 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 1999-03-11 06:27
In each instruments almost all authors of methods recommend to practice opera arias to learn musical expression.
Does anybody use a this kind of book? If so,I would be happy to know the book.
Thank you in advance
p.s.I was seeking one these 6 months but could not find any in Japanse musical sheet music shops.If I could obtain one,I would purchase area CDs to know how singers play them.After that,I would like to play them in clarinet!
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-03-11 12:10
Hiroshi wrote:
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In each instruments almost all authors of methods recommend to practice opera arias to learn musical expression.
Does anybody use a this kind of book? If so,I would be happy to know the book.
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Drop Ben Armato a line. Ben's a former clarinetist at the Met (he had throat cancer, which ended his career) and present clarinet teacher and all around wonderful person. He wrote "The Opera Clarinetist" and developed "The Reed Wizard", and is a Sponsor of Sneezy. I'll bet he could help you find the music! His email is BArmato1@aol.com .
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Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-03-11 15:11
In the mean time, you might pick up a copy of Lazarus Method for Clarinet. There are 15 operetic melodies in book one from Lazarus' Anna Bolena and Gazza Ladra. There are a couple more operetic pieces in book 2, and book 3 has several very challenging pieces (I am nowhere near ready to play these) including Fantasie from C.M. von Weber's opera Der Freischutz, an intermezzo from Tsar's Bride by Rimsky-Korsakoff, Concert Fantasia on motives from Bellini's opera La Sonnambula, written by E. Cavallini, and a Concert Fantasia on motives from Verdi's opera Rigoletto, by L. Bassi.
The book 3 pieces look like a lot of fun to play and I look forward to trying them when I'm ready for them.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-03-11 17:24
Hiroshi wrote:
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In each instruments almost all authors of methods recommend to practice opera arias to learn musical expression.
Does anybody use a this kind of book? If so,I would be happy to know the book.
Hiroshi -
There are relatively few opera arias transcribed directly for clarinet. The lack of words makes it difficult to bring them off. Also, the notes themselves are easy - too easy for intermediate players - yet the necessary intensity of playing makes the music unsuitable for beginners.
However, there are many sets of variations on operatic themes, mostly written by virtuoso players early in this century and published by Carl Fischer. As Rick2 said, a number of the solo parts are printed at the end of the Lazarus method, part 3. That book also contains 3 very nice duets on operatic themes and also some etudes using opera themes.
You won't learn what this music can teach you, though, without actually listening to the operas themselves. Opera is not about civilization. It's about violent emotions and violent actions. The sound of those enormous voices, at top volume and emotional pitch, is found nowhere else in music. You're either thrilled or repelled.
It's all too easy to play the nice tunes in, say, Bassi's Rigoletto Fantasia as if they were nursery rhymes and save your energy for the finger-wiggling in the variations. This is exactly wrong. You have to throw those melodies to the last row of the audience. Then in the variations, you have to pick out the notes of the melody and bring them out, to let the audience hear the melody, with the decoration filling in the gaps.
The theme and variation pieces give you a great opportunity to show off, and at least until you get into college, that's probably what you'll use them for. As you develop your musical personality to match your technique, you'll start to bring out the emotions and hold the audience's attention with the slow parts as well as the fast parts.
As you work on opera music, you *must* sing along as well as play along, no matter how bad your voice is. By doing both, you will learn to bind notes together into phrases that form an arch going from one end of a natural group of words to the other. Once you get the feeling with your voice (where it's much easier), work to do the same thing on the clarinet.
Another, similar thing to do is get a book of Schubert songs and some records. Listen to them first, to find out how they fit together, and then play along, trying to match the singer perfectly. (It's good transposing practice, too.) Listen for long lines of notes that hang together as a single unit. You do this with your breath, playing through each note to the next, with everything hanging together like a chain.
Anybody can be a virtuoso on the fast notes. Very few people are virtuosos on the slow melodies.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Ginny
Date: 1999-03-12 00:26
I don't know if playing arias is the direct point. Certain composers are played as if they are arias, Mozart being the foremost of this lot. It's an interperative point and a very important one for playing with passion and expression.
