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Re: Joë Christophe- phenomenol talent

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2021-10-02 21:50

Joe Christophe's playing brings up an interesting consideration regarding what it means to play musically. Admittedly I try to avoid deeper discussions regarding phrasing and such (tending toward ligatures and mouthpieces instead) because there is SO MUCH subjective quality to the discussion. Just as an example, in another current thread someone mentions a composer that they really admire and another person comes in to say how banal that composer's music really is. Further, in a post some time ago we got advice from a very well respected member of the clarinet playing community which went like this: "Play a tune........tunefully," which got some rave reviews.

So I ask with some trepidation, are there any straight forward "rules" one can garner from Cristophe's playing that can make playing tunefully easier to understand?

I think I hear a use of wide dynamic ranges within a given phrase. I seem to hear higher notes of the phrase played louder, while lower notes are played softer. Or sometimes just that the terminal notes of a phrase are diminished.

Is it non-musical to play the the higher notes of a phrase softer and the lower notes louder? Can you just crescendo through a phrase until you're as loud as possible at the end of a phrase?

What in God's name does "playing a tune tunefully" actually mean? And how is it that only a few people such as Christophe know how to do it well?

....................Paul Aviles

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