 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-12-01 00:19
I have a completely trivial question that came up as I was reading through a copy of the Jeanjean Vade-Mecum du Clarinettiste I recently bought:
In the etude III - Special Work for the Right Hand there comes a point when the player repeats a B-major arpeggio with an auxiliary G-sharp - F#5-D#5-B5-G#5. The interval from B to G# is marked (I suppose by Jeanjean?) "gliss." with a line under it - just as if he were marking a glissando, as in Rhapsody In Blue or the Copland Concerto. But in this case it clearly means to *slide* (glisser is to slide in french) the LH 5th finger (pinky) from the LH B lever to the G#. I've never seen this use of "gliss." Is this the way French-speaking clarinetists generally refer to this finger movement and others necessitated by the lack of a LH D#/Eb on standard clarinets? Does the instruction get its meaning simply from context or do French speakers differentiate in some other way between this kind of finger slide and the pitch slide one usually means by the Italian term glissando? Obviously, the distinction would be applicable only for woodwinds.
What is the unabbreviated form of glisser used for a pitch slide? Glissant would be the equivalent, I think, of glissando (present participle)? Is the same verb form used for sliding a finger?
Not earthshaking or even very important - it just piqued my curiosity.
Karl
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-01 01:27
What a good question. I hadn't really thought much about it and just assumed that they were glissandos. Since going from the B to the G# is a pretty big leap for the left pinky, I figured maybe Jeanjean's idea was to fill in the space between the notes with a gliss. rather than a blip in the sound.
On the other hand, if it's possible to do a smooth finger slide from the B to the G# (I've never tried it--I've always just switched pinkies in situations like that one), that would seem to make a lot more sense, wouldn't it? I've always felt a little silly playing those as glissandos.
I have another Jeanjean piece at home that does contain a bona fide glissando, Guisganderie. I can't remember whether it's abbreviated as "gliss." there or not, though. I'll have to look when I'm at home.
By the way, have you taken a look at the last etude in the book (the expressive one)? I opened a thread a couple of weeks ago about that one because I was having a little trouble deciphering some of the French. Peter was able to answer some of my questions, but some of the other markings (like "sans nuances") I still don't quite understand. Do you know what he's talking about there?
Here's my old thread:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=315236&t=315236
Post Edited (2009-12-01 01:28)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-12-01 02:02
"Sans nuance" means without nuance - without expression, or at least without expressive changes in dynamic level, and without vibrato (sans nuances ni vibrato). He wants the tone to remain steady and controlled and as soft as possible over the first long phrase. Only in measure 8 does he request vibrato and changes in volume. At measure 12 he says très expressif.
It's annotated almost as densely as a Mahler score (with all those German instructions). There's isn't nearly so much text in other Jeanjean etudes I've practiced.
Karl
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-01 03:55
Thanks. That makes more sense. I'd probably actually prefer to be reading a Mahler score, since I studied German in college (1 hour short of a minor, actually). Most of the little French I know I taught myself (or picked up from family, half of whom come from Louisiana).
I did check the score to Guidganderie, and it does abbreviate glissando as gliss.
So it's quite possible that he does mean for you to glissando in Vade Mecum, but after thinking about it, it seems that if it's possible to learn to smoothly make the slide from B to G# without a glissando, that would be the more valuable thing to try to practice here.
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