Klarinet Archive - Posting 000106.txt from 2008/10

From: Tony Pay <tony.p@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Karl Leister K.622
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:44:30 -0400

On 20 Oct, "Keith" <bowenk@-----.com> wrote:

> Because they are embellished versions of it? Falling fourth as the basis,
> with the interval filled with appoggiaturas and passing notes; which
> indicates stress on the appoggiaturas? The third bar is two repeats of the
> first bar figure, transposed one bar down; which indicates playing it
> largely the same way as the first bar, but with the second half weaker than
> the first half, for classical metrical accent pattern?

Yes, exactly. (You meant falling third, not fourth.)

Now apply that sort of analysis to the other passage. Joe had the right idea,
but not the right details (according to me;-)

What you write about bar three is interesting. I've come to think that you
should play that rather as an exact repetition. It makes it 'special' -- as
indeed it is, being Mozart's wink at us as he lays bare his structural
strategy for the concerto: namely, to exploit the number 3 mercilessly.

In the context of things being naturally modulated according to a set pattern
(the canonic bar-structure, or classical metric accent pattern as you call
it), what is UNmodulated becomes expressive. Think of how it's possible for
a timpanist imperceptibly to modulate the opening four strokes of the
Beethoven violin concerto so that it sounds both natural and elegant; and the
consequent increase in meaningfulness of the equal hammerblows of the full
tutti!

By the way, I recently thought of another analogy for the canonic 2/4 bar: if
you sit quietly, breathe normally and notice your breathing, you get a very
slow 2/4 bar that has the right structure. It goes, IN... then (relaxed),
out. So we might say that bars in classical music are alive because they're
breathing, rather than alive because they're having to go somewhere.

Tony
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