Klarinet Archive - Posting 000163.txt from 2010/08

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Cantabile
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:17:24 -0400

On 08/16/2010 09:07 PM, Tony Pay wrote:
> I think the quote is mine.

Yup. :-)

> So my answer is, (as in "Phrasing in Contention"): 'cantabile' means 'showing the words less' for a singer, and 'a less 'spoken' style' for an instrumentalist.
>
> An alternative metaphor might be, 'skating' more than 'dancing'.
>
> But very many modern players (not all) don't know what you're talking about. For them, performances "tend to start and *stay in* the cantabile, using crescendi as the default mode of expression."
>
> You can of course play SOME of the music cantabile, still avoid crescendo, yet nevertheless play expressively. Note that Mozart wrote, "He is TOO inclined to drop into the cantabile...I admit that I like it...but he OVERDOES it and so to me it often seems ridiculous."

The question was motivated by a quite practical concern -- I was (am:-)
working on a composition, and thinking about a term to emphasize to the
players that they needed to approach the notes in terms of a creative,
almost classical approach to phrasing, instead of the very literal "play
exactly what's written" interpretation of notation that's typical of
much 20th/21st century music. I was interested in writing something
that had quite a sparse amount of dynamic and other explicit expressive
indicators, but that left a lot of space for how the performer might
choose to indicate or shape phrases.

"Cantabile" seemed at first glance a natural choice -- that and
"espressivo" seem to be two typical words in modern notation to indicate
to the player "interpret this passage creatively/expressively rather
than literally" or even "interpret this passage as if it was
pre-20th-century music".

But on second thoughts, I'm not sure that what I want can be captured in
a simple instruction in this way ...

(On a different but related note, I tracked down that citation you
mentioned. The bugger's clearly never heard of Zen, has he? Motorcycle
variety or otherwise...:-)

Best wishes,

-- Joe
_______________________________________________
Klarinet mailing list
Klarinet@-----.com
To do darn near anything to your subscription, go to:
http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com