 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: LaurieBell
Date: 2016-07-18 05:02
I'm studying the Arnold Bax Sonata for Clarinet, first movement. Right now I'm just trying to get familiar with the piece, so when I go to music camp in another few weeks I'll be prepared to work on interpretation.
I've listed to a number of fine recordings, and they all see quite fluid, but the tempo, as far as I can tell, seems quite a bit slower than what is marked (Molto moderato). As near as I can tell, the performers play at a tempo between 60-80.
If anyone else has studied this piece, would you please let me know what temple you used for the first movement?
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2016-07-18 13:30
You have to first listen to Bax's other repertoire like the amazing symphonies and tone poems (Tintagel for example) and learn the language. The understand the British way with rubato. This opening has to breathe with ebb and flow and the underlying harmony, imo, shows the way. So don't restrict yourself to playing at a certain tempo and making the flow feel "4 square". Save that for the last movement when the fingers are flying.
Check out some recordings by English players such as Robert Plane and Anthony Bradbury.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: LaurieBell
Date: 2016-07-18 18:44
Thanks Peter - I sort of surmised the ebb and flow but didn't know about the British way of rubato. I'm listening to other pieces by Bax to get a feel for that.
But still, even with ebb and flow, I need some point of reference to the tempo -- e.g. just how slow I should feel this piece. Plus, the piano accompanist would want a tempo as a point of reference too. I've heard a few recordings that seem more in the "moderator" range, but more that seem very slow. Right now I'm feeling it around 70 (with ebb and flow:-)
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2016-07-18 21:54
Bax said, "[I am] a brazen romantic - by which I mean my music is the expression of emotional states. I have no interest whatever in sound for its own sake, or in modernist -isms or factions."
I would say, therefore, that you might try to identify the emotional states that the music suggests to you.
I found that playing through the piece a large number of times with the piano was the most helpful. You might find as I did that – for example – a passage that you wanted initially to linger over, is rather best played, in the context of what is around it, more straightforwardly. Or the other way around.
Obviously, how the pianist contributes to that, or can be persuaded to contribute to that, is also extremely important.
You can listen to recordings, by all means. But if you do, listen for what you certainly DON'T want to do as well as listening for what you do want to do. These 'recorded people' have no authority over you.
In that regard, your initial post contained a typo that I want to draw your attention to. You said, "If anyone else has studied this piece, would you please let me know what temple you used for the first movement?"
There are no temples:-)
Tony
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2016-07-19 19:16
I'm performing it at the 40th CASS Anniversary Symposium in London late October
Tempo wise I take it a bit quicker than some of the slower recordings, but conveying the emotion that the work suggests (as Tony wrote) is the way to go.
Reminds me a bit of the Debussy Rhapsody
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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