 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: sab15
Date: 2009-12-22 20:51
My teacher recently brought this in for me to try playing.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Steven
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: crnichols
Date: 2009-12-23 01:33
In my opinion, this is the finest of the three Reger sonatas. It looks deceivingly simple, until you put it together with a pianist! It's also quite long, upwards of 30 minutes.
The Karl Leister and John Bruce Yeh recordings are excellent listening resources. I wish you good luck. The other three movements are also wonderful!
Christopher Nichols, D.M.A.
Assistant Professor of Clarinet
University of Delaware
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sab15
Date: 2009-12-23 15:13
I got the mp3 album online that contained this particular movement of the sonata because it wasn't sold individually. It is indeed by Yeh. On the same album there is also the Sonata in A minor Op. 37 by Easley Blackwood. The 1st movement of that one - Molto Allegro - is really beautiful in my opinion. Do you know that one also?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-12-23 15:32
Steven -
The Reger sonatas are fine music, and the clarinet line at least appears to be technically not too difficult. However, these sonatas are *really* hard to put together, primarily because the melodic line constantly shifts between the clarinet and the piano, often in the middle of a phrase.
This means that you can't learn a Reger sonata by taking the clarinet part into a practice room and learning it cold. It won't make sense that way. In fact, it will be worse than useless, since you'll learn only parts of phrases.
The only way to learn these sonatas is to listen to recordings with the piano score in front of you, finding where the joints are and learning to feel and play complete phrases, even when they begin or end in the piano part.
In this way, it's like the solos in the third movement of the Beethoven 8th, where you're not playing little clarinet solos, but instead playing a single long solo, in which you trade off with the horns. See http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=768&t=768.
Therefore, always practice from the piano score. Get comfortable with the notes in your part and then go through, skipping back and forth between your part and the piano part, playing complete phrases. (Transposing the piano part will quickly become automatic.) You need to know the piano part as well as you know your own part.
The Reger Quintet is the same, except that it makes sense only when you know five parts!
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: sab15
Date: 2009-12-28 03:30
Oh, one more question here - I have smartmusic, which is an awesome web based accompaniment program. They have a ton of repertoire, but not everything unfortunately. Do you guys know where I could get the piano part to play along with? Just talking about the 1st movement of Op. 107 (for now at least). Thanks.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2009-12-28 11:31
I don't know whether there's a recorded piano part for any Reger sonata, but I doubt it. They aren't performed often enough to create a market that will let the maker earn back the cost.
Also, the hard part is balancing off and exchanging the phrases in a live performance. You and the pianist are like two people leaning playing cards together, continuously cooperating and striking a living balance. That's very different from trying to match a prerecorded piano.
As I said above, you need to listen to recordings and then practice from the piano part, switching between the clarinet and piano lines to play complete phrases. Ideally, your pianist will do the same, so that the two of you come to rehearsal knowing both parts. Then you can spend your time working on the musical phrases rather than just putting together the fragments.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Bubalooy
Date: 2009-12-29 21:32
I believe that Reger wrote these pieces before recording equipment was available. Was it impossible to learn them at that time? I know this sounds like a smart-ass comment and I apologize in advance, but I believe with careful analysis or the score, they're learnable. Actually, and I know it is an extreme position, I think you should know the score before you begin to play any piece. You revise your original decisions as you go along perhaps, but shouldn't you really have an idea of what you're trying to accomplish before you begin practicing?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
