 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2007-03-02 09:52
Hello
In an Israeli newspaper there was an interesting article, mostly about philosophy of music and teaching, which I thought is worth translating, at least some parts of it. It is about (and with quotes from) David Grailsammer [not sure about the name spelling in English]. He is a pianist and graduate of Juilliard. Two years ago he won first prize in the Juilliard student piano competition. It is a summation in my own words, and some quotes from David Grailsammer. Square brackets [ ] are my comments, and according to GBK I kept quotes for at most three sentences for copyright reasons.
After a paragraph about how successful he is, etc. here is some of what he says about Juilliard (quote: "where graduates receive a 'mark' of excellence") - he wants to keep the good memories, but also to disconnect from other: "In the Juilliard enterence exam you must play a Beethoven soanta, and that's already a pre-determination of the aesthetic and mental world of the students." He continues: "when you walk around the halls, eating your sandwich, and you hear the music coming out of the practice room, this world continues to mold. When you hear the music played in students' concerts, what music is talked about during breaks, and the reactions when you play Ianacek [spelling?], this world settles completely."
He mentions a specific case which had a big influence on him: "In the lobby in Juilliard I saw three posters for graduation recitals and they were identical. Not only the classical and romatic pieces [it is implied no piece from other genres was played in these recitals] were identical, even the order in which they were played was the same. That was a warning for me, the sort of thing you can never forget."
He says his passion for individualism, not necessarily by the tradition of Juillaird, brought him to choose Mozart concertos for his first CD: "after six years in Juilliard if we were asked to hum a Mozart concerto, we could come up with 10 at most, but Mozart wrote 27. Some pianists had a big career, and some are famous teachers, without ever even opening these partitures."
Grailsammer played all his life Schumann, Beethoven, Mozart, and everyting the classical repertoire had to offer him. Only now he starts to look into the present and the major things happening in music today: "The wonderful things of the past can sometimes become a burden. A world where the puzzle is already put together and given to you - is dangerous. Every teacher teaches like this, and I no longer accept it."
When the interviewer asks what a classical performer, with the past being the essence of what he does, can do about this, he replies: "Investigate, explore, and don't be intellectually lazy. Don't automatically swallow everything you are fed - academically, artistically, and also politically."
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2007-03-02 13:42
This is where a teacher can make a difference in a student's point of view. When preparing students for their exams, here we have to tell a student how the RCM wants to hear things, usually pretty standard stuff. However why not explain to the student that this is the way THEY like to hear things, but encourage the student's experimentation with their own styles, as long as they understand they can't do that in an exam. I've had a student play an exercise almost in a jazz style and it was so refreshing to hear! I really encourage experimentation in my studio as long as they're able to play it "straight" as well, and understand the difference.
I've heard of audience members who will strongly criticize a professional's choice for a cadenza - a thought that's incomprehensible to me. These are supposed to be different from the last performer! Maybe it's the rebel inside that comes out, but I don't look highly on what I see as stodgy old ideas of what's "right and wrong". Except for playing exams, when you depend on others to decide your grade! My father had a good thought that carried me through high school tests - he'd say "give them what they want", even when the teacher knew I didn't agree with it. At least that philosophy earned me a great grade average at graduation without compromising my beliefs.
Also I've been discovering other composers of clarinet music from the Carribean, South America and Africa. The fascinating rhythms (some are the 5/4 that we'd discussed previously) can add such excitement to learning and to a recital for that matter! Paquito D'Rivera and other South American composers come to mind and for sure there are so many others to be discovered and performed.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2007-03-02 14:17
Brenda- can you mention the names of some African composers? I'm from South Africa and I'm always looking for African clarinet music. Thanks!
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Author: Brenda ★2017
Date: 2007-03-02 14:42
This site was mentioned about a week ago on this Bulletin Board. If you nose around the International Opus site you can print off a catalogue of all kinds of music. There are some African composers featured here as well. What's nice is that some pieces are arranged for clarinet and different kinds of ensembles, so there's a lot of variety here. Paquito D'Rivera has some pieces arranged several ways depending on the group you're looking for.
http://www.internationalopus.com/cgi-bin/io.pl?mode=composer&composer=9
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Author: donald
Date: 2007-03-02 16:20
There are piles of good music from "other countries"
i've performed several recitals at Clarinetfests etc to promote NZ music (some of which is so so, some of which is very good, some of which is world class) and handed out booklets/demo CDs etc.
I'd be interested to find out what music composers are writing in Iceland for example, another isolated Island (with a "clarinet link" to NZ, actually).
donald
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Author: JTS
Date: 2007-03-02 17:09
"A world where the puzzle is already put together and given to you - is dangerous. Every teacher teaches like this, and I no longer accept it."
I graduated from Juilliard recently, and this statement is certainly not true. My teacher, Ricardo Morales, was concerned mostly with teaching me to teach myself, and was very focused on helping me find my own way of playing. As far as rep., many people at juilliard love music from Perotin to Bach to Xenakis, and while I would have been just as happy to play Brahms (and play it my way of course) I programed Adams and Reich on my Recitals instead. While at school I was involved in starting Juilliard's Axiom Ensemble, which is dedicated to large chamber works of the 20th century, studied composition, and even got together some large ensembles myself to do 20th century music.
Juilliard is like most schools, you will get out of it what you put in. Musical personalities and playing styles range from the mind-numbingly boring to the fantastic and borderline insane. And those post recital/concert discussions, in my experience, did more to shake up people's ideas, than to solidify some "universal standard" of interpretation.
James
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2007-03-04 06:05
James, I think he only meant the piano teachers. I don't know if he had much experience with the clarinet teachers. Anyway I'm not in a position to argue since I only quoted this from the article.
Sarah, it was in Haaretz newspaper.
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Author: Sarah Elbaz
Date: 2007-03-04 17:52
Hi Clarni,
Please give me some more information: who wrote it : Hagai or Noam and if you can remember when. I looked in haaretz and didn't find it.
Thanks,
sarah
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2007-03-05 06:25
Hi Sarah
If I remember it was Noam. I think I have it saved somewhere so I'll email it to you.
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