I need help interpreting dynamics in the concerto... it says in the book (the book that has this concerto) that:


correct phrasing and dynamics in detail will be achieved by adequate study and deep immersion in the work rather than by an abundance of added printed markings which are only one editor's opinion, and when taken too literally, tend to make the rendition exaggerated and tasteless

It also says that:


Dynamics and part of the phrasing in the present edition can only be considered as suggestions based on teaching and performing experience.

I've googled this concerto, and "classical music- dynamics" and haven't found anything about this.

I haven't heard any recordings of this (unfortunately, just MIDI files... <_< ).

Sheet music- Excerpt from Rondo Movement (MUS file)
http://forums.ichigos.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2768&d=1155473534

Sorry for double posting, but I really need help with this :( .

My interpretation.

Opening, soft, continue on soft to bar19, crescendo. Peak at measure 21 highest note then slowly go back down to 23. crescendo to a forte on measure 24 first note(The one you hold. Make sure to leave room for a push). piano on the pickup note into 25.26-F--E, gently on F and push to about mf, and hold it as long as you can before tapping back to E in piano(This is whipping the note). Measure 28, increase to mf from the B-->D and die back down immediately on the pickup.

Note: I suggest a crescendo on any rising passages and vise-versa. A "whip" on and dotted quarter to eighth. Trills should be pushed 3/4 the way and light up on the last quarter to give room for another push for the note after.

PS: This is my interpretation. The first paragraph is how I would play. The second paragraph is something a professor in music had taught me which works on most pieces, especially classical.

Do you want a recording? I can find a good one for you.

Sepharite, if you can find a recording... PM me.

Thanks for help :) .

Sure, I asked a few buddies of mine.. they have a whole collection. If not, I'll check my CD library later. Wish me luck! :P


Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622

Allegro
Adagio
Rondo: Allegro

Mozart wrote his last concerto in the autumn of 1791. It was a commission from his friend Anton Stadler, a fellow-freemason, and a regular source of assistance in Mozart’s chaotic financial affairs. He was also the principal clarinettist in the Court orchestra in Vienna, and seems to have been an artist of remarkable skill and musicianship. After a 1784 performance of one of Mozart’s wind serenades, a critic wrote to him that "Never have I heard such things as you are able to perform on your instrument. I would not have thought that a clarinet could imitate the human voice so deceptively as you imitate it. Your instrument is so soft, so delicate in tone that no-one who has a heart can resist it." Mozart wrote a string of masterpieces for clarinet, all for Stadler. As well as the Concerto, the Clarinet Quintet K.581 and the "Kegelstatt" trio K.498 owe their existence to Mozart’s admiration and friendship for Stadler, and while the clarinettist received a series of personalised masterpieces, Mozart in return discovered the full potential of an instrument that was still very new. Clarinets, and their predecessors, basset horns, give a wonderfully soft, expressive colour to many of Mozart’s most personal later works; the A major Piano Concerto (No.23), the revised Symphony No.40, and of course the dark, deeply emotional Requiem, K.626, which he was writing at the time of his death, just 2 months after he completed the Clarinet Concerto.

This is perhaps one of the reasons why the Clarinet Concerto, Mozart’s last completed
instrumental work, is sometimes described as "autumnal", a "farewell to life". But the idea that Mozart knew his days were numbered while writing the Concerto has to be regarded as another of the many myths surrounding his final months. He first sketched the work as a Concerto in G for basset horn in late 1789, and only returned to it in 1791 when a testimonial concert for Stadler was planned for that October, in Prague. Mozart was extremely busy. He’d written and premiered two operas already that year and had a commission for a Requiem outstanding, but on the day he completed the Clarinet Concerto he wrote to his wife that he’d played two games of billiards, "smoked a marvellous pipe of tobacco", ordered a black coffee and then "orchestrated almost the whole Rondo for Stadler". Not exactly a composer on his deathbed, then. But Mozart had a remarkable ability to keep his day-to-day life separate from his inner world, and in writing this concerto for an instrument he loved so much, Mozart produced a work that embraces both light and shade – music which loves and celebrates life while exploring darkness with profound feeling. Stadler had recently invented an instrument that combined the agility of the early clarinet with the depth of the basset horn, and this "Basset Clarinet" was the instrument for which Mozart wrote his concerto. It allowed him to write brilliant display passages and lyrical melodies in its upper register and to explore the rich expressive sound of its bottom octave with equal ease, and the music exploits the contrast between the two with frequent shifts from major to minor keys. This gives the concerto its searching, bittersweet quality, and Mozart enhances this by giving the clarinet a soft-edged orchestral setting, with two flutes but without oboes or trumpets. The orchestral colours give the concerto as a whole a specially warm, intimate tone, luminous in the Adagio, and make the expressive, gently curving melodies particularly affecting. Mozart may not have meant the Clarinet Concerto to be his swansong, but it has a subtle beauty of sound, a ripe abundance of melody, and a compassionate tenderness of feeling that make it as moving a testimony to his genius as anything he ever wrote.

R.G.Bratby, 2001

http://www.classicalnotes.co.uk/home.html

Probably not very helpful. =S

Sepharite, I just need one for Clarinet + Orchestra, because I doubt that there are any recordings of Clarinet + Piano for this concerto, and I only need the Rondo Movement (I have the other two movements already).

Thanks for the info :) .

I've noticed in this Concerto (when professionals play it) trills are always played top note first... for example, if there was a tr~~~~~~~~ mark on top of a G note, It would be played A-G-A-G....

Is this a must for classical music?

I know for sure that it's a must in Baroque music, but the clarinetist probably just prefered it that way. Whatever floats you boat.

I think trills before Beethoven start on the top note, and trills after Beethoven start on the main note. (Trills by Beethoven, well...)

Beethoven's trills are main note first.... (Moonlight Sonata, 3rd Mvmnt.)

(*still needs an answer*)

No. It's not a must.

Ok then :) . Thanks.

Back to dynamics~

In some parts, the clarinetist just does a dim. (really soft too) out of nowhere... How would the part have to be to do this?....

*will show example soon*

Beethoven's trills are main note first.... (Moonlight Sonata, 3rd Mvmnt.)

(*still needs an answer*)

Mozart comes before Beethoven...so I think it is a "must"...but it's probably best to consult a music teacher :P

Current Classical "Elements" that I know of:

-Cresc. on upward/downward runs.
-Cresc. on repeating rhythms but notes are higher.
-Dim. when the same phrase is repeated twice. (or play softer)
-Trills start with top note first (I listened to some of Mozart's other concertos- and yes, they do start with top note first).
-Staccato should not be played too short.

EDIT: About the trills (from Wikipedia):


However, in general, classical music before and during the time of Mozart is executed beginning on the auxiliary note, and music from after the time of Mozart starts on the main note. These factors, together with the overall rate of the trill and whether that rate is constant or variable, can only be determined by considering the context in which the trill appears, and is usually to a large degree a matter of opinion with no single "right" way of executing the ornament.