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Ichabod!

1999-10-15 16:08:58

yesterday i played a solo at my schools mass. i wish that the only time they heard my clarinet wasnt the overly simplified hymns i played. i wish they could hear and appreciate things like we play in concert band. of course i have a specific piece in mind.

its the second movement of second suite. but lo! i am not asking them to listen to my solo in the first part of the piece, though that would be nice. i want them to listen to the second half of a part called something like "song for my love without words" the flutes and trumpets restate the melody introduced by the oboe and clarinet in the first half. but the first and solo clarinet parts . . . groups of slow eighth notes beginning on either 2 or the first upbeat of the measure. the way they rise and fall, they sound like voices, the lowest tones barely audible and the highest speaking out above the melody. there is one measure i would describe as yearning. 3 eighth notes beginning on the first upbeat and three more beginning on the upbeat of 3. theres a passage similar to this in river of life, but it does not have the same purpose or emotion. first of all its in quarter notes, not eighths. second its used to bulid to a resolution. third, its in a major key. in love song without words, it is not the climax and it is in a minor key. the climax comes at the eighth note right before the fermata. first and solo clarinets go along in their ascending line, building building, then theres a note higher than others in the chord in my part, e flat sopranino clarinet would play it too if we had one. that single note just strikes me as so very poignant! then of course everyone cringes as the rest of the clarinets join the chord and it seems out of tune. somehow i believe it is supposed to be at least a little dissonant. isnt every true love's song?