 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tigerli13
Date: 2007-03-12 06:31
Does anyone know where to obtain a copy of Andrew Simon's recording of the Copland's Clarinet Concerto? His albums do not include the song track, so I have a difficult time finding a live performance recording.
I'm currently playing/studying the piece and I have questions on how to approach it in a way that rightly capture the brazilian spirit and comply with the composer's intention of how it should be played. Any facts/studies of Copland's style and stories behind the concerto would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-03-12 12:22
Tigerli13 wrote:
> Any facts/studies of Copland's style
> and stories behind the concerto would be appreciated. Thanks!
3 excellent articles appeared in The Clarinet magazine:
Volume 12 No 4
Volume 19 No 2
Volume 23 No 1
Additionally, a search in the archives will provide much to read ...GBK
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Author: William
Date: 2007-03-12 14:31
"Brazilian" spirit???? Aaron wrote his Concerto for Benny Goodman and it's inspiration is American jazz. If you truely want to research the composers "intentions", I would recommend--in addtion to the above articals--the recording, "Meeting at the Summit", done by Benny Goodman and conducted by Aaron Copland. There are other more technically perfect and more impeccably in tune recordings of the Copland Concerto, but nobody has performed it more musically than Benny.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-03-12 15:57
How many different recordings of the Copeland concerto has Benny Goodman done?
And which is considered the most definitive?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: claritoot26
Date: 2007-03-12 15:58
William,
Yes, there is indeed a Brazilian spirit which inspired Copland during the writing of the clarinet concerto. He wrote much of the second movement and cadenza while visiting Brazil and shortly after returning to the States. Although commissioned by the American jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, the dance themes in the second "movement" were inspired by native Brazilian music.
Tigerli13, here is an interesting note which may help with your study: the Library of Congress website has the sketches of this concerto available online, and also some correspondence about it. You can see the last page of the concerto was originally much more difficult and higher before Benny Goodman requested some changes to make it more manageable. Here is a link:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/copland/skettitlesC.html
These images were used in researching the articles that appeared in The Clarinet that GBK mentions.
Happy clarinetting to all...
Lori
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Author: Tigerli13
Date: 2007-03-13 02:26
Hi claritoot26,
Yes! I was awared of the fact that some of the high notes were a half-step or whole-step down from the original notes that Copland intended I heard the reason that he did so was because Benny Goodman was not confident in performing those notes, though I cannot say that was definitely the fact. For instance, going into the "Rather Fast" section at meansure 120, Copland originally wrote an "A," but he compromised it to an F sharp (It's a scale going all the way up). I'm glad that you mentioned about the availability of the original manuscript. I'll definitely look into that.
Also, I've been listening to some Brazilian tones to make myself adopt to the rhythm and emotion of the style of music. However, I was confused about whether Copland composed the Rondo based on Brazilian popular music or Brazilian Jazz. Any ideas?
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Author: Alexis
Date: 2007-03-13 06:49
I reckon its Brazillian popular music. I think it was from a popular tune he heard while working in Brazil.
The big nod to jazz is in the tune following some of that high stuff with the walking bass on beats 2 and 4. Also on the same page, that dotted rhythm (which to my mind, is evidence that the ordinary quavers should not be swung)
Just out of interest, does anyone know if the 'original' version has been published? Or have players just gone to the sketches and worked it out themselves?
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Author: joeyscl
Date: 2007-03-13 07:23
i read somewhere on the Orginigal goes up to a C# somewhere... (haven't heard any recordings of the Orginal though)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-03-13 08:24
The first version of the Concerto had the clarinet ending the cadenza with (written) B6 and C#7.
Also, 5 measures from the end of the entire piece, Copland had originally written the clarinet notes A#6 and C#7 ...GBK
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Author: claritoot26
Date: 2007-03-13 14:00
To my knowledge, the original sketches of the Concerto have not been published, recorded, or performed.
Tigerli13, there is an excerpt in the book "Copland: A Reader" about the clarinet concerto in which Copland wrote "...Some of this material represents an unconscious fusion of elements obviously related to North and South American popular music. (For example, a phrase from a currently popular Brazilian tune, heard by me in Rio, became imbedded in the secondary material in F major.)"
I also sort of tried to figure out what tune this might have been while writing a paper for a seminar on Aaron Copland, but I never found a match. Would be interested to know if you have better luck with that.
Cheers,
Claritoot26
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Author: Tom Piercy
Date: 2007-03-13 17:36
You can hear a recording of the original version:
Conductor: Yuli Turovsky
Performer: Charles Neidich
Orchestra: I Musici de Montréal
Label: Chandos
Tom Piercy
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