Klarinet Archive - Posting 000100.txt from 2009/03

From: Michael Nichols <mrn.clarinet@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Schumann Fantasiestucke
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:04:10 -0400

FWIW, this is what I think. I think it's supposed to sound like duple
against triple, but because the last note of the triplet is the same
note as the 2nd note of the duple, the duple note "absorbs" or
"subsumes" the last note of the triplet. So when you play it on the
piano you only make three keystrokes (hence, only three noteheads),
but you make the third note of each group of three come in a tad
early, so it sounds like duple against triple, even though you're only
playing three notes (not five), as you would if you were just playing
straight triplets. Since this piece was written in the age of the
rubato piano style, if the pianist reads a little rubato into the
part, it's likely he/she may delay that third note a bit from where it
needs to be to more clearly heard as duple. The end result is
something that is somewhere in-between duple and triple, but isn't
really either one. On the recordings I have of this piece, that's
what the pianist seems to do.

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