 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Phurster
Date: 2006-04-10 05:05
The 1st Clar in the school orchestra where I teach was having trouble with a solo. We had arranged to go through it but unfortunately we ran out of time.
Soon after this he became ill and had to spend time off school. The conductor asked me to play the solo at one rehearsal and at the concert. I thought this a little odd as the solo was the one from "The waltz of the Flowers." Not really that difficult, several of the students should be able to manage it...I thought.
I turn up to the rehearsal and to my suprise and horror the arrangement is for Bb Clarinet. Instead of the professional arrangement on the "A" clarinet I had to sight read at rapid pace a version in E major with many double sharps and notes such as Cb thrown in.
Its a terrible feeling to feel like a student and strugle with a piece.
School arrangements IMHO should be easier than the pro version.
Anyway, made it through, then spent the rest of the night transposing the part for the Concert. I nowwill be playing it on the A clar.
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Author: diz
Date: 2006-04-10 05:34
Yeah - waltz of the flowers on B-falt is hideous ... to be sure. You did the right thing.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-04-10 15:06
OUCH:
Same thing happened to me last fall in the community orchestra. It is possible to play that Bb part on my full Boehm clarinet --if I could only read them Cbs in time to finger them. At the time, my full Boehm was in the shop, and I had a loaner 17/6.
I took it to my teacher who is the principal in the Spokane Symphony. He thought it was riduculous (to write that part in E, and for me to be without an A).
I ended up loosing first chair because I didn't play it as well as my cohort.
I now have the A-clarinet part in my library --in case this ever happens again.
BTW: There is a horde of badly arranged and transcribed "orchestra" music out here. NEVER mail order, sight unseen anything for orchestra that is much cheaper than other versions.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2006-04-10 15:19
Kinda like the wind band arrangement of Borodin's 'Polovtsian Dances' - if you're used to playing the clarinet part in it's original key then this'll certainly throw a spanner and the whole toolbox in the works!
As well as the oboe parts being a semitone higher than the original Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2006-04-10 16:39
You know the solo. So why didn't you just play it on your A clarinet, using the notes on the page to remind you where to go?
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Author: pmgoff78
Date: 2006-04-10 22:12
Ken,
I agree with you totally.
I'm just an old-schooler I guess. The "school" version doesn't necessarily need to be easier, but more like a different arrangement (shorter, different construction, something like that). If it's High School then I have no problem with them using basically the "original" parts. Younger, not so much.
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Author: Phurster
Date: 2006-04-10 22:12
Thought about trying that but my transposition skills have been proved a tad unreliable. Also it has been couple of years since I have played the original version (of Waltz..). I still have bad flashbacks about a performance of Symphony Fantastic.
Chris.
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