Klarinet Archive - Posting 000186.txt from 2007/05

From: "MPWord -- Vann Turner" <vjoet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: Kell revisited
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 08:47:17 -0400

Dan,

I agree with what you write totally. You summed up you position here:
"Composer relied on the knowledge that the performers knew a thing or two
about performance practices. While taste and sensitivity are important, to
be sure, to neglect the issue of 'performance practice' is to deny the
practices to which performers of that era adhered. In effect, you have to
know a great deal about how players of an era interpreted the compsoser's
directions. You just can't throw up your hands and say 'taste and
sensitivity.' That leads to chaos." I couldn't agree with you more.

Musicians learn such from listening, from instruction and reading, and from
discussions such as this. This knowledge is absolutely necessary. You don't
want Mozart to sound like Schumann.

My statement about bringing the music to life as being the partnership
wasn't referring so much to the BIG PICTURE as you address, but to the
nuances that make music music and not just a series of pitches of various
durations.

To my thinking what makes music music is the rendering of the note:
the tonal entrance and the tonal release,
the binding of one pitch to another,
the crescendo and diminuendo on the pitch or the lack of it,
how much elongation the first in a run or arpeggio should have,
how short a staccato should be,
whether marcato is played sfz or as quickly crescendoed,
what speed should the trill have, and whether to terminate it,
how short should the grace note be, and whether on the beat or preceeding,
how lightly should the appoggiatura resolve,
and binding the notes into phrases discernable to an audience, and the
phrases into periods,
and the overall forward press to climax and resolution.

These things, and many more, cannot be notated. The composer relies on the
artistry of the performer - who knows the overall common performace
practices of the era - to bring the music to life.

(On another topic: I recently found discovered this book: "Bach For the
Clarinet, Selected Movements from Unaccompanied Sonatas, Partitas and
Suites" transcribed by Ronald L. Caravan. It is excellent. Both Van Cott and
Luyben have it.)

Best wishes,
Vann Joe
(amateur)

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