So, why don't clarinets emulate the singers vibrato anyhow?
Most instruments that can do, for the reason of sounding like the human voice.
Ginny
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Author: Rick2
Date: 1999-03-12 00:26
Ken,
Very nice post, thank-you for the information. I happen to be working on the adaggio operetic piece #2 in book #1 and have been trying to get the proper feel for it. Your input should help.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-03-12 00:38
Vibrato is a very important subject in clarinet playing; certainly vibrato was used on clarinet the two previous centuries, but fell out of favor this century. There's an article in the Study section on tghe clarinet and vibrato,
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 1999-03-12 01:18
Ken:
Thanks! I love Mario Del Monaco singing Carmen,and Maria Calas singing Toska.I don't seek to emulate their singings but how they express tunes.
Ginny:
This may offend you.But my preferences are vocal>violin>piano>clarinet(the left,the better).
We,clarinet players,can learn much from Maria Caras,Heifetz,and Rubinstein.
Mark:
I am sad to hear Mr.Ben Amato took throat cancer and retired from his position.
Yesterday,I bought a Boston Music CD of a Harold Wright recital.I was sad to read his sudden death in 1993(I believed he is still alive here in Japan).The note given by his wife shows how he is dedicated "all"(literally) of his life to music(not clarinet,it's a tool of expression).
Sorry for my misspelling(AREA=ARIA,WORLK=WORK).
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Author: Mark P.
Date: 1999-03-12 01:54
If you look at any of the old standard method books from the turn of the century, they all had excerpts from operas. And not the instrumental solos either. If I remember right Lazarus has many pages of fine duets composed of Italian opera from the 19th C. One of my teachers used them to teach my sight reading skills.
I think Baerman also has a number of operatic pieces.
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Author: Bill
Date: 1999-03-12 12:22
About 15 years ago I came across, bought, and subsequently lost a book of clarinet studies that would probably be just the thing for Hiroshi. The pieces weren't opera arias, but they were all based on vocal studies for music expression. All I remember now is that the editor was Italian. Maybe someone out there knows the book.
IMHO, I think what's important is not practicing opera arias, but playing pieces with operatic expression. There are a number of clarinet studies that are applicable for that:
1. A lot of Carl Baermann's studies.
2. Anything by Mozart.
3. The odd-numbered pieces in the 32 Studies book by Rose.
4. Pamela Weston (Fentone Music, Breitkopf & Hartel) has a nice collection "17 Clarinet Solos for Unaccompanied Clarinet" that has a number of aria-type solos from little known (to me) operas.
5. David Hite (Southern Music) has a great collection "Artistic Studies - Book 3 from the Italian School" that includes caprices and etudes by Cavallini and others. All meant to be played with "imaginative operatic expression and virtuosic flair." David Pino says in his book that the Cavallini pieces show "remarkable resemblance to Verdi's melodic style." And Hite includes in his collection the clarinet solo from La Forza del Destino, which Verdi wrote for Cavallini and Jack Brymer describes as "a nostalgic aria, a most beautiful and florid tune."
Along the same lines, Benny Goodman recorded the two Weber concertos with the Chicago Symphony. I remember reading a record review in which the reviewer said that the concertos were actually extended opera arias that Benny played "con gusto" like an opera diva (or words to that effect).
I've heard or read many times that a clarinetist should play a piece as if he or she were singing it like an opera singer, but I didn't realize that it can work the other way also. Then I heard a Met broadcast this season that included an interview with Roberta Peters, the coloratura soprano. She related that, when she was a young singer studying voice, her teacher had her sing clarinet exercises to develop virtuosity. I'd have liked to have heard her sing some of the Cavallini caprices.
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Author: Mario
Date: 1999-03-16 16:20
An naturally, a lot of the Weber work for the clarinet has strong opera connotations.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 1999-03-17 06:35
Thank you.But everyone came with my original subject with two errors....
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