Klarinet Archive - Posting 000497.txt from 2010/09

From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Improvising in Mozart's clarinet music
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 03:22:02 -0400

...and to improvise in the style of Mozart requires skill and
concentration. ...unless you've spent a life time playing Mozart and
improvising, in which case the skill is already mostly under one's
belt. The only concentration required may be to adapt to your
audience?

Oftentimes, I just play the notes as best as I can and ignore a lot of
the dynamical directions. There are missed notes and rhythms where I
will go back and play a section again, not necessarily thinking about
where to return to. I suppose creating improvisation of sorts.
Sometimes I'll try to hide mistakes, for the sake of not driving my
family nuts, in which case I might actually think about where to go
back to. Listening to me might be a bit like the first time I
listened to the Brahms Sonatas, they sounded weird, but having the
recording and the sheet music, I tried playing bits (usually when I
was bored of the other stuff). The part that caught my fancy early on
was the third movement (Alegretto grazioso). Perhaps the most
ingratiating portion of the sonatas?

-Jennifer

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 7:54 AM, Taylor, Noel <r.n.taylor@-----.uk> wrot=
e:
> I'd say many people who might feel that they can't improvise would, if th=
ey were in the right mood, =A0have no trouble singing in the bath, making u=
p little tunes and maybe adding silly words, just for the sake of it. Or ma=
ybe you might be walking down the street humming a tune that came into your=
head and you realise that you just made it up. Or maybe you just got some =
good news and you do a little jig on the spot. All of that, of course, is i=
mprovisation - a kind of innocent and unselfconscious play activity. I pers=
onally don't quite believe in 'learning to improvise' because we can do it =
already. We can, however, practice it: all it takes is to overcome that inh=
ibiting feeling that you are 'doing it wrong'. You can't really 'do it wron=
g' because there's no one to say what is right - no-one except you, that is=
. So if you practice doodling around just making noises for your own pleasu=
re, and you persist until you are 'singing in the bath' - using the clarine=
t instead of your voice - you've 'learnt' to improvise. And from there on i=
n - it's just about doing it again and again, getting better at recognizing=
the little impulses you might feel in your body or hear in your head as yo=
u play, and getting more & more accurate in your execution of those respons=
es.
>
> Maybe this seems a long way from =A0a Mozart cadenza - I don't have enoug=
h expertise to address that issue - but I would imagine that someone who wa=
s a fluent at improvising with their own voice who was also a fluent and kn=
owledgeable performer of Mozart's work would have the perfect tools to be a=
ble to make a great cadenza. I can't help thinking though, that simulating =
an improvisation by learning a few embellishments and twists is not at all =
in the spirit of things. The real challenge, surely, would be to dare, for =
a few seconds, to be Mozart - or at least, to take him on in a dual at his =
own game. Trade licks with him. Just for the fun, just for the pleasure, of=
singing in the bath.
>
>
> Noel Taylor
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jennifer Jones [mailto:helen.jennifer@-----.com]
>
> What if one approached improvisation by marking out the chord
> structure and some key land marks and played from that like many jazz
> musicians do?
>
> One thing my clarinet instructor said regarding being concerned about
> getting all the notes was to stay within the key signature and you
> will be in pretty good shape. =A0It was funny, as an uptight person, I
> ended up with a rather flamboyant, almost flippant instructor. =A0Of
> course I went through the whole thing with complete seriousness. =A0I
> guess I mostly ignored what I considered flippant frippery; "*I* was
> above that stuff" =A0(chocolate covered nose in the air...) =A0It didn't
> even bother me when a family friend commented that the fellow
> (instructor) made him (the family friend) feel he wanted to shoot the
> instructor in the knees. =A0I mindlessly repeated that on a couple
> occasions. =A0I suppose to see what sort of reaction I would get. =A0I
> never did get much. =A0Perhaps b/c I never gave much reaction...
>
> C'est la vie. =A0I really need to sleep. =A0Good night!
>
> -Jen

old chestnut - stale joke, story or saying

...vibrato in the Mozart clarinet concerto is like putting chocolate
sauce on asparagus
vibrato is chocolate sauce
detritus on asparagus

"Mozart wrote his music with clear indications of where to improvise.
He screams at you, "DO SOMETHING," and to presume that to do so
violates the intent of his music in some unidentified way is a pile
doo doo."

fecal matter is detritus because
detritus is organic waste

Not to improvise is chocolate sauce.
chocolate is a fecal analogy
not to improvise is detritus

Therefore: nothing on asparagus, nothing on Mozart, nothing on the
concerto; All it is is an excuse to argue?-)

I think I'm collapsing the wave-function.

Has anyone written "variations on the clarinet concerto by Mozart" a
la "Variations on a Theme by Haydn"?

Though I enjoyed playing Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn several
years ago, the last time I listened to it, it seemed rather
long-winded... esp. near the end. Anyone else notice this?

(nevermind the absence of a contra bass clarinet)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DV8vINCq_IAI
<<for all who want to know: I've downloaded this song with the program
Shareaza. later I put the song on Youtube. The exact name of this song
but I do not know the original song is called "Entry of the
gladiators" by Julius Fucik ">>

Nice oompahs and clarinet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dg094B573iWI&feature=3Drelated

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D_B0CyOAO8y0&feature=3Drelated

Sousa?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DqICwWBsBVl8&feature=3Drelated

Wikipedia says that "The Gladiator March" was written by Sousa and
"Entrance of the Gladiators" was written by Fucik.
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