 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: ruben
Date: 2014-07-23 11:36
The French conductor François-Xavier Roth recently made a recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring using "period instruments". The recording and live performances were well-reviewed. I imagine this would mean using French bassoons, Louis Lot flutes, gut strings, French brass instruments, etc. What would this mean for clarinets? A different mouthpiece? A Couesnon clarinet or early 2Oth century Buffet?
Do our readers find this endeavour worthwhile or gimmicky? What I do find is that it makes the music once again sound like what it was meant to be: ballet music. This is also the impression that I get when I listen to old Monteux and Ansermet recordings. The textures are lighter and the sound, brighter. Both of these conductors premiered many of Stravinsky's works.
Ultimately, I suppose there will be performances of Stockhausen's Gesang Der Junglinge using period instruments: IBM and Univox computers from the 50s that have long disappeared (they exist in computer museums)! I'm only half kidding. Where will one find the Ondes Martenots for Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, for example?
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: donald
Date: 2014-07-23 14:03
my friend has an Ondes Martenot, they are not in short supply, but a colleague of mine won an international composing competition with a piece for clarinet and computer processing- done on an early 1990s computer that has since been stolen. It has proven almost impossible for him to get the original software- and find an operating system to install it on.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-07-23 16:59
Back in the 1970's I worked for Westinghouse doing engineering on nuclear power plants. Not to start that whole controversy here... but the NRC required us to "permanently" archive all the computer software and data used in the calculations. So somewhere there's a salt mine with a cache of 1970's computer tapes, punch cards, listings, and microfilm. All you'd need to get those going again is a 1977 computer and all accessories, and a dozen or so people fresh from 1977. Or to say it another way- it cannot be done. And we knew that in 1977, but you do what you're told to do.
So- you can never really do music "like in 1850" or even "like in 1950". It's always an approximation, sometimes better than others. Kind of like you can't go home again. :-(
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
