 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-27 13:20
In every edition of the Mozart Concerto I've seen, the slow movement ends with a quarter-note chord in the orchestra, but a half-note in the clarinet part.
In every recording I've heard, the soloist holds the final note for the extra beat, after the orchestra has stopped playing. Goodman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY6vLmjUAeI is the only exception.
The extra beat seems anomalous to me. Since the score is lost, there's no way to know whether Mozart wanted it that way, or it was just a transcription error when the solo part was copied out, independent of the orchestral parts.
There are notes continued after the ends of movements -- for exsample the long bassoon note connecting the first and second movements of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, but that was for the special purpose (so I've read) of preventing applause at the end of the first movement.
Tony and others, what's your take?
Ken Shaw
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Author: FDF
Date: 2013-09-28 00:44
Replying as an "and others", there is no wrong way. There is the way that the soloist engages the music and expression leads.
Forest
Amateur Musician
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Author: mrn
Date: 2013-09-28 13:47
It doesn't seem weird to me. The final note of the movement is the half note in the clarinet. All the strings do is give a little extra pulse at the beginning of the note (which, significantly, comes at the beginning of a bar)--kind of like a pressure accent.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-28 16:49
Keith Bowen passed the question along to Dan Leeson, who replied:
"There is no way to resolve this question. We do not know what Mozart wrote,
and no way to find out how the situation described originated.
"Personally, I think that the solo instrument being left to be heard alone at
the end of the movement is very nice, but that is not evidence.
"Bottom line: there is no answer to this question that can be supported by
historical practice or evidence from a manuscript."
My wife is a member of the American Musicological Society and will post the question on their bulletin board. I'll pass along any responses.
Ken Shaw
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-09-28 20:16
I fully respect Dan's comment. Of course there's no manuscript of the Clarinet Concerto to use as evidence one way of the other. But I think limiting the acceptable realm of evidence to anything specific to K. 622 is over-defining the search. I would think you'd need to consider the rest of Mozart's accompanied solo output, especially other concertos and even sonatas for which we *do* have surviving MSS or original performing materials. If this kind of thing doesn't happen anywhere else in Mozart's work, the conclusion can be drawn that it was *probably* a copying error or an editorial decision of a later time. If other examples can be found of the same thing in works that can be authenticated as original, then it would seem to suggest that Mozart *could* have meant to write it out with the clarinet sustaining beyond the accompaniment. In neither event would it be conclusive evidence, but you could draw strong inferences based on other Mozart works than the Clarinet Concerto itself.
Karl
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-09-28 21:29
Karl -
I asked the question because, with the exception of the Clarinet Concerto, I don't think I've ever heard a Mozart concerto performance in which the soloist continues beyond the orchestral cutoff.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2013-09-28 21:59
Ken- you're probably right. But a counter-argument could be made looking at Mozart's operas. Often the singers' final note in an aria is notated longer than that of the orchestral accompaniment (eg. Sarastro's "In diesen heil'gen Hallen" or Pamina's "Ach ich fühl's" from Die Zauberflöte). Maybe it was convention, or maybe it's because this note is always followed by an closing orchestral tutti? But singers certainly don't mind holding their last notes longer than the orchestra!
When I played the concerto with Norrington (shameless name-dropping... sorry!) he got me to hold the note even longer than a half-note, to really show the difference- fading into nothing the way only a clarinet can do so beautifully. I thought it was a nice effect.
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Author: TAS
Date: 2013-09-30 15:44
Hold it long enough to lose pitch, distort the tone quality and let the rattle of spit in the mouthpiece become annoying.
This approach appears to be the one many teachers advise their students to execute playing this piece at a contest
TAS
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-10-01 01:20
Liquorice -
Realizing that it's singers (rather than musicians), have you heard a Sarastro or Pamina hold the final note after the orchestra ends?
Ken Shaw
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2013-10-01 16:17
The use of the last note extending beyond the orchestra is taken from operatic
practice of the era including Mozart (as has been noted by Liquorice. I am sure Mr Pay will vouch for this should he choose to emerge from hibernation.
The form of the second movement of K622 is that of a Da Capo aria with a brief coda. And if played well, that is what the clarinetist should be able to convey esp if the da capo section is played sotto voce with restrained embellishments.
The half note for the clarinet while the orchestra concludes with a quarter note is a wonderful effect and shows the power of Mozart's genius.
A lessor composer would have had both the soloist and orchestra end exactly at the same time.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2013-10-01 18:34
Dileep- I don't see how playing the Da Capo sotto voce better conveys the form of the movement than many other approaches would?
Personally I'm actually undecided about whether having the clarinet hold the last note longer is anything other than just a "nice effect". It could also have been a copyists error, which would really have made Mozart laugh at us for thinking that it showed the power of his genius!
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2013-10-02 13:30
Well as someone has mentioned, this is all conjecture anyway, but I tend to see the genius in little quirks that occur in the music of the Masters such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. These quirks are what create the spice in the cooking aside from how they work with the primary ingredients available to anyone. That's why they are the masters.
> The sotto voce da capo is what I prefer and if a clarinetist doesn't do it, I don't like their interpretation. Simple as that.
> Yes it could be a copyists error but in this case I doubt it.
> And if Mozart is laughing, that would be fine too.
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