 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-05-05 06:27
After a couple seasons' absence, I'm back playing with my local community band. A number of times the conductor has specified that marcato means short, as well as accented.
I'm not sure where or even what I learned about marcato, but I've always treated it as an sudden, intense accent, often using both tongue stop/release and air support, as opposed to regular accents which I (try to) do just with air, and which are not quite as sudden or sharply delineated. But I had no idea marcato was supposed to also mean short, like an accented staccato.
So, my habituated programming was getting in the way of following the conductor's instructions. After rehearsal, I asked the conductor if he in fact considered marcato to always include the shortening aspect, or if he was asking for the band to do it that way to make our playing of the pertaining passages sound clearer. He replied that marcato means short and accented.
I see that Wikipedia's definition mostly agrees with my former understanding - except it agrees with the conductor in the context of big band jazz. Well, he does play jazz, and some of our community band's selections are jazzy - but not all, and none we did tonight.
I will of course play marcato the way the conductor has requested; I consider that case closed. I'm curious of how others treat this expression mark in various contexts.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2014-05-05 08:36
As I learned it, Marcato notes are clearly separated from each other, but not as short as staccato.
(in "Jazz" (vs "legit"), quarters are short anyway).
--
Ben
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Author: Wes
Date: 2014-05-05 10:48
As a player in the band, it is best to do what the conductor asks for. One can play marcato with short, staccato, accented notes.
On the flute, it is prudent in very soft passages to start the sound with the breath or a "puh" effort with the lips, not the tongue.
On the clarinet, I can't recall being asked to start a note with the breath, only with the tongue. There are various ways of stopping the note, however. To stop the note abruptly to give a space between the end of one note and the beginning of the next note, one can just put the tongue back on the reed.
As a student of the oboe, I had thought that it was pretty much the same as the clarinet for tonguing. My late, great oboe teacher told me to also practice stopping staccato notes with a breath cutoff, which may not make sense to some players. When combined with a quick breath vibrato on each note, this technique allows a very lively and sparkling presentation of a staccato solo passage. Fine, it sounds great, but it can also be applied to the clarinet and can give an added dimension to a staccato solo, even a marcato phrase, making it "dancing" as one famous oboe teacher said. I've tried to do this on the clarinet. In section playing, it will be easier to tongue in the traditional fashion. Good luck!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-05-05 13:34
I'm not sure that I understand the subtleties of "Wikipedia" (of course I've never been very tech savvy).
The only way to accent a note is to make the beginning of it louder and to make more space before it. You can vary the intensity of the loudness and the space before it, but that's about it. Marcato is just another form of an accent.
And
The conductor is ALWAYS right, NO MATTER WHAT. It is her/his job to hear what the entire ensemble sounds like and balance those elements as he/her sees fit. It doesn't matter if he/his is a moron. Once you are the conductor, then the decisions on how everyone plays something will be up to you. Of course it's alright to have artistic difference, and even ask if such and such passage might not sound better played this way instead of that. But if the conductor says, no, then the answer is no.
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-05-05 21:47
Wes, I was unclear, sorry. I normally end notes by stopping the reed's vibration with the tongue, and start notes by releasing the reed. That doesn't in itself affect the air support or flow. For regular accented notes I do the same except I increase the air flow to provide a louder dynamic.
For marcato, I still stop the previous note with the tongue, but it stops both the reed's vibration and the air stream. Air support continues, so there is a brief air pressure buildup between notes. Then, on the marcato note the tongue releases both the reed and the air, so the built-up pressure provides a sudden attack, and at the same time an increase in air flow loudens the dynamic. So that's how I get marcato to sound more emphatic dynamically than a regular accent. I have no idea if this is correct, and I probably play it less clearly than I say it, so . . .
The above says nothing about length of a marcato note, which is what my main question was about.
Paul, I agree 100% about following the conductor's wishes. Our conductor is a fine musician, with excellent technique and communication skills. We are lucky to have him. I wasn't even disagreeing with him about marcato, just wondering where he was coming from. (I was the only clarinet at rehearsal, and a part that would normally be tutti was therefore solo, and we had to repeat it because I failed to sight-read the marcato marks as the conductor specified.)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-05-05 22:11
Expression markings of all kinds - dynamics, articulations, tempo - are context dependent. A musical effect can be *suggested* by an expressive mark but never really *specified.* The performer's job is to decide *within the musical context* the precise meaning of the marking. In the case of a conducted ensemble the conductor is the performer who is responsible for making those decisions.
Obviously, staccato never means "connect" and forte doesn't mean "quiet" (unless you're backing up singers who can't project). Marcato, likewise, can't mean "connected" or "smooth" or "gentle." But how loud, how short, what degree of accent and how to physically execute what's decided on are very dependent on how the passage functions musically.
Wikipedia or Harvard Dictionary of Music notwithstanding.
Karl
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2014-05-06 01:22
Normally end notes by stopping with the tongue? In swift staccato passages this is precisely what happens, though I'd say a majority of endings would be executed with the abdominals (for a round, tapered ending).
..........Paul Aviles
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