 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-04-08 04:11
Does anyone have experience playing Mahler's 1st Symphony with the 2nd clarinet doubling the Eb part? There are four separate parts: 1, 2, 3/bass, and 4th in Eb. Please, this is not an invitation to discuss whether it should be done or not. I just want to know if someone has experienced this and how it worked out.
johng
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Author: Ben
Date: 2006-04-08 04:41
I played the 3rd part in Aspen last summer; the one switching from Bass/C/Bb/A/and Eb clarinets. The hardest part was carrying all the instruments to and from the rehearsals plus my clarinet stands (everything but a C clarinet)! Definately a great piece to play, though.
Are you suggesting the 2nd part take the Eb parts from the 3rd part? If so, why not just do it as Mahler wrote it?
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Author: Alexis
Date: 2006-04-08 07:42
Not exactly sure what you are asking but...
last time I did it we split it as follows:
1st - Bb/A/c
2nd - Bb/A/C and the Eb part in mvt 3 taken from Cl.3 (the bass part)
3rd - Bass/Bb/A/C (and this covers the 2nd part on Bb while the 2nd palys the Eb part)
4th - Eb (and about two bars on A clarinet...)
This is basically to avoid having the 3rd player carrying a billion clarinets...(and to save their embouchure perhaps?)
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-04-08 15:59
Alexis - It looks like you still used 4 players. What I am asking about is how to use 3 players.
johng
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2006-04-08 17:55
I played the third part last fall. It actually calls for: Bass, A, Eb, and C. There is no Bb called for (other than Bb bass) in this part, making this one of the rare concerts where I brought just about everything but the Bb.
As far as trying to cover the four parts with 3 clarinets, I doubt you'll find it done very often. I expect that most orchestras good enough to attempt this piece can come up with four clarinetists. But if you have to do it:
1st Movement: There is very little overlap between the Bass clarinet part (3rd clarinet) and the Eb clarinet part (4th clarinet) in this movement, so the same player could probably cover both parts, playing bass in the early sections and then switching to Eb for the latter ones.
2nd Movement: The 4th part is tacit in this movement, so three (A) clarinets are all you need there.
3rd Movement: In this movement, (according to a quick and therefore possibly slightly inaccurate chart I made), it looks like all four clarinets play between rehearsal numbers: 3-4, 7-8, 13-14, and 18-19. Between 6-7 and again 7-8 are an important exposed duet between the 3rd clarinet (playing the lead part on Eb) and the 4th clarinet (playing the harmony part on Eb). The 1st and 2nd clarinets do not play during these duets but do play between them. If the 1st or 2nd clarinetist is to cover (preferably) the lower part of the duet, they would almost certainly have to transpose because there really isn't enough time for a switch. In the other places where all four clarinets play, you might have to do without the least important part but could probably get by with some rewriting of parts. Except for clarinetists in the audience who were intimately familiar with the parts, the changes would probably go unnoticed.
4th Movement: At least for purists, this movement probably poses the greatest challenge. All four clarinetists play in the following sections (denoted by rehearsal number), usually together: 1-2, 3-4, 5-14, 22-25, 28-31, 32-37, 50-end. You catch a small break here in that all the clarinetists are playing sopranos (3 C's and an Eb) and, in many cases much of the music is doubled in other instruments. Here, you would simply have to decide what is least important and, possibly, rewrite some parts. (Though, if memory serves, in most of the movement, the 3rd part would probably be the most logical one to drop.)
I guess you could do it if you have to -- but I don't think it's ideal. I also think the best situation for this would be if the Bass player also plays Eb. If the 2nd plays the Eb part, you'll have to do more trading around of parts, particularly in the first and fourth movements.
Best regards,
jnk
Post Edited (2006-04-08 18:06)
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