 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: nes
Date: 2006-04-08 22:51
Presuming some of you have played the Nielsen, how long did you allow to learn it? If you want to give a really good performance of it (like everything) but to be assesed, how long do you think before hand you should you start working on it, even if at first it's just a learning the music and becoming familiar with the style, score, overall form etc.. ?
Thank you for your input
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Author: Llewsrac
Date: 2006-04-09 01:14
To learn the notes six weeks.
To understand the work, a life time.
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Author: Cuisleannach
Date: 2006-04-09 05:29
It really helps to do some research on the national character of the Danes. They have a certain worldview that is quite unique, and Nielsen was extremely representative of this worldview. It's almost a sense of humor. Apparently to truly understand it you should be able to speak the language, but I'm not quite that far along.
In my (extremely humble) opinion, it's not very wise to tackle the Nielsen technically if you are not yet proficient in reading the types of intervals you see in the Nielsen. In other words, you should have the facility to get the piece note-perfect in 4-6 weeks. If you're not there it's like learning to swim on the North Shore at the height of surfing season....it's possible but you'll have a hard time keeping your head above water.
There is a nice guide somewhere on the web...I'll have a look to see if I can find it. It's not a bad idea to get some help with some of the altissimo fingerings.....I personally recommend Thomas Ridenour's fingering book.
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Author: woodwind650
Date: 2006-04-09 18:13
i agree with everyone. work hard on your fundamentals so that the work in the nielson won't come as a suprise to you. i learned this piece for my senior recital, but spent the better half of 6 months just trying to learn the notes cleanly. i was very young then but was still determined to perform this. in the end it went well but it sure took me a while to learn.
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Author: crnichols
Date: 2006-04-09 19:38
This is one of my favorite pieces of all time! It has everything you could want in a piece of music, both from a performers view and a listeners view (at least I think so, some find it abstract). You can learn the notes in 6 weeks, but make sure that in that 6 weeks you are also studying the score, understanding how the soloist and orchestra interact (especially with the snare drum in this case). Think about carefully shaping all of the cadenzas, don't just flip them off as an opportunity to show off how fast you can play, the cadenzas also display the Danish character, and you must take this into account, even when he writes 32nd notes and such. Now, my advice on those technical passages. Analyze them from a theoretical standpoint first. Often you can identify a tetrachord that is linked to another tetrachord, and then repeated throughout the registers, or a repeated sequence of intervals transposed. If you take the time to understand these things, instead of having to think this note, this note, this note, you can think along the lines of this tetrachord and then this tetrachord, and then the same two an octave higher, you've saved yourself a ton of tedious work (if you're learning the Nielsen Concerto, you must know you scales very well at this point, and if you don't, you probably should hold off and spend 6 weeks on those instead). Well, that said, next you must understand the player that Nielsen wrote this for...Aage Oxenvad. Now, the story goes, that the Nielsen knew the members of the Royal Chapel Wind Quintet, and sought to write a concerto especially for each member, making a sort of musical portrait of them. Unfortunately Nielsen passed away after finishing only two of them, and I think we clarinetists are so lucky that one of the concertos he got arond to was for our instrument. Oxenvad was reputed to have a sort of night and day personality, the type that would have dramatic outbursts perhaps. I think that Nielsen portrays this side of his character very well...so obviously if you listen to the music, you need to get hysterical sometimes, and I don't think I need to tell you where exactly...it's pretty obvious. You have to think crazy sometimes in this music, bang pots around, stomp your feet, throw a tantrum, the music calls for it. Also, we have the benefit of two recordings of Oxenvad, the Serenata in Vano and the Quintet, which if you don't have, you should definitely get and listen to. It gives one a sense of the sort of playing Nielsen was expecting. It's the Nielsen Historic Recordings Disc on Clarinet Classics, catalog number CC0002. Also, my personal favorite recording of the Concerto is by Haken Rosengren. I think that he portrays the Danish style quite well, it's very exciting. Well, now I'll leave you to an exciting journey of study and discovery. Oh, one last thing, if you perform it with piano, you must find a good snare drum player. They should be happy to help you out, it's a major orchestral excerpt for them, and they probably already know it, and if they don't, they should.
Good Luck!
Christopher Nichols
1st Infantry Division Band
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-04-09 22:53
There are two great resources right here:
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/Nielsen.html and
http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Study/NielsenNotes.html
The first article tells about Aage Oxenvad, the composition of the Concerto and how to play it in the Danish manner. The second article includes over a hundred large and small corrections to the printed parts.
I agree with Chris Nichols that you must hear Oxenvad's playing. He was a major personality, with a powerful tone and style.
I've heard that there was a personality conflict between Oxenvad and the bassoonist Knud Lassen. Oxenvad had a short fuse, and Lassen loved to rib him. A whole movement of the Quintet is a satire of this, with the annoying bassoon setting off clarinet screaming fits.
Ken Shaw
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Author: ClarinetRepublican
Date: 2006-04-10 05:41
I put the concerto together last minute (last minute meaning a month) before an audition and I had one of the best auditions of my life. I think if you are really really strong in your technique meaning you've gone through a system like the albert or baermann (better if both) than its easier. But if you are really just learning the piece and don't have the scales down pat, you are going to have a hell of a hardtime.
The working clarinetist has a great outline on how to play the concerto.
I love the nielsen. Probably because I think I'm just as insane as the clarinetist it was written for so I kind of had a clear concept of what the musicality of it was and connected with the music.
I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I have.
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