Klarinet Archive - Posting 001252.txt from 1999/01

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Poulenc Sonata for 2
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1999 04:00:41 -0500

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999 07:49:38 GMT, I wrote:

> And when you play the E natural, sounding D, there's a harmonic
> pendulum swing between the first and second half of the bar that seems
> to me to make the C majorish feel of the Bb clarinet in the second
> half work very well. The A clarinet's sounding B against this C major
> feels relaxed-bitonal to me rather than dissonant, in contrast to the
> definitely dissonant first half, perhaps because this B is so high,
> and reached via fifths, very open-string-violin-ish. The low/high
> alternation in the A clarinet contributes to the pendulum, too.

Sorry to seem to be beating this to death, but having sent the above I
thought about it a bit more and realised that I'm definitely talking
rubbish here: there just *isn't* a C majorish feel in the second half of
the bar, even a bitonal one!

Nevertheless, I'd still say the dissonant/consonant pendulum swing is
there with the E natural and not with the E#.

The difference between E# and E natural (written) is rather that the
first is dissonant and the second consonant with *the concert D natural*
that the A clarinet plays at the beginning. This D natural persists in
our imaginations, even though it's not actually sounding at that point.

Then, playing E# sounding D# maintains dissonance (no pendulum swing),
while E sounding D is a consonance (creating the pendulum swing). As I
said, I prefer this, partly I now think because it's prepared by the
unison A natural a semiquaver before, and consonance persists through
the subsequent semiquavers sounding G and E. Then the final D sounding
C feels like a clash with the top B of the A clarinet, preparing the
newly dissonant next bar.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

.... I'm spending a year dead for Tax Purposes
.

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