The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-03-16 14:33
I would just like to recommend the above title, which is part of the UE Clarinet Colllection. As Mahler hardly wrote any chamber music (one early piano quartet) and most of us never have or have never had the opportunity to play his symphonic music, this edition makes it possible to play some of it. The arranger (Ottensamer's name is probably there for marketing purposes), Ronald Kornfeil, has done a superb job of taking five songs from three Mahler song cycles and giving the clarinet the vocal part as well as some instrumental soli from the orchestral versions. The piano part is not a piano reduction, as Mahler wrote these songs for voice and piano and only orchestrated them later. It is therefore a real piano part your pianisit will enjoy playing.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2017-03-19 08:22
I second the recommendation. I recently played some of these in a recital and they are wonderful arrangements. Incredibly true to the originals.
Kornfeil also arranged five Mahler songs for flute, marketed under Emmanuel Pahud's name:
https://www.universaledition.com/sheet-music-and-more/wer-hat-dies-liedel-erdacht-five-selected-songs-fuer-floete-und-klavier-mahler-gustav-ue36430
On the same recital, I played some of the flute arrangements that worked well on clarinet.
Most of the flute arrangements can be heard at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwMgYWFqVAw&spfreload=10
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-03-19 11:01
Dear Simon,
Do you think it would be a much to do all five of these songs at a recital? Are the songs arrranged for flute the same ones? If this is not the case, maybe a couple of them would be suited to the clarinet.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: Simon Aldrich
Date: 2017-03-19 20:15
Dear Ruben,
>Do you think it would be a much to do all five of these songs at a recital?
It would not be too much in terms of length. However, in reading through the songs with my pianist, I found some of the arrangements are more convincing and interesting than others. Regarding the songs arranged for clarinet, I found two of them worked less well, "Verlorne Muh" and, disappointingly, "Ich bin der Welt". "Ich bin" is my favourite Mahler song, and the song to which I was most looking forward. Being a slow song, it relies on the sustain of the strings. Piano decay changes the song greatly, and some of the arrangement decisions I found curious, having arranged this song myself for various combinations.
>Are the songs arrranged for flute the same ones?
Among the five songs arranged for flute, three are different. Kornfeil arranges three different songs for flute and from the clarinet collection, includes "Rheinlegendchen" (transposed up a tone into A major for flute) and "Oft denk' ich" (in the same key, Eb).
>If this is not the case, maybe a couple of them would be
>suited to the clarinet.
Exactly. I found the first song in the flute collection, "Wer hat dies Liedel erdacht?" a good arrangement and it is idiomatic on the clarinet.
As you might hear in the youtube video performance of the flute pieces, some do not suit the clarinet as they sit in the high register of the flute, too high for the clarinet. Kornfeil seems to know what he is doing, as the the arrangements work very well for flute, but are too high for clarinet and are much less effective down the octave (I tried this).
For my recital I played three of the clarinet arrangements and one of of the flute arrangements. They were, in my opinion, the four best arrangements and the total timing of the four was good (ca. 10 minutes).
Simon
Post Edited (2017-03-19 20:17)
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Author: ruben
Date: 2017-03-20 13:57
Dear Simon,
Thank you for all this information, which is so helpful! Just a couple of pieces of advice for people playing these songs. One, is to look up the words to the original songs. They are available in any recording of these Mahler works. The other is to make generous use of your German dictionaries, as there are many, many indications in German.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2017-03-20 17:29
And by all means, don't marry the first pretty Viennese girl who catches your eye!
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