 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Linda Howarth
Date: 1999-05-16 00:49
Has anyone ever played Introduction, Theme and Variations by G. Rossini for all state or any other solo? Did you have problems with it? Just curious. My daughter is doing it for all state and it seems to be giving her a hard time. Thanks
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Author: Therese
Date: 1999-05-16 01:28
I played it for all-state auditions last year. I had a hard time with it too. I think there is definetly a certain way that this piece has to be approached by. In my case, I was intimidated by the notes. I let the 16th note passages scare me and didn't work on them slowly and carefully. Rossini is a great piece to play for fun or a recital. But I thought playing it for my audition was horrible. By thats my opinion. thanks, therese.
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Author: Amy
Date: 1999-05-16 01:40
I haven't played it yet for any type of performance, but I am going to play it for next year's solo and ensemble competition (I plan to give myself plenty of time to work it up) The only thing I can say is to take all the passages with the octave skips and sixteenth note runs very slowly and work out any blips and intonation problems. If you can't play it slowly, you certainly can't play it at 120+. Hope I could help.
Amy
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Author: Tim2
Date: 1999-05-16 03:28
Assuming that everything concerning rhythm is worked out, support in the sound, the air flow, is absolutly needed to make the piece work. The support will enable the jumps to come out. This is as important as getting the fingers and tongue coordinated in all the fast passages. Support so the notes speak and carry. Keep the air moving through the whole passageway from the lungs and on through the clarinet.
Good luck to you. Get David Pino's book if you don't have it. Read chapter 4.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-05-17 18:24
Linda Howarth wrote:
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Has anyone ever played Introduction, Theme and Variations by G. Rossini for all state or any other solo? Did you have problems with it? Just curious. My daughter is doing it for all state and it seems to be giving her a hard time. Thanks
Linda -
The Rossini gives everybody a hard time. It's a significant step up in difficulty from, say, the Weber Concertino. First, you have to be completely comfortable in the upper altissimo. The high A must be a real note, and not a blast or a controlled squeak, and even the top C has to sound good.
Second, you need to be comfortable with the showers of notes. They lie pretty well, and you have to be able to toss them off the way *you* want to rather than just getting them out. This comes when you are able to relax your fingers and let them feel "light" rather than banging them down. An exercise that works for me is to play the major and minor scales in thirds around the circle of fifths. Once I get past the key of F#, it starts getting easier, and I can start relaxing so that when I get to the key of G it seems like I'm barely working.
Third, the Rossini doesn't play itself, the way the Weber Concertino does. You yourself have to bring things out. For example:
-- Each variation has its own character -- sweet, nervous, sad, fancily decorated, brilliant and so on. You have to discover the character and bring it out, in contrast with each of the others.
-- No matter how fancy the decoration, the original tune has to be heard. You can't just play a bunch of notes. You must pick out and accent each underlying note, and then wrap the others around it, working from one melodic note to the next like Tarzan swinging on a vine.
-- Finally, you have to bring out the virtuosic, operatic nature of the piece. It's about *big* emotions, even vulgar ones, that have to go into the mix along with the sugar and cream. It's about taking chances and bringing them off. For more, please read two of my earlier posts: No. 2553 - "Do operatic arias work?" and No. 2985 - "Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 2."
If you're not having fun, you're not playing it right.
Good luck.
Ken Shaw
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