Klarinet Archive - Posting 000094.txt from 2009/03

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Schumann Fantasiestucke
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:14:37 -0400

Karl Krelove wrote:
> At the beginning of the Lebhaft the piano plays triplets in the treble
> staff, but it also plays the melodic notes as a top voice above those
> triplets. When the clarinet enters in, it plays the same melody as the top
> voice in the piano part (while the piano goes on with its triplet
> arpeggios). The piano and clarinet trade melody back and forth. Throughout
> these exchanges, the piano’s arpeggios are notated as triplets. The top
> melodic eighth notes are, in the edition I own, notated as duplets (with
> separate stems and beams), but with the second note clearly aligned with the
> third note of each of the accompanying triplets. It is, whenever I’ve heard
> it performed, played by the pianist exactly as though the melody voice were
> also written in triplets – the eighth notes are played as quarter-eighth.
> When the clarinet plays, though, in every performance I’ve heard, the eighth
> notes are played as even duplets – “straight” in the clarinet vs. “swung” in
> the piano melodic voice. It’s always seemed odd to my ears that the rhythm
> is treated so differently, especially given the notation of the upper voice
> in the piano treble staff. (Mr. Leister didn’t even bring it up.)

I don't have my copy to hand :-( But could look up the sample page on
the Henle website. I do remember some aspects of this triplets/duplets
issue from playing these pieces with a friend.

There clearly _isn't_ a 2-against-3 in the piano part for most of the
passage -- the 'duplets' in the upper voice of the RH piano part are
just doubling the 1st and 3rd notes of the triplets in the lower voice.
And at the same time, those duplets are _not_ doubling the duplet notes
in the clarinet part -- there _is_ an intentional duplet/triplet clash
between clarinet and piano.

Then look at bar 9 where there is a contrast between the _left_ hand of
the piano (duplets) and the upper voice (still triplets). There's
another in bar 11 where the piano RH upper voice _does_ double the
clarinet melody, and again in bb. 13 and 16 where the LH part doubles
the clarinet rhythm.

So I think the points in the piano part where the 'duplet' and triplet
noteheads overlap are clearly just triplets, and the 'duplet' is just a
compromise notation to indicate the progress of the upper voice.

This is a pretty standard notational compromise for the period as I
recall. There's a GREAT example in bar 72 of the Berg Piano Sonata, and
similar things happen in lots of earlier pieces, where there is a clash
between what the precise notation would be, and what notation gives the
best 'sensual' picture of the line wanted.

I'm fairly sure I recall seeing Mozart/Beethoven-period scores written
in 4/4 with triplet eighths in one part and dotted-eighth-and-sixteenth
in another, and the sixteenth note of the latter was clearly meant to
align rhythmically with the 3rd triplet note...

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