 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-10-20 13:44
The Bulletproof Musician site led me to a very good video on sequencing http://discovery.wisc.edu/home/discovery/recorded-lectures/soundwaves-the-consequences-of-sequences-cello-performance-12-14-12/recorded-lectures.cmsx. (short, short, long)
For example, the second phrase of the Mozart Concerto is two descending thirds followed by a descending half step with note values twice as long.
I've referred to this as "bury the hatchet" http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=178952&t=178907. The lecturer points out that this device appears constantly. Think of Tom, Dick and Harry. Duck duck goose. Happy Birthday. Beethoven 5th.
He goes on to show many uses of sequencing in the Prelude of Bach's Suite #2 for solo cello, and the lecture ends with a complete performance of the suite. There's a lot to like and a lot not to like in the performance. The fast movements are too fast and the slow movements are too slow. The cellist vibrates on the resolution notes of suspensions and appoggiaturas, which emphasizes what should be softer. Most important, he doesn't use Tony Pay's brilliant insight that baroque phrases begin with an emphasized first note and wind down from there.
Nevertheless, the lecture is a great demonstration of a basic musical gesture. I recommend listening to at least the lecture (the opening 24 minutes). When you know about sequencing, you see it everywhere.
Ken Shaw
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Author: brycon
Date: 2013-10-21 19:21
Ken,
Thanks for the post.
I had a question about Tony's article. I remember it focusing on classical era phrasing norms: should the sort of phrasing that you mention be used in baroque music as well?
Also, the use of phrasal markings (slurs) is pretty sparse in these suites- at least in Anna Magdalena's hand. How does that factor with your advice?
I usually enjoy watching these sorts of lectures, but I felt that this one was not particularly interesting and rather superficial. I remember sitting in one of Carl Schachter's analysis courses, looking over a Bach prelude. He asked the class what we could say about a particular section of the music. A student answered, "there's a sequence," and in good humor Schachter responded, "of course there's a sequence, you might as well say there's some notes."
I had the same sort of "so what?" feeling when watching this lecture. There are so many more interesting things that could be discussed: Bach creating multiple voice counterpoint out of a single-line instrument, the way in which this counterpoint creates motif, et cetera. Finding examples of anapestic phrasal structures gets tedious quickly.
To what end are such structures employed? What does this tell us about high Renaissance counterpoint, which avoided sequence? Are these structures then tied to the rise of instrumental music and thoroughbass theory? How did motif affect larger compositional processes, in the music of Brahms and Schoenberg, for instance?
All of these things would have made for a much more interesting and meaningful talk, in my opinion.
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Author: Arnoldstang
Date: 2013-10-22 20:41
it was appropriate for the audience...non musicians.
Freelance woodwind performer
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Author: brycon
Date: 2013-10-22 23:22
Maybe.
On the other hand, I'm not a literary scholar, but if I attended a talk on Joyce that amounted to, "here's a symbol, there's a symbol" I would be bored out of my mind.
Of course, it's entirely possible to present a lecture that is interesting to both experts and non-experts. Bernstein's children's concerts and Harvard lectures, for example, were pretty successful in this respect.
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2013-10-24 22:37
brycon wrote:
>> Bernstein's children's concerts and Harvard lectures, for example, were pretty successful in this respect.>>
Yes, he was a great communicator. And the Harvard lecture series spawned, for example, the perceptive Lehrdahl and Jackendoff book, 'A Generative Theory of Tonal Music'.
His 'Ready, steady,....go!' principle in the children's concerts is closely related to what is presented on the Bulletproof site.
However, Bernstein's application of it in the children's concert presentations to the opening of the Mozart G minor Symphony, for me, totally misses the point of the piece.
It's exactly how you DON'T want to think of those opening bars.
Tony
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Author: brycon
Date: 2013-10-26 20:45
Tony,
I agree that there are problems with both Bernstein's analyses and their application, but what I like about him is that he usually makes a point of answering the "so what." Analysis is a tool, and the speaker in the sequencing video that Ken posted does a poor job (in my opinion) of showing to what end he is employing that tool.
With regard to what Ken brought up about phrasing, do you take a similar approach to both Baroque and Classical repertoire?
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2013-10-27 22:57
>> With regard to what Ken brought up about phrasing, do you take a similar approach to both Baroque and Classical repertoire?>>
Because Baroque and Classical repertoire both benefit from clarity of contrapuntal texture, and because the fundamental idea is the relationship between speech and music, I'd say, pretty much, yes. See:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=687&t=687
Tony
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