 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: emily_heathcote
Date: 2010-10-27 23:29
I would like to know what excerpts people hate to play in auditions? out of interest?
Emily
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2010-10-28 01:06
All of them.
Orchestral excerpts are an unmusical waste of time. If people spent half as much time exploring the awesome possibilities of musical expression and exploration and insight and opinion as they do getting some out-of-context snippets finger-perfect, we might actually find ourselves with a vibrant, healthy musical scene that wasn't driving audiences away in droves.
If I had to pick one, it's that wretched Mendelssohn scherzo. Not so much because I hate to play it (which I do) but because I hate hearing everyone and their dog play it. I hate hearing it, I hate how unmusically tech-oriented it's played, and I especially hate that self-satisfied sh*t-eating grin people have when they play it, with their heads bobbing up and down, side to side, and their eyebrows dancing as if to say "look how gloriously fast my fingers are and bird-peckingly even my staccato is! It's like I'm doing magic!" Yes, you and 3000 other clarinetists. It's not THAT hard to play. Get over yourself and go play some real music, not 45 seconds in the style of midi.
End rant.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: grifffinity
Date: 2010-10-28 03:08
Stravinsky - FireChicken . HATE HATE HATE.
Quote:
Orchestral excerpts are an unmusical waste of time.
There is so much more to learning an excerpt outside of learning the notes. I never feel I truly understand an excerpt until I've played the entire work in orchestra. After I've played a work, learning it from the inside out, it becomes part of my body, my DNA. Playing along with a CD or score study alone is not the same as being immersed in the sound mid-orchestra and playing back and forth with live musicians. There is a lot of chemistry in play in a good orchestral wind section - and I suppose that is why there are trials after people win an audition.
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Author: andrewsong
Date: 2010-10-28 03:10
I think the challenge of playing an excerpt is managing to capture the musical implications, intentions, and thoughts of both the composer AND the piece in that condensed format. It's the same as playing the piece, just without some sections.
But one that bothers me the most is the Mendellsohn Scherzo. It's a finicky beast :D When played musically, it sounds awesome though!
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-10-28 03:49
By far Daphnes is the hardest for me. I'm able to articulate fairly well so Mendelssohn's Italian Sym isn't a huge issue.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2010-10-28 06:39
If I ever hold auditions for an ensemble, the excerpts will be ostinatos (ostinati?), offbeats, and whole notes. Everyone drills the solos until their fingers fall off, but I've met people who can't play supporting passages in a compelling manner to save their lives.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: emily_heathcote
Date: 2010-10-28 07:13
daphnis and mendelssohn are definitely up there in my hate list. I've been trying to "relearn to play the mesndelssohn musically" with my fake CD orchestra....
hopefully I'll get a chance to do it with orchestra soon so that I can put this one to bed!
Thanks
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-10-28 15:12
griffinity wrote,
>>Stravinsky - FireChicken . HATE HATE HATE.
>>
Why? (I'm curious because I love the ballet, but I've never auditioned with any of the clarinet parts from Firebird nor even put serious practice time into that music.)
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2010-10-28 15:13)
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Author: Morrigan
Date: 2010-10-28 16:26
Firebird, despite being my FAVOURITE work, is ridiculously difficult. I can tongue, so Mendelssohn isn't my pet hate, and I put the hours in to Daphnis when I was in college so it's nothing I can't handle. But Firebird... What is it it about the Variation of the Phoenix that makes it so hard?!
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Author: grifffinity
Date: 2010-10-29 01:48
Quote:
Why? (I'm curious because I love the ballet, but I've never auditioned with any of the clarinet parts from Firebird nor even put serious practice time into that music.)
The work as a whole is fabulous. The Variations as an excerpt I find problematic on a couple levels. First, the notoriously sloppy editing of the multiple editions of Firebird are just head spinning - although the 1919 edition is most often requested. Then you have the issue with the flute part that was mistakenly written into the clarinet part, with all its inaccurate rhythm and accidental issues....and then you have to choose which version of that measure to play. In the words of Peter Hadcock, " You shouldn't have to play it at all, but if twenty other clarinetists have played it just before it's your turn to audition, you'd better be able to do it too."
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2010-10-29 02:13
Miraculous Mandarin: even when played correctly, you still sound terrible. Such ugly music.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2010-10-29 04:41
Wow Salzo! I forgot all about that piece. I love Pines Of Rome! I played it at Interlochen Arts Academy about a million years ago. You are right, it can be demanding. It's such a beautifully written piece. Maybe someday I will get a chance to play that again.
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Author: clarient55
Date: 2010-10-29 11:36
Nice ~ thy rant made my day!
I am going to start using the term: "bird-peckingly even" in rehearsals!
Mark...
The guy with the Ridenour matched set
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Author: SamKaestner
Date: 2010-10-29 12:03
I'm going with the bass excerpt from Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite," the On the Trail movement. This is the most musicially useless excerpt I have ever played, and there are far better ways to figure out if a bass clarinet player can tongue.
Sam Kaestner
West Point Band Clarinetist
www.samkaestner.com
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-10-29 19:21
>>First, the notoriously sloppy editing of the multiple editions of Firebird are just head spinning - although the 1919 edition is most often requested.>>
Yipes. I've heard that's the *worst* of the Firebird editions for errors. I've got the current Dover reprint of the first edition of the1910 full ballet score and it's no prize package, either. The mistake where the flute part infiltrates the clarinet part is in that 1910 edition. In this1910 conductor score, there are wild inconsistencies in whether or not the parts appear in orchestra key or transposed. The clarinet parts are sometimes transposed for the conductor and sometimes not. Haven't seen the original individual parts, but I gather they're a mess, too. I also see a lot of measures where the durations of the notes don't add up to the right number of beats for the bars. Sometimes it's because there's no brace over triplets or other-lets (the musician can figure that out from similar passages earlier), but often it doesn't make any sense -- looks like the copyist was falling asleep on the job.
Okay, I completely understand why anybody would hate to audition with music where there could be disagreement about what's supposed to be played. I'd hate to carfefully research the subject, play what I believed was right and then find out that the judges had come to a different conclusion. But, hmmm ... though I'm unqualified to judge auditions, I think that, if I heard someone play well from a notoriously horrible edition, the ability to deal effectively with such problems would make a good impression on me. Maybe that's even *why* auditions require that 1919 edition.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: JGM
Date: 2010-11-02 14:25
The Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique on Eb is a pet hate, requiring great dexterity on those trills.
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