Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2008/12

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Gran Partitta, again, Part 2
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:20:54 -0500

> > Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:54:25 -0800
> > To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> > From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
> > Subject: Re: [kl] Gran Partitta, again
> > Message-ID:
> > <938D594632E745B881B60A28927C0D73@danielsys>
> >
> > Bear Woodson writes:
> > Hello, Everyone.
> > I have a few questions about the Gran Partitta, . . .
> > The Second Movement has 2 Trios, and it sounds
> > like Laughing Boy wrote a few phrases that Change
> > Meters in the Second Trio. . .
>
> There are no meter changes in the second movement,
> or anywhere else in the piece.

Well it sure SOUNDS like a Change of Meter in that
Second Trio. Could you please look at the score again
and see if Laughing Boy used "Implied Changing Meters"?

In Mozart's time, these were rare, but 100 years later,
Brahms and other composers used them a LOT! This is
where you may have a passage Officially in 4/4, but by
Beaming Eighth-Notes together in unexpected ways
Across Bar Lines, or by using Accents in unexpected
places, you can make a passage sound like 3/4 or 5/4, or
whatever meter, for a few bars. The result can be clever
and fun.

(Remember that Mozart DID use Poly-Meters in one
passage of the Rondo of his Quartet for Oboe and
Strings! He had the strings playing boom-chick-chick
accompaniment in 6/8, while the Oboe was running up
and down in Sixteenth-Notes, written in 2/4, for a few
phrases!)

> > I'm also wondering if they routinely print Alternate
> > Part Books to replace the 2 Basset Horns, which are so
> > rare and expensive these days, with the more commonly
> > available Alto E-Flat Clarinets, or even 2 B-Flat Bass
> > Clarinets. . .
>
> Every edition that I can think of provides clarinet parts to
> replace the basset horn pair.

I thought so. I'm guessing that this would be a lot of fun
for Alto Players, who get too little literature. Thank You
for confirming it!

> (But if you play the work that way, all your hair will fall
> out!!)

I was never a woodwind player at all. Remember me?
I'm just a composer, but all the hair on the top of my head
fell out, long ago. . . Or maybe it just migrated to the lower
half of my face.

Did I mention that the Paranoids snuck into my apartment
and replaced my bathroom mirror with a Trick Mirror?!?
Every time I stand in front of it, it looks like someone stuffed
a Wookie into a T-shirt, and slapped a baseball cap and coke-
bottle-thick glasses on him! He looks more TACKY than
imposing! However no one else seems to see it, when they
look into that mirror!?!

> > I'm also wondering if there are Adjusted Versions of
> > the Double Bass Part, to better accommodate the Lower
> > Written Range of a Contra Bassoon.
>
> No. There no adjusted version of the contra basso part.
> (And if you use a contrabassoon, your teeth will fall out!)

Again, I was never a woodwind player, but I have friends
who play the Contra Bassoon, and they love participating in
this beloved Masterpiece. . . However at my age and with my
health problems, my teeth are threatening to fall out, anyway.

> > While I'm asking, the Program Notes in that CD refer
> > to 3 additional, spurious Mozart Bassoon Concerti, one
> > in C and the other 2 in Bb.
>
> There is no evidence to support any claim that Mozart
> wrote 3 additional basson concerti. And if you spread such
> a rumor, your sex life will disappear entirely.
> Dan Leeson

Thank You again for confirming, because as a Music
Theorist, I collect Research of such things. And again, I was
never a bassoonist, and have been divorced years ago, more
times than I need to admit legally. . . Did I mention the Trick
Wookie Mirror and dental problems?

Bear Woodson
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA

Home: 520 - 881 - 2558
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>

"Aluminum foil makes a lovely hat and it blocks
out the government's mind control rays."
- Detective John Munch (actor Richard Belzer)
to "The Lone Gunmen" ("the 3 conspiracy-freak,
computer nerds" who help Agent Fox Mulder, in
the "X-Files" "Unusual Suspects" Episode 100,
Season 5: # 3.) (Nov. 1997)
http://schwicky.net/xfiles/episodes/5/unusual_suspects/

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