Klarinet Archive - Posting 000082.txt from 2007/09

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Thanks Oliver!
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:22:57 -0400

Hi Simon,

It was your original posting which motivated me to do the nonet. I
found the miniature score of Rotter's reconstruction and the
orchestral score of the later arrangement in two on-line library
catalogues, so I requested them via interlibrary loan and got
started. I fiddled around with the two, checking one against the
other when Rotter's reconstruction gave me obvious harmonic errors.

As people on this list already know, when I discover a lovely piece
which includes the clarinet by a composer long dead and which is not
generally available I get itchy fingers. If it appears to be a
daunting task, my standard approach is to do the first 20 measures or
so of all instruments and then do a playback. The strategy never
fails. I find myself saying, "That's too beautiful for words. I
MUST do another 20 measures," and it slowly goes together. Some
people restore old cars and plant flowers.

When I got together with my violinist and violist friends on the
"notes-only" copy, excluding the last movement which I had not yet
finished, they were ecstatic on the play-through. As I implied
earlier, the strings may have parts more appealing to them than the winds.

I think that the D-horn entrance in the first movement is an octave
too high. Any advice you can send me on the matter will be
cheerfully received. The first movement of the Claudio Abbado
orchestral performance (which I used as a guide to tempi) certainly
has the horn playing down an octave

Oliver

At 01:38 PM 9/21/2007, you wrote:
>A huge thanks to Oliver Seely for making a reconstruction of the
>original nonet version of the
>Brahms Serenade No. 1, op. 11 available for download through his site:
>http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/clarmusi/clarmusi.htm
>
>Oliver, I don't think you realize how many people you have made
>extremely happy.
>I have been looking for either reconstruction of this piece for two
>years
>and my search has introduced me to many others who hoped to progam
>this but cannot
>find it (or more to the point, cannot afford to rent the parts.)
>How wonderful when these things seem to simply fall from the sky!
>
>The individual parts for the Jorge Rotter reconstruction are
>available for rent through Boosey & Hawkes (NY) but for an
>unconscionable amount.
>They rent it on a sliding scale, depending on the budget of your
>organization.
>It was going to cost my organization (www.allegrachambermusic.com)
>almost $500 CDN to rent it (that is the lowest rental price).
>
>For those unfamiliar with this piece, this is what I wrote to
>klarinet this past year (in search of either of the reconstructions):
>
>"Brahms' Serenade No. 1 in D major Op. 11 was composed over several
>years and in as many as four different guises.
>It started life as a three or four movement work for wind and string
>octet.
>The first full version, with six movements, was for nonet (fl, 2 cls,
>bsn, hn, vln, vla, vcl, bass).
>Clara Schumann did not approve of the piece in its nonet formation
>and it is believed Brahms destroyed the manuscript (as was his wont
>when Clara didn't approve of the piece).
>The following year Brahms expanded the instrumentation to a small
>orchestra and the next year to a full orchestra, the form in which
>the work is known and usually performed.
>
>Two people, Alan Boustead and Jorge Rotter, have arranged
>hypothetical reconstructions of the Serenade in its original nonet
>instrumentation.
>(A third person, Chris Nex, has arranged the Serenade for woodwind
>quintet, string quartet and bass. This version is published and
>therefore available.)
>Printed parts for the Boustead and Rotter are as yet only available
>on rental. Some believe this has hampered the adoption of the
>Serenade into the mainstream chamber repertoire.
>I heard a broadcast of the Chicago Chamber Musicians playing the
>nonet version of the Serenade (it was not announced by which
>arranger) and it works wonderfully for nonet. Some might say it is
>more beautiful as a nonet than as an orchestral piece."
>
>Oliver - some of us were wondering, was it klarinet's brief
>discussion of this piece that
>inspired you to arrange it, or was the choice purely serendipitous?
>Whatever the case, for those on the hunt for this original
>reconstruction this is manna from heaven.
>My orchestra is recording Bruckner 9 over the next couple of days and
>the knowledge that
>my search is over will make the recording just about bearable (I am
>right in front of the trumpets).
>
>Thanks again,
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---
>Simon Aldrich
>
>Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
>Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
>Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
>Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
>Performing Artist/Clinician - Buffet Crampon
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------

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