Klarinet Archive - Posting 000184.txt from 2011/05

From: "Vann Turner" <vjoet@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Seeking CD that demonstrates suggested embellishments
Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 10:42:59 -0400

Keith,

I'd love to get a copy of your paper on clarinet ornamentation. Please email
it to me. Thanks!

>From your and Ken's responses, I am learning a great deal, and it'll make me
a better musician. I've printed both posts, and after thorough digestion,
they'll go into my "keepers" binder. It is really refreshing to actually
talk music, rather than hardware!

Though I use trill termination in a grupetto very frequently, I am
unfamiliar with a trill preparation (what you termed "vorschlag"). This is a
new idea for me, and am intrigued by it. It's kinda like knowing the names
of wild flowers: when you know what a flower or tree is called, it is easily
recognized and adds richness in walking down a country lane. Not knowing a
term for trill preparation, I haven't audibly noticed such.

I know you're busy, Keith, and I don't want to take up too much of your
time, but one further trill question in K622: In measure 74, although the
trilled note is approached from below, my ear tells me to start it from the
note above, in order to accent it and give it a flare (and terminate it with
a turn). Would you agree?

Best wishes!
Vann Joe Turner

----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Bowen" <keith.bowen@-----.com>
To: "'The Klarinet Mailing List'" <klarinet@-----.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2011 9:47 AM
Subject: Re: [kl] Seeking CD that demonstrates suggested embellishments

> Vann,
>
> The blanket is not a classical blanket; it is much more true for baroque
> (though even then, not always). During the classical period, the norm for
> the trill changed, from starting on the note above to starting on the
> note.
>
> The trill was extremely important in the classical period; not only the
> trill itself, but also the preparation (vorschlag) and termination
> (nachschlag). There is even evidence that northern Germany had a more
> metrical approach than southern Germany, Austria and France (where they
> taught accelerating trills). And with most aspects of decoration and
> performance style the rule is "it is done this way, unless it isn't".
>
> The treatises of Tuerk, CPE Bach and Quantz devote literally hundreds of
> pages to trills. However, these are of limited value for classical since
> they all essentially write about music in the baroque tradition. And Tuerk
> and Bach are specifically about keyboard and warn that wind is different.
> The wind ornamentation tradition comes much more from singers. So don't
> play
> anything that you can't sing.
>
> I think that a useful distinction is between harmonic and melodic trills.
> If
> the upper note of a trill is part of a suspension, [e.g. a 4-3 suspension
> with the local harmony, i.e. the upper note of the trill is a fourth above
> the tonic note and the principal note is a third] then the upper note is
> part of the harmonic movement and should be the starting note. If not it
> is
> probably decorative. This is the basis for the rule that you quote, ie use
> the upper note when approached from above, the principal note when
> approached from below. To find exceptions to this you need to look at the
> score and analyse the harmonic progressions. Or use educated ears!
>
> I wrote a paper on clarinet ornamentation, derived from study of
> contemporary clarinet instruction manuals, which I will email you or
> anyone
> else interested. A big tome on the subject is Clive Brown, Classical and
> Romantic Performing Practice (Oxford).
>
> Another thing that emerges from the manuals, which we discussed on the
> list
> a few weeks ago, is that they are clear that the principal note should be
> the stronger. So you have to find a fingering that allows this while
> remaining well enough in tune. One often hears trills on modern
> instruments
> in which the upper note blares out due to its construction (Clarion G to A
> for example) and this has to be dealt with, for example by lifting the
> finger only slightly for the trill. It's pretty clear from the manuals
> that
> a classical clarinettist would have spent weeks learning how to trill. In
> modern pedagogy we spend about ten minutes.
>
> On the example you give from bar 70, I'd agree with you in approaching
> from
> below. But would not the dramatic effect be still more heightened,
> sometimes, by ending the trill with a turn?
>
> Ken has argued why he would not embellish the second F-D. Dan has argued
> why
> he would. Both are arguments, based upon certain approaches to the music;
> there is no right or wrong, and a very good rule is never to do it the
> same
> way twice. It's true that embellishments are not random and need to
> respect
> the harmonic and melodic structure, but nor are they fixed. Learning an
> embellishment and doing it that way all the time, as if it was written in
> the music, is almost certainly not stylistically correct. The most you
> should learn, or pencil in, is the local key (which may not be obvious
> from
> the single part).
>
> Keith

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