 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mikal
Date: 2003-08-12 04:17
Hi!
Can anyone give me some tips in playing the whole mozart concerto?
Also is there anything special that i need to pay attention to when i play the mozart concerto?
thx
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-08-12 04:43
Mikal asked:
>Can anyone give me some tips in playing the whole mozart concerto?
3 Key words: Listen - Absorb - Create
Listen to a number of interpretations
Absorb the different styles of playing/phrasing/shaping/ etc...
Create something uniquely your own.
>Also is there anything special that i need to pay attention to when i play the mozart >concerto?
The first note of the piece, the last note of the piece, and everything in between ...GBK
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-08-12 04:46
My advice is to find someone knowledgable and play it for them and get their comments. From my studies, I've noticed that people are, for some reason, extraordinarily picky with certain pieces (Mozart and Brahms in particular). It seems like literally have a criticism for every single note!!! (I would just accept that I'm bad at clarinet, but I can play other pieces and they think I'm doing great). For whatever reason, these pieces seem to require much more attention than other pieces, so it's not really possible to tell a person how to play them without being able to listen to them, critique, and teach by example... Find a teacher (or at least a person knowledgable in Mozart's compositional style) and get their input... Also get recordings and listen to them and compare how they approach it...
Don Hite
PS - when I say "extraordinarily" picky, I mean that I can play a less well known piece and my teacher has little to say, but when I play the Mozart, I play the first G and he stops me and tells me how i played it incorrectly (which seems odd to me, since proper phrasing is based on the relationship between the notes, so there'd have to be AT LEAST two notes before a phrase could be established, let alone played improperly!) Few questions about this...
1) do my experiences with these pieces ring true for others, or do I just have a weird teacher?
2) if they are true for others, are teachers overly picky on Mozart/Brahms etc, or are they "underly" (not a word, but whatever) picky on less well known pieces. I personally think that all pieces should deserve the same amount of care and effort in preparation, but maybe I'm wrong....
Any opinions on this?
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Author: Keil
Date: 2003-08-13 00:55
Don you pose 2 great questions. So great i think they deserve a category all their own as to not distract from the original poster's question.
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Author: Keil
Date: 2003-08-13 00:56
for the mozart mikal if you're in the U.S. i say listen to a recording of Robert Marcellus with the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of George Szell and you'll get pretty much what american clarinetist in general are looking for... emphasis on AMERICAN clarinetist. I think other countries have their own DEFINITIVE recording of this piece.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2003-08-13 05:04
As for the questions, I will provide MY opinion. I think that teachers are overly picky with Mozart. (I haven't played Brahms so I don't have experience in that part). The reason I think that they are so picky is because many people consider it to be the best piece written for the clarinet to date. Also, I've heard (and agree from my limited knowledge of mozart), that movement II could possibly be the most beautiful piece he's written in his lifetime. Therefore, people would want it played as beautifully as could be since it DESERVES nothing less than perfection. But then again, shouldn't you strive for perfection with every piece?
For example, would you expect someone to take better care of their 1965 shelby cobra GT500, or their 1998 ford escort LX? Both are cars. But one is just more "special" to that person and many others. Bad example, I know, but I just LOVE trying to find examples that I can morph to relate to clarinetting.
My personal experience was only with movements II and III. My professor didn't want me to play movement I (even though I personally think it's easier to play than the second OR third). As I played the very first note (the C) on movement II, I was told what to do. As I played the first phrase, there was a tip. When I entered in from the 8 bar rest, there was a tip. Just an amazing amount of tips. However I did try a little to make it my own (including adding in a turnover towards the end - was that a bad idea?). However when I played that turnover I gave a slight smirk to my teacher in the back of the audience who seemed to think it was a good little addition and was surprised at my "improving".
US Army Japan Band
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2003-08-13 05:55
I might make a slight modification to GBK's suggestion.
Listen, Absorb, Create... yes.
However, I would pop an extra Create at the start.
Create, Listen, Absorb, Create
I find personally that if I listen to a piece before having played it a while, I completely emulate the recordings I listen to, and get a bit stuck with them. It becomes more difficult to create a style of my own if my clean slate begins with someone else's interpretation.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2003-08-13 16:18
Only half kidding, I'd say "be afraid...be very afraid!" People are possesive about the K622. Everyone has heard it, many if not most can hear the entire piece note for note/phrase for phrase in our heads and everyone has an opinion. Add to that the nearly flawless nature of the work in which anything less than near perfection stands out.
My teacher said (paraphrasing) "it is possibly the worst choice for a contest piece you can make." There are very few pieces that your performance is almost automatically compared to that of Marcellus or someone of equal calibre.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-08-13 16:44
Rick...Interesting comment by your teacher re: K.622 (and I partially agree), but do remember that virtually every major orchestral audition requires it to be played (flawlessly) ...GBK
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2003-08-14 10:08
GBK:
99% of her students are in HS. She coaches/teaches woodwind sections for a number of area HS's. As such her students are involved in regional/state competitions and she has judged numerous such contests herself and she said the judges score the k622 lower on average than other works, hence the comment. In other words, the expectations for the Concerto are higher so why put the student at a disadvantage?
RW
Best
Rick
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Author: Phat Cat
Date: 2003-08-14 11:43
With a few exceptions, it is relatively easy to "play the notes" of K622. It is quite a different matter to "play the music." The genius of Mozart is that the whole is much greater than the sum of the notes. The apparent simplicity exposes the performer’s musicality, or lack thereof, in every note, in the spaces around the notes and in the silence between the notes.
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2003-08-14 17:04
I know I already made a separate post about this some time ago... but I have to say it again. I don't buy the "mozart is harder to play" thing... I COMPLETELY agree that playing the notes of a piece is not the same thing as playing the music. I also COMPLETELY agree that playing notes, spaces around notes, rests all perfectly are essential to playing a piece properly. That being said, I mean ANY PIECE!
I will agree that the Mozart is judged more harshly, but I think it's stupid that it gets such a disproportional amount of attention.... I have no problem with being picky on the Mozart, but I hate the fact that someone can butcher an unknown piece and we look the other way, but someone starts the Mozart, and we get disgusted before we even hear the end of the first phrase...
So should get be less picky on the mozart or should we be more picky on the rest of the pieces? My personal opinion is that with a piece like the Mozart or the Brahms, we all know it so well and are AWARE of how properly it "should" be played, that we are sort of programmed to listen for mistakes and be overly critical. I mean, what's the point of comparing someone's Mozart to Marcellus's? In my opinion, it's a REALLY good thing that not all clarinet's play like Marcellus. How much fun would that be? Obviously, this doesn't mean that I think we should ignoring technical deficiencies... but if someone interprets it differently than him, why make the comparison? It just leads to criticism and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to enjoy the piece of music that we all claim to love so much!
Don't feel like starting a fight... just wanted to say.
DHite
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Author: Phat Cat
Date: 2003-08-14 17:20
sublime: of outstanding spiritual, intellectual, or moral worth
profound: difficult to fathom or understand
transcendent: extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience
obtuse: an angle exceeding 90 degrees and less then 180 degrees
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