 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: beescissors
Date: 2012-10-03 21:52
I've never been solid on what to do with measures of rests in "solo" pieces for auditions, especially with music like concertos, which have chunks of rests where the orchestra is supposed to play.
Also, there may be times when you might just play a few notes after some measures of rest and then resume resting, which feels awkward.
What would you recommend for these awkward pauses?
Post Edited (2012-10-03 21:53)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-10-03 22:08
Ask if the auditioner wants you to wait the rests out or just go on.
Karl
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Author: KMCD
Date: 2012-10-04 07:49
I agree with the above that in orchestral extracts you should, within reason, count out the rests as carefully as possible.
I believe the author of the original post was asking about concertos etc. While I haven't had too many auditions where a pianist hasn't been present for this (which makes it all much easier), I think you just have to use your own common sense. I wouldn't stand and count out 20 bars, but if the rest is short enough not to feel awkward then you should count it.
The trick is to sound (and look, if you aren't behind a screen) confident with what you are doing. There are no exact rules for the counting of rests, so if you look sure of yourself then the jury will feel that. Also good to remember is that an "awkward pause" is magnified hugely when you are in a nerve-wracking audition situation - time goes a lot slower to you than it does to the jury! So keep calm and trust your instincts is the best advice I can give.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-10-04 13:01
Jonathan doesn't say what the audition is for. The purpose of the audition might make a great difference in whether the adjudicating panel is more interested in hearing the auditionees' playing or getting more holistic view of their musical senses. From a strictly musical point of view, all of the advice to treat rests as part of the music and observe them makes good sense, but I can easily envision auditions where there are dozens (or more) waiting to be heard in a limited amount of time, leaving the auditioners/jurors/adjudicators without the time to spend listening to players *not* playing through a 16 bar orchestral passage in a concerto.
I wouldn't think there'd be any question about short rests - a bar or two - or certainly about rests for partial measures, which definitely comes into Anthony Gigliotti's and Ed Palanker's insistence on scrupulously correct rhythm.
Karl
Post Edited (2012-10-04 14:31)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-10-04 13:56
>> Ask if the auditioner wants you to wait the rests out or just go on.
>>
Yes, ask, if there are long rests. (I can't imagine too many orchestra audition judges want to sit through even the nine bars opening the Weber Concertino just to see if you can count.) If the auditioner does want you to count rests that are more than a bar or two long, you might want to make clear what you're doing with dynamic counting, where you move your head or shoulders *slightly* on the beats, as long as you don't boogie around the way the oboist at Tanglewood did in the 75th Anniversary concert televised on PBS a few weeks ago. I'd have hated to be one of the musicians sitting next to that guy as he encroached on their space by dancing in his seat.
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: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2012-10-04 20:19
If there is a long rest, 10 measures or so, I'll play the piano/orchestra part; the solo part. It sometimes lets the audition committee know you have a complete understanding of the piece. Added, most, if not all of the comittees will cut you off. Frankly they don't want to hear (not hear) the rests!
Full story - A famous composer wrote a piece; 3 movements, and 3 minutes and 45 seconds. The time may be off here so don't jump all over me! Well do ahead, I need to be corrected!! The composer was John Cage. It was 3 plus minutes of rests. No instruments played. He was a nature lover and I went mushroom picking with him. Kind of cool. Anyway, we played his work and he felt the noise was the music.
Maybe when he composed this piece he picked the wrong mushrooms. (joke)
Added to this, often the judges will may cut you short after just a few measures. So don't worry, take the auditions. The judges know what they want.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2012-10-06 05:52)
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2012-10-04 20:21
Now that I think about it I can't help wondering if this John Cage piece would be accepted as a solo piece!
Ok all of you pros let me know!
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-10-04 22:11
Only if transcriptions are permitted. The piece (4' 33" or Four Minutes Thirty-Three Seconds) was composed(?) for a pianist. You'd need an arrangement for clarinet.
Karl
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-10-04 23:43
I'm pretty sure the score to 4'33" indicates it can be performed by any instrumentation.--it's been about twenty years since I've checked it, though. (It is in three "movements").
If that note on potential instrumentation isn't in the score, Cage made it clear in interviews.
I've performed it both at the piano and "at" the clarinet--the clarinet version was for my senior recital, and was a smash hit with the audience--for the last twenty seconds, a crescendo of rain pounded the roof of the concert hall. Of couse, how well it's received depends a great deal upon how it's set up--and if done seriously, it can make quite an impression, even (or perhaps especially) on those with little experience of modern music.
Not recommended for auditions, however.....
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-10-05 00:27
Ken, do you know what the text says (or is there an English version on the site)? When I click on your link, it comes up mostly in Japanese. The Google translation is fun but completely meaningless.
Karl
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-10-05 03:23
Yes, I agree. When playing a prepared solo without a piano the committee does not want to sit there while you count our 4 -5 majors rest. Just stop for a few beats and start playing at the next entrance. For one measure count it out. If you have any concern ask them if they would mind your skiping the long rests. In orchestral excerpts, if they don't have the rests crossed out then count them out if it's only a few measures. Any doubt, ask them. And yes, rhythm is either right or it's wrong. There's no such thing as close, be percise.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: Garth Libre
Date: 2012-10-05 09:44
This brings to mind the best way to count 10 bars of rests. I find it amazingly easy to lose count and if I don't memorize the music for when to come in I can get the number of bars wrong that I've counted out wrong on a regular basis.
Garth, 305-981-4705. garthlibre@yahoo.com
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Author: MartyMagnini
Date: 2012-10-05 12:16
Ken,
I don't think that can be the original score. As I remember it, there are actual measure of rest - and not just the entire movement - I mean (for example) a 3-measure rest, follwed by a 17-measure rest, etc. That's how Cage came up with the final time - "chance operations" of beats and measures of rests strung together.
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