The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Tempo For Sorcerer's Apprentice During Audition

Author: kdk  Date:   2016-09-05 02:42 One big question is, will anyone else who is auditioning be able to play it at tempo? When I read your question, at first I guessed wrong about the spot you meant. There's a more difficult spot, at least difficult to keep up with, from 22 to just after 25. The place you've asked about isn't unplayable at a standard tempo, but it is quite a handful for a student group. In context none of it involves individual exposure, so you have the chance to leave notes or even measures out. For an audition, the best you can do practice it, at first, fairly slowly to get the notes and rhythms right, then speed up to a point where it's still musical and you're still in control. Even very skilled professionals have said here on the BB that some of the note-y passages in this piece aren't really playable at the tempi most professional conductors take. A lot of it is texture and sound. You may find this passage easier than it looks at first sight The first four bars follow the melody. They double the second violins, who along with the firsts are what the audience will hear. The arpeggios starting at the 7th bar - there are only two different ones - are not all that difficult or even awkward. It may help if you see them not as notes but as a C minor triad with a major sixth and a D major triad. You probably can already play both triads. Adding the 6th to the C minor isn't awkward. Later, the whole thing is repeated a step higher - D minor(Maj 6) and E major. You might start by practicing the four arpeggios separately and cleaning and speeding them up. The only metronome marking I see that would affect this is all the way back at 6 (dotted quarter=126), but there have been several changes both faster and slower before you reach 52. If your technique is at a level that is even reasonably capable of playing this piece, you can probably get it up to a musically convincing tempo even if it isn't as fast as the conductor intends to play it eventually. Do the best you can. If there are wunderkinder in your youth program who can play it perfectly at full tempo, they'll beat you. But I'll bet there aren't. Karl

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