 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2009-10-29 05:32
I mentioned this piece in another thread, and there are a few hopefully helpful things to say about it.
The full title is:
Alexander Goehr: Paraphrase on 'Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda' by Claudio Monteverdi, for solo clarinet.
(Published by Schott.)
I suggested that finding out something about the Monteverdi is the first step towards learning and performing the piece. That's obvious; but it's worth knowing too that the first performances were done by Alan Hacker at the Edinburgh Festival in 1969, immediately after a Music Theatre Ensemble performance of the Monteverdi conducted by Goehr. So, there were props lying about, including helmets and a couple of 'broomstick' horses. And of course the 'Trotto di cavallo' is a striking feature of both the original and of Goehr's paraphrase -- though Sandy characteristically conceals it by writing it all off the beat. (The rhythm is half note plus quarter note, repeated several times with a slight accelerando; then it SUDDENLY doubles speed to quarter note plus eighth note, with the effect of a horse changing gait.)
I find the published version less satisfactory than the manuscript copy (not in the composer's hand) that I own -- perhaps that's partly because I'm used to it; but in my opinion one thing is wrongly added and another thing wrongly left out.
The ADDED thing is the suggestion that in the 'Passagio piu' ristretto', the diminuendo al niente of the repeated staccato low notes should end with 'key tapping'. That doesn't appear in the original. A much better solution -- and both Alan and myself have always done it this way, as far as I know -- is to have the repeated note diminuendo to nothing, but leave just the sound of the tongue interrupting the airflow through a non-vibrating reed. You play in such a way that that's audible to the audience, of course.
(In passing, the multiphonics are left up to the performer; but there is one unrealistic hope, which is the multiphonic glissando that Goehr imagined might occur FROM THE BOTTOM (it's on a low A), leaving the higher notes unaltered. Dream on, Sandy!)
The thing that's LEFT OUT is the instruction governing the passage in the 'Guerra' that most explicitly represents Tancredi and Clorinda simultaneously: the one of them making violent gestures that I think of as sword-slashes, whilst the other rises gently (pp uguale), starting on chalumeau Bb and progressing gradually into the high clarinet register.
This instruction reads as follows in my part (slightly changed by me because I have no means here of writing musical notation):
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[This is] a graphic representation: in the upper system the slashes at quarter-note intervals occur every 4 5-tuplets of the previous tempo [so the speed of the quarter-note is increased by 25%].
[Then,] the lower system is in fact 7 eighth notes in the time of 4 quarter notes. However, fit these into the upper system as smoothly as possible.
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There are two things to say about this, and the 'Guerra' passage as a whole.
The first is that Sandy's metric modulations (twice involving a 25% increase in tempo, as in the first paragraph above) result in an excessively fast final tempo. I've tried playing it accurately, and it just doesn't work.
Therefore, underdo the tempo change.
The second is that learning to fit 7 eighth notes into the time of 4 quarter notes is much harder than doing it the other way around: namely, fitting 4 quarter notes into the time of 7 eighth notes.
If you do it that way, then the rhythm is quite easy to learn; you just play the 'sword slash', first, INSTEAD of the first eighth note; then, three 32nds after the next one; then, a sixteenth after the next one but one; then, one 32nd after the NEXT one but one; and then we come back finally to coincidence of the two systems.
(Looks complicated written down, but it isn't really:-)
You have to learn how fast the eighth notes need to go to keep the 'slashes' regular -- but that's not too demanding.
Notice, by the way, that when the passage returns, THERE ARE NO METRIC MODULATIONS, so the whole speed is much slower (more tired, more desperate?) until the final accelerando. Most people miss that.
It's a great and moving piece, and always goes down well with an audience.
I find the strange last line particularly poignant.
Tony
Post Edited (2009-10-29 05:52)
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Author: Sarah Elbaz
Date: 2009-10-29 09:59
Tony,
Thank you for the very helpful information. I am looking at the music and would like to add :
Usually when I know that a piece was wrriten in the 60's - 70's I assume that it will be notetated in a very unfriendly way to the preformer (for some reason that was the atmosphere ar the time). This is not the case here- the music is very accessible and clear, although its not easy.
About the gliss from the low A multiphonic to high A - it is imposible also because of the dinamic mark - PP.
There is another piece of Alexander Goehr for 3 clarinets (2cl and Bcl):
Prelude and fugue. This one was written in 1980. Its much easier and can be played even by students. We will play in in the next clarinet days course in December.
Sarah
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Author: William
Date: 2009-10-29 14:58
"low A multiphonic to high A " glissando??
Neither do I have the music in front of me. Would it be possible to more fully describe the actual notation--or at least, the "multiphonic" part?? Thanks.....
To clarify, I know what "multiphonics" means, just wondering which particular one (on the low A) is called for--and if any suggested fingering is mentioned......(???)
Post Edited (2009-10-29 17:40)
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2009-10-29 17:14
Goehr's music is fascinating...I did his Metamprhosis for orchestra many moons ago. His music is challenging and at the same time eerie...wonderful in a world where there are so many technocratic composers...
David Dow
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2009-10-29 17:49
William wrote:
>> Neither do I have the music in front of me. Would it be possible to more fully describe the actual notation -- or at least, the "multiphonic" part??>>
That particular bit is not really interesting, it turns out, because Sandy was labouring under a misapprehension about how multiphonics work when he wrote it. But I have to say that his use of (unspecified) multiphonics in the passage that precedes it is highly effective.
This passage is a quiet nocturne that comes to rest periodically on a low note (the first one is a low F), on each of which you are invited to produce a ghostly multiphonic, as a sort of nuance leading to the disappearing staccato I described in the previous post. (This idea -- of a quiet multiphonic as a nuance on a long note -- is also used to great effect in 'Naboth's Vineyard', also by Goehr, where it represents Jezebel's wheedling seduction of her husband Ahab in this version of the story.)
As you know, there is a choice of quiet multiphonics using the standard low F fingering (you can easily glissando between them), and Goehr doesn't specify which you use, simply writing the F as a diamond instead of the normal filled in note, and putting empty brackets above it.
But in the bit in question, in order to exit from the nocturnal passage, there is a final low A written in this way; but then a wavy line marked 'gliss' going to a clarion A with a 'harmonic' circle above it.
When I asked about it, Sandy said that he'd imagined that you could progressively 'lose' the lower parts of the multiphonic, glissandoing upwards until you're left with just the top bit, which he imagined might be the notated clarion A.
But you can't; so I do the multiphonic nuance, return to the low A and then fake a sort of disappearing glissando to a ghostly clarion A.
Then I go on.
Tony
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Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2009-10-30 00:11
Wiliam wrote:
>> I know what "multiphonics" means, just wondering which particular one (on the low A) is called for -- and if any suggested fingering is mentioned......(???)>>
There is no special fingering required. I do find, however, that putting on the low E key can help to give a richer spectrum to the multiphonic.
Tony
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