 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kenabbott
Date: 2009-08-02 15:16
I've been an instrumentalist my entire life, but haven't had much exposure to choral music beyond sitting quietly in my seat during school concerts and listening politely. I want to learn about choral music from a historical standpoint.
I had some classroom time with it when I took musicology courses in college. Is there any survey material on the web? Books with discographies? Web courses?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-08-03 00:08
Ken -
Choral music goes back forever, and it's the foundation of instrumental music. I sang for many years in a semi-professional chorus and learned at least as much from it as I learned from studying clarinet.
I'd suggest getting into a decent chorus -- that is, made up of people who read music easily and sing in tune. There's an infinite amount of music, from Gregorian chant to the present. Harvard has a great choral performing tradition, and as an alum you can undoubtedly find fellow-alums who are performing. You'll be miles ahead of most singers, since you can sight-read clarinet music that goes far faster than any choral music, and you can hear intervals by silently using clarinet fingerings instead of learning solfeggio.
There's a monster free library of choral music at the Choral Public Domain Library http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page and another at the Icking Archive http://icking-music-archive.org/. The standard book of Elizabethan madrigals in English is The A Cappella Singer http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/The-A-Cappella-Singer/689925, which every serious chorus practically memorizes. Even years later, I can sing through it without the music. For earlier music, go to An English Medieval and Renaissance Songbook, compiled by Noah Greenberg of the New York Pro Musica http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/An-English-Medieval-and-Renaissance-Songbook/3996228.
If you're not familiar with lieder, you should start listening to that too. Start with Schubert and Schumann and keep going.
My wife is a music historian and will chime in with book suggestions in a day or two.
You're on the verge of great discoveries.
Ken Shaw
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-08-03 00:37
Ken Shaw wrote:
> You'll be miles ahead of most singers, since you can sight-read
> clarinet music that goes far faster than any choral music, and
> you can hear intervals by silently using clarinet fingerings
> instead of learning solfeggio.
Great way to practice reading bass clef, too. (for the guys, anyway )
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2009-08-03 10:13
> you can hear intervals by silently using clarinet fingerings
Eh?
(please explain!)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-08-03 15:58
Bassie -
When I see and play an interval on clarinet, I know and hear how it will sound before I play it by recognizing the shape the two notes make. I've played each scale, arpeggio and interval probably 100,000 times and have developed an aural memory of how that shape sounds. For example, when I see the major third shape C-E, I play the C and hear the E before and as I play it. The same thing happens when I sing.
Now take a less familiar interval -- lets say a minor 7th (for example, the first two notes of "There's a Time for Us" from West Side Story). When I play, for example, C-Bb, on clarinet, I see the minor 7th shape and hear it before and as I play it. I do the same as I sing, cuing it if necessary with "There's a Time for Us."
In addition, and more important for vocal music, playing an interval 100,000 times builds an aural memory connection between the interval and the associated finger movement. This works in both directions -- I hear the interval and make the finger movement, and I MAKE THE FINGER MOVEMENT AND HEAR THE INTERVAL.
When I sing, I press my fingers against the choral music to finger the interval, and I hear the interval before and as I sing it, using the double cue of the interval shape and my finger movements.
Solfeggio does the same thing. Solfeggists see C-E and sing Do-Mi. For C-Bb, they sing Do-Li. After 10,000 repetitions, they associate each note and interval with the syllables and syllable sequence.
I assume many if not most people do this automatically. It's just when singing I concentrate on it to help with the intervals.
Ken Shaw
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