 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Dawn
Date: 2002-03-28 17:26
ok i have a HUGE problem! i'm playing the rondo movement of mozart's concerto for b flat clarinet but it's revised by simeon bellison for solo/ensemble this yr which is on april 6. i don't have a private teacher (live in a smaaaaaaalllll town) so the only teacher i have is my band teacher. the accompaniment part is really hard and we tried and tried 2 get it together but we just can't do it so she told me that she's not going 2 accompany me. that means i'm basically on my own. (she tends 2 only help the ppl she's accompanying) so i guess i'm just asking if ne1 can give me ne help or tips on the piece. ne help will b appreciated. thanks so much!
DawN:)
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Author: Forest Aten
Date: 2002-03-28 17:49
Do you have any other pianists in town performing with students at this s/e event? If so....hire one of them to do your accompaniment. You will receive some benefit from this.
There are many references to the Mozart Clarinet Concerto on the Internet. Too numerous to list. A simple search will bring up more information than you're likely to need or use...sift through the search result and you will find lots of very good information. You will find everything from a measure by measure analysis to historical reviews. This concerto is performed more than any other concerto in the entire wind repertory.
There are many recordings available. Two of the most noted orchestra principal clarinetists in this century, have both recorded the concerto with their respective orchestras; Harold Wright in Boston and Robert Marcellus in Cleveland. Both men have died in recent years. One of their legacies will be their (very different) recordings of the Mozart Concerto. Both are available at Amazon, Borders or Barnes and Nobles web sites. I'm sure many other places will sell these and other recordings as well. These are only two of many, many recordings. These two recordings are important....because of the credibility (proven) of the players involved.
Good luck.
F. Aten
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-03-28 21:35
Dawn -
All is not lost. If you do your part, other people will help.
Think about why the rehearsal didn't work. Is it that the band couldn't play the parts? They dropped entrances, slowed down or speeded up? Or is it that you slowed down, speeded up or missed entrances? Or both?
As the soloist, you're the best player there. That means you have to work twice as hard as everyone else. April 6 is really close, but there are things you can do.
First of all, you have to master the solo part perfectly. This means going through with a metronome, so that you can play the hard parts as well as the easy parts exactly even. Only then can you start "making music" by building on being able to play everything the way you *want* to rather than how you *have* to. Work through at half tempo, finding out where the rough spots are.
Second, you have to know everyone else's part. This means listening to records while following along in the piano score or full score, to learn what else is going on.
Part of your job as a soloist is to keep things going. This means you have to listen like crazy. If the band messes up, stay with them, even if it means slowing down, speeding up or skipping a couple of measures.
Once you've done your part, you can ask for help. You, or even you and your mother, can go to the band director and present it to her as a problem you both have. That is, it won't help to say "You've just got to do this." Instead, make it "I really want to play the solo. What can I do -- what can we do together -- to make it work?" If you stay calm and ask for help, you'll be surprised what people will do for you, especially when you've worked hard.
Finally, if the band isn't up to it, the solution, as Forest says, is to get a pianist to play with you. There should be a pianist good enough to play the Mozart 3rd movement, even in Bb, in almost any town. Try the church organist or local piano teacher.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Stephane
Date: 2002-03-29 17:05
Dawn,
To add a little to Ken's excellent advices, if you can not get someone to accompany you and rehearse, you can buy a play along CD, which is probably the best metronome you can get! A good edition (I don't know about the availability in the US) is Dowani (Lichtenstein based company in Europe).
http://www.dowani.com
They have what they call the "3 tempi play along" series where you get on top of a mini-score of the work, 2 CDs featuring:
- The full soloist + orchestra performance
- Piano accompaniment (with clarinet very low in the background)at a slow tempo
- Piano accompaniment only at a medium tempo
- Full orchestra accompaniment at normal tempo.
You can get the Mozart concerto for Bb clarinet, this is a great tool I've used to study the K622. Of course this not like the real thing with a live orchestra or piano, but at least this remains a great tool to learn a concerto piece.
All the best to you.
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Author: Dawn
Date: 2002-03-29 17:52
thanx guys soooooo much 4 the help! i've done a search that has helped me some and i'm working like crazy on my solo part. i'm using a metronome and i started realllly slow and each time i play it i'm moving the tempo up. i possibly might have a lady that could accompany me but the fact that it's only a wk. away and she's real busy duzn't really help. i'm also going shopping on mon. so i'll c if i can get an accompaniment track. thank u so much 4 ur help!
DawN:)
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