 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-04-10 21:26
This started out as an answer to Andrew Hayward's query, but turned into something different, so I'm posting it separately. Andrew wrote:
-------------------------------
I am trying to get people's opinion on what they think is the most sorrowful and heart-wrenching clarinet solo out there.
Andrew -
Pretty much the standard answer is the series of solos in the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony # 6 (Pathetique). The cadenza and solo in Tchaikovsky's Francesca di Rimini is also in the running.
I've heard the opening solo in the Sibelius Symphony # 1 played with heartbreaking sorrow. I've also heard it played as a simple statement of motives that will be developed throughout the symphony. It certainly needs something of both.
The third movement of the Saint-Saens Sonata begs to be played with a bleeding heart, as does the opening of the first movement. This gives greater contrast to the sprightly second movement and the virtuosic fourth.
Singers have the advantage of words to express emotions directly, and the great song composers have expressed grief and anguish more strongly than any instrumental work can. Listen to "Die Liebe Farbe" from Schubert's "Die Schone Mullerin" or "Ich hab in Traum geweinet" from Schumann's "Dichterliebe" or everything from the first note to the last of Schubert's "Wintereisse." This is some of the greatest music ever written. You can't be the best musician you can possibly be without getting to know this music.
You can play even the saddest solo with perfect tone and musicality but without emotion. On the other hand, if you're feeling sad, people will hear it in your playing regardless of what's built into the solo. It's what you make of it. The saddest thing I ever played was a song by George Kleinsinger called "I met a moth" from his forgotton show "Archie & Mehitabel." It's much too complicated to explain fully, but a moth describes how much he wants to experience pure beauty by flying into a flame. He then flies in, leaving the narrator to muse about how it's nothing he would want to do, but he wished there was something he wanted that much. I picked up my clarinet one morning, very depressed, and dredged the song up from my memory 20 years before. I don't think I've ever played more intensely - a very sad song played in a very sad mood.
The music can only give you an opportunity to express what you feel. It's up to you to seize the opportunity. To make great music, you need to use everything you know and everything you feel, and reach out to the best, worst, saddest and most joyous expressions the world has to offer.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Donn
Date: 2000-04-10 22:58
I think you may have missed your calling: i.e. to be a writer rather than a musician. If I could express myself
as well as you...........
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: brian
Date: 2000-04-11 00:12
I've always found the solos from the Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony to be especially moving as well.
I have had the priveledge of working with our church choir in preparing a simple arrangement of Bach's "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" for Good Friday services that includes a clarinet accompaniment (played by me)that is mournful and beautiful.
What a great thread! Let's hear from the rest of you.
brian
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Alphie
Date: 2000-04-11 12:27
"E lucevan le stelle", from the opening of the third act of "Tosca", is by far the most sorrowful and heart-bleeding solo that I can think of. Pour Mario is sitting in his dark cell listening to the shepard's song at dawn the same morning that he is going to be executed, singing the song to life. It ends: "Vanished for ever is my dream of love... That time has fled and I die in despair. Never have I loved life so dearly".
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: steve
Date: 2000-04-11 14:06
ken, have you considered writing essays about the clarinet, music, and life?? I think that young musicians who are just on the verge of putting it all together would find your insights very valuable, especially written in the expressive, clear style you have...
gut wrenching clarinet solos?..hmmmmm.....I agree with Alphie that the solo from Tosca could increase prozac sales after the concert...possibly the worst experience I had playing emotionally charged music as a clarinetist was when I played Mahler's Kindertotenleider....no intense solo spots, but the clarinet parts contributed to the overall feeling of sorrow......
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Graham Elliott
Date: 2000-04-11 16:46
Three from Rachmaninov are: orchestral version of Vocalise, slow movements of symphony 2 and piano concerto 2. From opera, the resigned but haunting interjection in Saen Saens (pardon spelling!) Softly Awakes My Heart.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: paul
Date: 2000-04-12 21:21
I think Ken Shaw's writing brings tears to my eyes. Tears of appreciation. It's eloquent, beautifully poetic, and technically superb.
Remember, music is a window to the soul. I listen to professionally produced music of all kinds, basing my selection on what I feel like at the time. Classical for study and appreciation, snappy marches for beautiful spring days with the smell of fresh cut grass in the background, sizzling jazz for when I have burgers on the grill, quiet instrumentals for listening to the leaves rustle in the trees, and wild rock-n-roll when I'm playing with my puppy dogs in the back yard.
Yet, I still can't get the message of child-like hope in such a simple song as "Over the Rainbow" when I play my clarinet. I can play the notes, but the sense of emotion is still missing. As an adult novice, my playing is still quite sterile sounding. My pro tutor demonstrated how a clarinet player could put the right kinds of embellishments on a simple song to elicit an emotional feeling. He played "Georgia On My Mind", using the music from my fake book as the basis of the melody. He transformed in my mind our cold, cramped music studio room into a steamy open meadow somewhere in the Deep South on a summer afternoon. That's the mark of a real pro.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Dee
Date: 2000-04-14 16:19
Alphie wrote:
-------------------------------
"E lucevan le stelle", from the opening of the third act of "Tosca"...
-------------------------------
Not only is it sad but also musically beautiful. Combine the emotion and melody and there won't be a dry eye in the house.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2000-04-15 22:12
Great contributions, y'all, have just listened to NPR this "Afternoon [of a Faun]" of Debussy, with "Le Mer". It is about all the emotion I need in reading patents! Brymer suggests D's "Rhapsodie" , [unfamiliar! will have to look it up] as representing the "French School". Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
