Klarinet Archive - Posting 000471.txt from 2010/09
From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Some terminology problems: Improvisation and ornamentation
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:43:23 -0400
Thanks Dan. Yes, I was speaking about both things. The ornamentation is the
interpretation of symbols, the embellishment or improvisation is what I was
talking about with the singing examples.
Keith
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Leeson [mailto:dnleeson@-----.net] =
Sent: 17 September 2010 16:12
To: Klarinet
Subject: [kl] Some terminology problems: Improvisation and ornamentation
I thank Keith Bowen for his lengthy and detailed note about improvisation.
But I hastily add that two things are getting mixed up here.
When the performer is placed in the position interpreting ornamentational
abbreviations that the composer placed in a manuscript (for example a trill,
an appogiatura, a grace note, etc .) that is the world of ornamentation.
The player interprets the composer's ornamentational shorthand in a way that
is pleasing to his/her musical values and consistent with the performance
practice of the era. We do a great deal of ornamentation whenever we play
music of the 18th century, and there is a lot of it that has to be done in
other eras as well. A trill in the 18th century was done one way, a trill in
a Brahms sonata is something else again).
Ornamentation is not what I have been talking about with respect to
improvisation. When the performer adds text to replace what the composer
wrote, adding new material to his/her own satisfaction -- in effect,
composing real time -- that is improvisation. One is not ready to consider
the matter of improvisation before understanding what performance practices
of the 18th century involved.
For example, one of the posters on this subject spoke about the cadenza in
K. 622, making reference to two of them in the first movement and one in the
slow movement.
THERE ARE NO CADENZAS IN K. 622 and there never have been. What is being
called for by Mozart in the three places spoke of is a very distant cousin
to the cadenza. It is termed a "lead-in," in German an Eingang (plural
Eing=E4nge). And one has to know what an Eingang is and what the player is
supposed to do when asked to execute one. To play a cadenza when an Eingang
is requested is somewhat akin to sticking a finger in the eye. And the
worst offender was Jaques Ibert who wrote a two page 5 minute cadenza for K.
622 and presumed that he was making a contribution of some sort.
A composer ornaments by writing an abbreviation to request something he
wants done, and the player interprets what is meant by that ornament,
sometimes correctly, other times incorrectly.
A player improvises and the composer provides hints to places where
improvisation is appropriate. (If the music is florid, improvisation is
generally not appropriate).
For example, when the composer repeats something, either immediately or
after a period of time, he is offering the player an opportunity to create
music not explicitly given in the text. For example, the third measure of
the clarinetist's first entrance in K. 622. There is one figure repeated
twice. To play both figures the same way misses the composer's well defined
hint. The player may not want to improvise at that point. That's OK, but he
recognize what opportunity is being offered to him.
The slow movement of K. 622 is of the form A-B-A. One plays the A section,
then the B section and then the composer notes the score so that the A
section is repeated. He generally does not write out the A section again,
but says, "Da Capo xx measures," meaning Da Capo for xx measure and then
leap to some other point. One would have to be a stone to play the two A
sections the same way. But publishers produce the score by writing out the A
section all over again, which hides the fact that the composer did not write
that A section a second time and for a very good reason. He expected the
section to be improvised upon.
This is what I referred to when I said that some players chose not to follow
my suggestion under the assertion that to do so is "gilding the lily." The
fact that publishers print the A section a section time introduces the lily
on which one is advised not to gild.
So before one even considers improvisation as something you might want to
do, you need to read about performance practice, if for no other reason that
one learns the difference between an Eingang (how long is an Eingang?, what
is its purpose?, what does the player do?) and a Cadenza (which has an
entirely different purpose, is very much longer than a Cadenza, and requires
high quality improvisatory abilities).
If you believe that you are ready to consider introducing improvisation into
your performances without knowing something about performance practice, you
are probably not yet ready. There are tons of books and articles written
about performance practices of the various eras of music. More than this I
cannot do.
Dan Leeson
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