 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-08-24 04:43
I'm preparing the 1st clarinet part to Madama Butterfly for a reading in a couple of weeks. I know the opera pretty well to hear it, but I've never played it before. All of my experience with Puccini operas, except for Flying Dutchman many years ago, is with the standard aria and instrumental excerpts.
In the Butterfly part at Act II, rehearsal #50, the place where Butterfly runs out and brings her child back to show to Sharpless, the father, a new musical section begins quite abruptly - new tempo and meter, fortissimo with the entire orchestra playing. There is a marking where the tempo normally would be, above the top staff in the score, above the right hand in the piano score, "Allegro moderato - molto vibrato." The instruction is apparently for the entire orchestra. It does appear in the clarinet part I downloaded from IMSLP.
It seems like an odd instruction to appear above the entire score of a loud, tutti passage. I don't think I've ever seen it applied in this way anywhere else, including the Puccini excerpt repertoire I've played in the past. Has anyone had enough experience playing Puccini to know if this is common in his operas?
Karl
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Author: echi85
Date: 2017-08-24 05:06
I can't remember seeing the marking in anything other than Butterfly. Certainly not in Boheme or Tosca. Perhaps he wanted as vibrant a sound as possible? I'm not even sure if players used vibrato in the early 1900s. Muhlfeld was known for it but he was also originally a violinist.
If you've never played Butterfly before, look out for the E major section in Act III. I've had to play it very fast in recent years. Also the humming chorus can be a pain if aren't aware of it. Just make sure you play the Cs low. I find pulling at the middle and keeping the low E key down to be essential. You can always shade the right hand index finger if it's still too high.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-08-24 06:39
echi85 wrote:
> If you've never played Butterfly before, look out for the E
> major section in Act III. I've had to play it very fast in
> recent years. Also the humming chorus can be a pain if aren't
> aware of it. Just make sure you play the Cs low.
Yes, I see them. Looks like the probem with the Humming Chorus is that you have to play the Cs wherever the harp is tuned, which could be iffy by the end of Act 2. Thanks for the heads-up!
Karl
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2017-08-24 07:12
The marking also shows up in the slow movement of the Glinka trio with bassoon and piano. Don't do it myself; if it isn't part of your style, suddenly doing it for one section in the middle of a piece probably wouldn't come off well. Clarinets can do emotional intensity without wobbling.
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Author: genekeyes ★2017
Date: 2017-08-24 07:15
Wagner would not be happy with your giving credit for Flying Dutchman to Puccini.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2017-08-24 10:45
The oboe part to the Madame Butterfly opera was not so easy.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-08-24 11:32
Oops!! I don't know why I did that. Brain freeze.
Karl
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Author: kdk
Date: 2017-08-24 17:31
dorjepismo wrote:
> The marking also shows up in the slow movement of the Glinka
> trio with bassoon and piano.
Yes, and late Romantic and 20th century composers not infrequently specify vibrato or non vibrato in solo and chamber music. This intrigued me because it's an entire orchestra, everyone wailing away at fortissimo, no one being heard individually. I guess maybe, as Echi85 suggested, he wanted as vibrant a sound as possible. Or maybe a copyist misread something else that Puccini wrote in the MS and copied the instruction incorrectly. Apart from the textural context, the location of the vibrato instruction at the top as part of the tempo change just seems odd.
Karl
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2017-08-24 17:45
OK, not Fliegende Hollander, but how about Rienzi and a draft pick?
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