 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-09-22 21:05
I have the music for Variations Sur Un Air du Pays d'Oc by Louis Cahuzac. (I think I'm going to learn this sometime fairly soon but the last variation really scares me.) In the 3rd variation there's a mysterious marking near the end of the variation (end of the sixth line in the Leduc edition)- after the the D trill and high D fermata eighth note. Right above the open G- D- E flat eighth notes, it says "a To." The "o" is superscript, like an exponent. What in the world does this mean?
Thanks,
Micaela
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Author: Eoin
Date: 2001-09-22 21:22
Could this be "a tempo" in abbreviated form? Has there been a slowing down before this?
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Author: Jack Kissinger
Date: 2001-09-23 04:31
Hi Micaela,
I think Eoin's interpretation is correct (though the marking defeats my copy of "The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms"). Note that this marking appears numerous times throughout the piece, at least in my old Leduc edition (as early as the opening cadenza). It always appears after some sort of temporary tempo adjustment, veloce (very fast), rit. (often ending with a fermata), molto ritenuto (suddenly much slower or held back). Confusing the issue, however, is the fact that "a Tempo" also appears frequently. The clue may be in the piano part. In measure 5 of the 2nd variation, the clarinet cues in the piano part are marked "a Tempo" while the clarinet part, itself, is marked "a To." That suggests that "a To" is simply an abbreviation for "a Tempo." It's probably standard but I've never noticed it before. (Careless me!) If the marking only appears once in your edition, yours is probably newer and the editor has probably attempted to replace the "a To" markings with "a Tempo" but missed one.
Don't be daunted too much by the fourth variation. Start slowly and work on playing in strict time. It actually lays pretty well for the clarinet and is, IMO, not as difficult as the presence of all those squashed bugs might suggest. (I would bet, however, that he played it alot faster than I can.)
Best regards,
jnk
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2001-09-23 15:15
Oooohhh, that makes sense. Thanks a lot. I think the superscript O confused me.
I don't think this piece is quite as hard as it looks. I like it, it's a little more musically interesting than some pieces in this style (I think the third variation is actually kind of pretty).
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