 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ALOMARvelous12
Date: 2003-02-23 02:09
Two months later, I've got all the notes and rythms nailed down for the concerto (well maybe except for a little bit uneven rondo). So now, what's next? Is playing this piece over and over again good enough to learn how to interpret it? Or is this composition so deep that you must know something in order to make it your own? It's just that I've heard so much about how this concerto is much more difficult beyond its surface, but I haven't figured out how and why?
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Author: intoClar
Date: 2003-02-23 02:58
You could start by listening to some recordings of the piece and hear what is there beyond the right notes and right rhythms. record yourself playing it, listen back to that, and start trying to add something other than just the notes. Listen to other pieces by Mozart and start getting a sense of his style.
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Author: ALOMARvelous12
Date: 2003-02-23 03:18
I've listened to the Robert Marcellus, David Shifrin, Sabine Meyer, Richard Stoltzman, Benny Goodman, and a couple of lesser known renditions. I think it is amazing how between all of those, there's some really pretty big differences and range, so I guess it is never boring to get an oppurtinity to listen to a new rendition never previously heard.
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Author: vin
Date: 2003-02-23 15:17
Get a copy of the score and look at all the parts that aren't the clarinet. This should help you find new ways to shape the line, find rhythmic stability when you are nervous, and help in memorizing the piece. Also, tape yourself section by section. Do you sound as good as your recordings? If not, what is the difference phrase by phrase, note by note? While of course I never sound quite as good as Marcellus and Meyer, this comparing and contrasting my tape with theirs has really improved my Mozart and other pieces. This is also extremely helpful for orchestra auditions.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-02-23 15:53
When you play the Marcellus recording, listen specifically to the connections he makes between the notes...GBK
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Author: Jerry
Date: 2003-02-23 23:07
I would like your opinion of what you like best and least in the style of playing in each of the 6 or 7 recordings you mentioned. In addtion to wanting to hear your opinion, once you list these "personal preferences", you will have a clearer picture in your own mind of what you want your style of playing that piece to become (or not become). Whatever prior understanding or aesthetic sensitivity you use as the basis of your stylistic preferences, it will be more natural to express your personal styling preferences in your interpretation, than someone else's opinion that you have not personally embraced.
Jerry
The Villages, FL
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-02-24 16:03
ALOMARvelous12 -
Following up on GBK's excellent advice, it's the little things that count.
Set your metronome at 60 (or, to make it really hard, at 40) and work on the connection between your first two notes, G-E. It has to be perfect, with no blip or ripple. You need to do it until you have “radar in your fingers,” and they know just where the holes are. This is *not* easy. You need to work on it thousands of times, over the course of weeks and months, to get to where it's perfect, every time.
Until you learn to get it right at a dead slow speed, anything faster is just faking.
Next, you work on the F-D interval in the next phrase. This interval has to be learned, just like G-E. Also, you have another problem, which is that if you "pop" your fingers down, you will get an audible thump that interrupts the interval. With this change, you need to learn to use your fingers in slow motion, stroking them down. Bonade was very insistent on learning this legato finger motion, and it's something you work on all your life.
You also need this legato motion for the following C-B change. If you aren't really careful, the large pad pops down, making a hollow noise that interrupts the line. You have to stroke the key, softly and smoothly, to get it down precisely but without any noise. Doing it with a key is much more difficult than doing it with a finger. You won't be able to do it at all for a while, and you get the feel of it only gradually.
Then comes something *really* hard -- the A-F interval in the tail of the next phrase, which requires coordinating the fingers on two hands. To make things worse, you have to follow it immediately with another interval, F-D, and then stroke the C key to avoid a pop.
Anyone can learn to be a virtuoso on the fact notes. There are very few virtuosos on the slow notes. Listen to Marcellus's recording of the Mozart Concerto. All those little things were perfect. That's what made him so much better than everyone else.
You've only just begun.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-02-24 16:48
Thanks Ken for elaborating and nicely clarifying my original posting.
As Ken correctly points out, the connections between the notes is an extremely difficult clarinet concept.
For more explanation, read the Bonade book by Carol Anne Kycia (actually this was a dissertation that is still in desperate need of a good editing).
Specifically look at Chapter 3, pages 54-73.
Bonade insisted on a technique called "fingers ahead". The Marcellus recording is a textbook example of its benefits...GBK
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Author: ALOMARvelous12
Date: 2003-02-24 22:39
Thanks Mr. Shaw for another great article of yours to copy, paste, and save onto my computer.
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Author: PJ
Date: 2003-02-26 02:53
I am most impressed with Ken's response to this thread. This was never pointed out to my in my preperation for this concerto and certainly makes the entire piece make so much sense!
Thanks Ken!!! Any upcoming Master Classes? Can I make reservations???
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Author: PJ
Date: 2003-02-26 02:54
I am most impressed with Ken's response to this thread. This was never pointed out to me in my preperation for this concerto and certainly makes the entire piece make so much sense!
Thanks Ken!!! Any upcoming Master Classes? Can I make reservations???
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