Klarinet Archive - Posting 000012.txt from 2007/07

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reginald Kell: Part 10, Brahms Quintet, Op. 115
Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:01:33 -0400


Martin Baxter wrote,
>>Please accept my compliments on the thoroughness
>>of this commentary. I hope you will submit it to CASS
>>magazine.

Blush! Thanx--I would have to do more research first, because I haven't
seen the 1927 Breitkopf edition for comparison, and don't know which
emendations were made by Gal for that edition and which were new for the
1989 (current) Breitkopf edition. I'm also not certain I tracked down all
of the editions available in 1951. There were very likely some pirated
editions that the U. S. Copyright Office never saw and that the Library of
Congress hasn't got. I made no effort to research those.

Regarding the notation of slashed tremolos, Tony Pay wrote that Brahms, in
his autograph manuscript,
> . . . wrote them in the 'visually confusing typography' --
>which, in his defence, isn't confusing at all in the score,
>as each beat lines up with the corresponding beat of the
>more conventionally notated melody (usually in the clarinet).

Thank you for the information! Yes, seeing the full score gives me more
confidence about practicing the piece in the hope of working up the nerve
to ask one of Kevin's quartets if they'd be willing to try the Quintet with
me. Maybe if I offer to give them copies of the full score in advance....

>>But even in the parts, it's child's play to get used to
>>compared with the variations of notation that modern
>>composers often throw at you:-)

Ouch, yes. So far, I hope I haven't been guilty of writing any tortured
notation, but I've seen some contemporary scores for sale that turn me into
. . . . You've seen the Munch painting, "The Scream," yes?

>>Of course, to play the piece even remotely successfully, a
>>string player needs to be not only 'not innocent' of the clarinet
>>line, but to know it intimately. And such knowingness is
>>totally trivial to come by nowadays via playing along with
>>a disc a few times; funny how people don't bother to do that
>>-- see:
http://test.woodwind.org/Databases/Klarinet/1998/10/000377.txt

Indeed, although I find playing along with a disk such a humiliating
experience that it scares me off trying to play with real live people who
would hear all my flubs. It's too tempting to overlook foul-ups and just
play past them when practicing alone, but the CD relentlessly exposes the
truth about whether I'm out of tune or out of sync.

Shadow Cat has learned to recognize the hazard signal: If I put a CD in
the machine but don't start it playing it yet, then walk in any direction
except straight back to my computer desk, she needs no further information
to figure out what I'm up to. Before I have a chance to give her the usual
verbal invitation-cum- warning, "Do you want to hear some clarinet?" she's
already flouncing out of my office and running down the stairs with gurgles
of disgust.

Lelia Loban

------------------------------------------------------------------