 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: panther2
Date: 2012-11-05 13:43
My teacher is making me play Hindemith Sonata. Enough Said. I can appreictae it, and how it's written, but I just cannot stand playing it or listening to it. Advice on how to to hack it?
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-11-05 14:31
Play it on bass clarinet instead (that's what I did back in high school). It works great on the lower-pitched instrument.
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Author: William
Date: 2012-11-05 14:32
Play it, and learn. Almost "musical medicine", it will be good for you and make you better. If that doesn't work, there is always the percussion section......
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Author: JamesOrlandoGarcia
Date: 2012-11-05 15:36
I've had been feeling that way about Sibelius 5 after coming off a concert cycle which included Capriccio Espagnol and Brahms 3.
I found that Sibelius 5 has grown on me. Maybe just listening to several different performances, especially in the background may help you.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-11-05 17:53
Just so you don't feel so bad about it. I recall a clarinet congress many years ago (don't remember if it was Klarfest or The International Clarinet Association's) where the Hindemith was the first round piece of their big competition. The problem: the adjudicators were struggling to differentiate amongst all the contestants. My theory is that there is certainly a lot of intellectual moments but few musical ones to help suss out the wheat from the chaff.
...............Paul Aviles
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Author: wkleung
Date: 2012-11-05 22:47
Why is your teacher making you play it? Does he/she think it will teach you things you can't learn from other pieces otherwise?
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Author: JAS
Date: 2012-11-05 23:14
More and more, I've been learning to give every piece and composer that I encounter at least a chance. Give it a shot and make an honest effort to explore the clarinet sonata AND a bit of the rest of Hindemith's music. Hindemith is so often marked as simply lifeless and mechanic; I'm beginning to believe otherwise. Perhaps you will too.
Post Edited (2012-11-05 23:14)
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Author: C.Elizabeth07
Date: 2012-11-05 23:47
We don't always get to play music we enjoy. But when we perform something publicly or are being paid to perform it, we have to learn to love it until the performance is over. Fake it till you make it. Find something to love about the piece. Its Hindemith. There is a lot of substance there that you can dig up to "fall in love with".
I'm playing a lot of very very new contemporary music right now. Is this something I enjoy? Absolutely not. It sounds like the instruments are in agony to me. But when I sit in rehearsal or when I sit down to work on it I put a smile on my face and you learn to embrace what you dislike about it.
Then after the performance is finished, feel free to take a photocopy of it and set it on fire (I have found this occasionally to be a very theraputic/entertaining thing). Or who knows... in the end, you may actually come to love the piece. <---Thats what typically happens to me!
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2012-11-06 00:16
Since you say you can't stand listening to it, I assume you've listened to a decent recording or performance by a good clarinetists with the accompaniment.
A teacher usually has (or should have) a reason for choosing specific pieces for his students to study. He must find it worthwhile. Have you discussed your feelings about the piece with him? If you haven't brought your reaction up to your teacher, I think that's an important step. If the teacher is aware of your dislike of the piece, he may be able to explain why he thinks it's a worthwhile work for you to study and hope you will begin to see enough in it to keep working on it. If he can see he hasn't changed your mind about it, he may simply suggest another piece that you may like better that illustrates the same principles or serves the same purpose as the Hindemith.
Karl
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Author: donald
Date: 2012-11-06 00:19
more problematic is having to play a solo you LOVE, but for a conductor who wants you to do things that are against your instinct and intellect... that REALLY sucks, trust me.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2012-11-06 01:29
Well, it's always been one of my favorite pieces, there's lots to learn from it about phrasing, tone quality, rhythm and delicate playing but I never made a student play something if they really didn't like it. If they made it clear that they would rather not play it I'd assign something else. But, with that said, as a professional musican I often have to learn and play music I don't like. Maybe not a solo but music never the less, sort of. :-)
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: MSK
Date: 2012-11-06 11:47
I felt the same way about Hindemith in HS and college. If it is to be a special recital piece, it's worth asking your teacher if you could switch to something you like better. However, if it just part of your general music education, you need to just tough it out -- maybe think of it the same way one does those boring but necessary etudes. When I got assigned a piece I really disliked, I made sure to learn it well and quickly so that I could move on sooner. If I failed to practice anhated piece sufficiently, it kept getting reassigned. On the plus side, of learning pieces you dislike: you never know when they might turn up as an audition or chair challenge piece. I won a first chair challenge in HS band with Hindemith even though I hated it -- it was a good thing I had learned it!
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2012-11-06 12:25
Hindemith-related but otherwise off-topic: If you've ever heard, or better yet played Hindemith's Symphony in Bb for Band, it might make you a lifelong fan of the composer. We played it in college and now, 30+ years later, I still can't get it out of my head. Nothing else like it before or since.
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2012-11-06 12:54
Is there a player who you particularly admire whose live playing/ recording or video you could watch? Even if you don't like the piece you maybe able to look at their technique/sound/interpretation etc.... and this may help you find some personal relevance or purpose for playing it. Then you can please your teacher and really feel like you have benefitted yourself.
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Author: DAVE
Date: 2012-11-06 15:13
I suggest you read a biography of Hindemith. When I got to know the man behind the music I really enjoyed playing his sonata. I think you'll find him very interesting and surprising. One thing that struck me was his love of early music and specifically Bach. I hear the sonata as a weird, funky "new" Bach with intriguing counterpoint. I've read lots of composer biographies and Hindemith's really stood out.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2012-11-06 16:06
Yeah, I had to "do" the Poulenc Sonata. In the end, it was good for me. I used the 2nd movement for an audition tape, and I'm about to go over the outer movements "just for drill."
Bob Phillips
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