Klarinet Archive - Posting 000169.txt from 2007/06

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Brahms Quintet.
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:28:50 -0400

Oliver Seely wrote,
>The "Clarinet Half Day" worked out beautifully.
[snip]
> Their "warm up" period in the morning convinced
>them to refuse to play any more than the first
>movement of the Brahms. I think it was the 64th
>notes coupled with the non-intuitive phrasing
>in the second movement which put them off.

Glad to hear the day went so well! I can see how that Adagio movement in
the Brahms would bother the quartet, especially the violist. I've been
doing a close analysis of several different editions of the quintet at home
and in the Library of Congress, in part so that I can post something
uber-pedantic about the recording by Kell and the Fine Arts Quartet in the
Decca set, but also in part because I wanted to try to find an edition that
would make life a little bit easier on the string players, in case I follow
your good example and work up the nerve to wheedle one of my husband's
quartets to do a "clarinet half day." Since each group has rehearsed the
Brahms quintet with a different clarinetist, I won't blame the quartets if
they resist!

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any easy way out. I haven't looked at the
modern Henle edition yet, but all of the other editions I've seen avoid
wrapping many lines in the middles of the bars by mixing 64th notes with
slashed tremolos more or less indiscriminately, depending on what will
solve the typesetting problem in a particular typeface for that particular
line. Unless Henle's done something different, all the editions wrap at
least one viola line in the middle of a bar to save space, and most of them
wrap two. Most also wrap one line for clarinet and one for cello.
Wrapping the line in mid-bar causes trouble, especially for someone who's
sight-reading, but figuring out how fast to play a slashed tremolo in 64ths
on the fly is no fun, either. That score is hard for the strings to count
no matter what the editor does. The thing is, once they get it, they *get
it*--the trick is to take the part home and play it along with a recording,
I think, until the beat becomes intuitive and they're not trying to count
every itty bitty little note.

Lelia Loban

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