Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 2007/06

From: "Kevin Fay" <kevin.fay.home@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Lease Favorite Work?
Date: Sun, 10 Jun 2007 01:40:20 -0400

I have a new one: Stravinsky's Circus Polka. In the original wind bank
composition, the Solo 1st Bb clarinet part is the most "uncomfortable" piece
I've ever played. Much altissimo - my lip hurts.

Apparently Igor didn't even orchestrate the thing. According to the
"Program Notes" for the Redwood Symphony available at
http://www.barbwired.com/barbweb/programs/stravinsky_polka.html,

"Robert Russell Bennett was too busy to orchestrate, so at Bennett's
suggestion Stravinsky hired film composer David Raksin (Laura, Forever
Amber, The Bad and the Beautiful) to score it for wind band. The Circus
Polka premiered at Madison Square Garden in the spring of 1942, performed by
the Ringling Circus Band and starring, according to the program, "Fifty
Elephants and Fifty Beautiful Girls in an Original Choreographic Tour de
Force, Featuring Modoc, premiere ballerina." Modoc, of course, was an
elephant, and the New York Times reported that "Modoc the Elephant danced
with amazing grace, and in time to the tune, closing in perfect cadence with
the crashing finale." Although contemporary accounts claim the other
elephants were not quite as adept at following Stravinsky's rhythmic quirks,
the act was a success and ran for 425 performances.

Stravinsky later adapted the work for full orchestra and premiered that
version with the Boston Symphony in 1944."

Is the orchestral part as difficult?

What do you like least to play?

kjf

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