Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2014-11-22 05:45
Stan wrote:
>> So if you are choosing which pitch clarinet to use for a given piece, and in the absence of any guidance from the composer (or even with it), I think you have to at least ask the question whether how the important notes fall leans the choice one way or the other, independent of how easily each plays.>>
The position we are usually in is not to be 'choosing which pitch clarinet to use for a given piece'. We're usually subject to your 'guidance from the composer'.
They tell us what to do.
Now, many people have argued here that 'composers' (1) don't care, (2) don't know.
I put 'composers' in quotes because clearly it depends on the composer. On the whole, I'm less inclined to follow the instructions of a contemporary composer as to which instrument to use than I am to follow the instructions of someone like Schumann, for reasons I've already given.
But, that's a generalisation. I might change my mind in a particular instance of a contemporary composer.
See, what I think of as my fundamental job in playing my instrument is to understand which are the important notes to be highlighted – as you so rightly say – and to highlight them. Equally, my job in playing my instrument is to understand which are the notes that need to be less heard, and to make sure that they don't stick out.
If I really CANNOT do this on the instrument specified, then I might START to imagine what could happen on another instrument.
But because I'm quite a good player:-), I find that, with work, I get better at playing that Bb on the A, say, because I've imagined what it might be like as an A on the Bb.
And that's what I think y'all here should aspire to, too.
Tony
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The Clarinet BBoard
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