Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2015-12-07 23:58
There is a considerable amount of flexibility in what is stylistically appropriate and what isn't in staccato length. The length ought to be independent of the technique used - i.e., the length of the note is determined by how long the tongue is away from the reed and how long it is in contact. The contact should be light either way.
So, I think there may be two issues here - one is what is stylistically appropriate - in Robert's case of Rose studies that is to some extent an individual choice for a knowledgeable player. Keep in mind, too, that these were originally string etudes. If staccato dots were original to the string version, they could mean many different things that would not necessarily be short. If they were added by Rose, it's hard to know what he might have meant. Certainly the difference between legato (slurred) and staccato (separated) should be honored in any piece, but even then the style of separating slurred passages differs from period to period and even composer to composer.
The other issue is the technical one of what happens to many students' articulation when they try to play very short, crisp (to their ears) staccato. The tongue tenses up and gets out of control, affecting both speed and coordination. The other end of the spectrum is that they move their tongues too far back into their mouths (tah-tah-tah), which also slows them down and wrecks tongue-finger coordination. So, I work with my students to release the tension in their tongues and concentrate on a fairly short tongue stroke. The result is a focus away from the actual length of the note and on the lightness of the movement and the distance the tongue travels. This doesn't in itself result in short staccato, but more of a quietly separated series of notes - shorter than the student who simply brushes the tongue past the reed on its way somewhere else but a little longer, probably, and less explosive than many try to produce. Only after that is internalized do I generally talk about shortening the notes or lengthening them or changing the "attack" (the style of the release by the tongue) for style.
I do differentiate between solo style playing (as in the etudes) and playing in band, where, if the conductor wants staccatissimo, the player needs to try to play staccatissimo. But a good, light, crisp staccatissimo is difficult to do - the heavy machine-gun staccato that many young players produce every time they see staccato dots is IMO not in itself musical unless the context warrants it.
If you listen, as I have over the past several seasons, to Ricardo Morales play, he produces a variety of staccato lengths, very rarely what I would call really short. It's very different from the staccato style of, for example, Jost Michaels, who plays (played?) most staccato quite short but never stiff or heavy. Neither can be criticized as being unmusical, though their stylistic approaches to repertoire like the Mozart concerto are very different.
Karl
Karl
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