Klarinet Archive - Posting 000049.txt from 2008/04

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Schubert 8th Symphony - 3/4 or 6/8?
Date: Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:58:09 -0400

>
> An orchestra I am playing with is doing Schubert's 8th ("Unfinished")
> Symphony. The first movement is written in a 3/4 time signature, and I
> have always "felt" the piece in that meter. However, the conductor is
> insisting in conducting parts of it in a "2" feel of 6/8. So whereas I
> always thought of the melody (e.g. dotted-half in one measure,
> dotted-quarter eighth eighth eighth in the second) such that the first
> eighth note in the second measure is more like a pickup to the third
> beat, his conducting makes that first eighth note the first note in a
> triplet.
>
> It's driving me crazy having to think of the piece in this way (mostly I
> silently ignore him and think in 3), but perhaps this is as it was
> intended and I've just thought about it wrong all my adult life. The
> piece definitely has a 3 feel in many of the parts (he switches back and
> forth in his conducting), but if some is intended to actually have a 6/8
> feel then I find it easier to do 6/8 over 3/4 than to try to play a 3/4
> part over 6/8 (e.g. the syncopated sections).
>
> I have been so far unsuccessful in finding any discussion of this online
> and I can't say I've ever seen the piece conducted by a professional.
> Listening to the recording I have (Academy of St Martin in the Fields)
> doesn't help since the eighths seem to be without any accent and could
> go either way. Has anyone ever come across this as an issue?
>
> Erik Tkal
>

All of the time.....

Conductors will do this to facilitate a particularly difficult rhythm (often
3 on 2 or 3s across bar lines, etc.) While it makes things more difficult
for some players....it makes things a lot easier for others.
No matter which part you're involved with....you must keep the smallest
value notes running in your internal rhythmic mechanism.
Don't fight it....

Good luck.

Forest

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