long before the octet version was
published. And it was apparent to me that the parts had been
played from, because there were all sorts of ornaments and
improvisations written in by hand on the parts.
Finally this, Mozart could improvise up a storm without
difficulty (as could Beethoven). It was one of the
characteristics he had that the Viennese loved him for. But his
piano students often were not as facile. So, from time to time,
he would write out a cadenza and an "ossia" line to show them
what to do. Those ossias appear today in scholarly editions.
But my dear Tim, if you think that there exists a book somewhere
entitled, "How to improvise and where to do it," you will look
forever. As I said earlier, it was so commonplace, that no one
wrote about it.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Roberts [mailto:timr@-----.com]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 9:53 AM
To: Clarinet List
Subject: [kl] Ornamentation Performance Practice
Dan has told us many times about the expectation of improvisation
in
repeated sections and phrases in classical period literature. I
accept
this as axiom, as I do everything that Dan utters.
I am wondering, how do we know this? Are there documents that
describe
it? Is it an oral tradition passed down from teacher to pupil
over two
centuries? Are there performance transcripts with the
ornamentation
written out?
--
Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
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