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Author: Harold
Date: 2001-01-09 18:55
Can someone suggest real world interpretations for the music in Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo. For example, parts of Piece I sound a bit like a conversation between a man and a woman (based on the back and forth between low and "break" range notes); and, Piece II produces images of a predator such as a cat hunting a prey such as a bird (the high, fast, loud passages representing the latter); etc. Are these valid? What about Piece III? I am trying to better understand the music, and looking for ways to explain it to an audience. Thanks!!
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Author: Chris Ondaatje
Date: 2001-01-10 01:38
I have performed the work myself a number of times. Every time I get to the third movement I get this distracting image of Chickens madly moving at crazy speed. I don't think this is a great image to give your audience though. Perhaps compare it to some equivillent art work...cubism in Piccasso perhaps. Sorry not any more help.
Regards Chris.
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Author: Robin
Date: 2001-01-10 05:02
My movement II is about primitive creatures. I think of loud prehistoric birds followed by slow, lumbering creatures. It really helped me to study other Stravinsky works to get the whole Russian Primitivism thing (Rite of Spring eg) I really appreciate a performance where someone's obviously thought about all of the possibilities.
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Author: mary
Date: 2001-01-11 03:33
Bob Scmidt used to talk about the 2nd mvmt being the cat-bird thing. middle section's the cat...
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Author: Keil
Date: 2001-01-11 23:03
From what i understand Stravinsky had concise ideas as far as images to imagine when playing each movement. The first movement is supposedly a story of a man waiting for a train, at the end of the 1st movement where it speeds up is supposed to be the train arriving and the man going off with it. The 2nd movement is the cat and bird image, where the fast flighty passages represent the bird and the middle section the cat. As far as the 3rd movement goes this is supposed to be Stravinsky's take on jazz. I'm not sure about the interplay of a male and female voice but that sounds like a very valid idea to me. Ideally though this 3rd movement is best interpretted as a "straight" jazz, that is jazz without improvisation. Because Stravinsky inteed this to be "jazz" the piece does have a sort of improvisational style however we all know that everything we're playing is on the page.... somewhere...hehe...;-)
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Author: Robin
Date: 2001-01-12 03:41
These are great images, Keil. I have played this piece many times and have read a lot about it, but I've never come accross these ideas from the horse's mouth, so to speak. None of my teachers have mentioned it, nor anyone at uni. Can you tell us where you read/heard about these concise ideas of Stravinsky.
Cheers
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Author: Harold
Date: 2001-01-23 14:08
Did Keil every reply to your question; I am interested as well.
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