Klarinet Archive - Posting 000183.txt from 2007/05

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Kell revisited
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 20:00:52 -0400

On 22 May, "MPWord -- Vann Turner" <vjoet@-----.net> wrote:

> I'm wondering about the 2 wrong chords Tony mentioned. Repeated twice, it
> was of course a conscious decision, not a sloppy one. I'm wondering if the
> parts they played from had a misprint, or if they consulted the manuscript
> and found their printed version wrong.

No, it was a sloppy one, amounting to a misreading by the pianist of the Cb
major chords in bar 6. (Rosen plays a chord of Cb minor instead, Ebb instead
of Eb -- as in bar 5.)

What is significant about it is not the mistake itself, which is a forgivable
one for a particular pianist swimming in all those flats. (What happens is,
you play it carelessly once, and then get used to it and don't question it.)

It is less forgivable for a clarinet player to fail to notice it. After
all, for us the Debussy Rhapsodie is a central repertoire piece that we play
with a variety of pianists. And the switch from Cbminor to Cbmajor is
fundamental to the musical argument, not only because otherwise there is a
dissonance between clarinet and piano (our part reflects the change, the
written Fb in the flourish becoming F natural); but because we then turn the
Cbmajor into Cbmajor7 by insinuating our Cb (sounding Bbb) into the dying
piano chord in bar 7, and climb from Ab through the minor third major second
cell that pervades the piece (a semitone higher than the beginning version).

That unresolved Cbmajor7 chord is almost unbearably poignant, and it needs to
be carefully balanced to have maximum effect. (That of course cannot occur
in this performance, since it's the wrong chord -- but at least, the minor
third has practically disappeared by the time Kell plays the Cb.)

The point is more this: if Kell had been thinking more about what the PIECE
is, more about how it is constructed and how it might therefore best sound,
and less about his own part at that moment, he might have noticed.

But that was his way, sometimes. Actually, it's a recurrent leitmotif in his
musical approach.

Perhaps we could say that for some music, he was too interested in how he
felt at the time he put his clarinet in his face.

Tony
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