Academic literature on the topic 'Clarinet sonatas'

Background. Johannes Brahms composed his two Clarinet Sonatas, op. 120, in 1894, and dedicated them to the outstanding clarinet player Richard Mühlfeld. These were the last chamber pieces he wrote before his death, when he became interested in the possibilities the clarinet offered. Nowadays they are considered to be masterpieces of the clarinet repertoire, legitimizing the combination of piano and clarinet in new composers’ works. Brahms lavished particular care and affection on these works, and he clearly wished them to have the widest possible circulation, for he adapted them – with a certain amount of recomposition in each case – in two parallel forms: as sonatas for viola and piano, and for violin and piano. The violin versions are rarely heard, but the viola sonatas have become cornerstones of this instrument’s repertoire, just as the original forms have for the repertoire of the clarinet. Brahms was effectively establishing a new genre, since before they appeared there were virtually no important duo sonatas for viola and piano. These sonatas embody his compositional technique in its ultimate taut, essentialized, yet marvelously flexible manner. The purpose of this article is to show the interaction of variable and invariant components of the musical text as a factor influencing performance decisions in the process of working on a piece of music. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of the musical text of clarinet and viola parts in the Sonatas of J. Brahms op 120, which are the material of this study. The article relevance is in the importance of comprehension the performing differences for pianists (especially, for those specialized on the sphere of chamber music) working J. Brahms’ Sonatas op. 120 with clarinetists or violists. Every piece could offer its own unique complex of special “challenges”, thus the need of analyzing specifics of performance in every such a piece of music appears. This uniqueness is the basis for the innovativeness of the results of the study of the performance specifics of J. Brahms’ Sonata op. 120 in a selected aspect. Results of the research. Clarinet and viola versions Sonatas by J. Brahms op. 120 occupy a prominent place in the performing repertoire, including training. Because the article provides a comparative analysis of the musical text of clarinet and viola parts with the same piano part; provides a comparative overview of the specifics of the artistic expression of the clarinet and viola to determine the performing strategy of the pianist in the ensemble. The differences found in the viola and clarinet parts are divided into the groups – octave transfers, addition of double notes and melismatics, changes in melodic lines, difference in the strokes (staccato, non legato, tenuto, portamento etc.). There is also a detailed description of clarinet and viola timbres. Due to the different possibilities of the instruments, it is quite obvious that the pianist faces certain creative tasks and in general they can be formulated as follows: when playing the viola, the dynamic range of the piano should be smaller than when performing with the clarinet. In addition, you need to pay attention to other details, such as pedal, texture quality, articulation. Yes, the viola sounds much more confident against the background of a “thick” pedal, while the clarinet in this case loses the volume of its sound. With regard to phrasing, it should be borne in mind that the clarinetist needs to take a breath, and the violist’s ability to lead a bow for a long time does not depend on his physiological characteristics. The question arises: which is more important – tempo or phrasing? In this situation, the specificity is that phrasing should be given more attention. The tempo when performing with the clarinet varies significantly than with the viola, and it is also chosen and changed for practical reasons that follow from the physical data of the performer. The pianist should also pay special attention to the differentiation of voices and the quality of articulation. In terms of sound balance, it is obvious that the clarinet needs more piano support than the viola, because it is dynamically brighter. Nevertheless, this does not mean that piano shades “p” should be avoided, because the contrast of dynamics expands the acoustic range of Sonatas and their expressive potential. Conclusion. The comparative-analytical description contributes to the awareness of the differences in the dynamic balance due to the change of the obligatory instrument. Accurate knowledge of where and how such changes occur not only focuses the musicians’ attention on the relevant details in the performance process, but also encourages them to make more informed decisions about the dynamic balance of performance in general.

Although John Pickard's music has received a good many performances and radio broadcasts over the past decade, it was the relay of his dazzling orchestral tone poem The Flight of Icarus (1990) during the 1996 Proms1 which brought him to the notice of the wider concert–going and –listening public. There is some justice in that piece attracting such attention, as it is one of his most immediate in impact, while completely representative of his output at large. That output to date encompasses three symphonies (1983–4, 1985–7, 1995–6) and five other orchestral works, three string quartets (1991, 1993, 1994; a fourth in progress), a piano trio (1990), sonatas for piano (1987) and cello and piano (1994–5), vocal and choral works, pieces for orchestral brass (Vortex, 1984–5) and brass band – the exhilarating Wildfire (1991), which crackles, hisses and spits in ferocious near–onomatopoeia, and suite Men of Stone (1995), celebrating four of the most impressive megalithic sites in Britain, one to each season of the year. There are other works for a variety of solo instruments and chamber ensembles, such as the intriguing grouping of flute, clarinet, harpsichord and piano trio in Nocturne in Black and Gold (1983) and the large–scale Serenata Concertante for flute and six instruments of a year later. Still in his mid-thirties – he was born in Burnley in 1963 – Pickard has already made almost all the principal musical forms of the Western Classical tradition his own, with only opera, ballet and the concerto as yet untackled.

Vladimir Rotaru is one of the famous composers from the Republic of Moldova, whose compositions include both orchestral and chamber-instrumental works. In this article, the author made a brief analysis of the repertoire for bassoon that includes both solo and chamber compositions, such as Suite for flute, oboe, clarinet, and bassoon; Monothematic metamorphoses; Sonata-dialogue for bassoon and piano; Caprice for bassoon and piano. The aim of the article concerned is reviewing the creations for bassoon signed by Vladimir Rotaru, being in a succinct language features and architectonic creations componentistic concerned.

Background. The name of Amanda Maier (married – Röntgen-Maier), the Swedish violinist, composer, pianist, organist, representative of the Leipzig school of composition, contemporary and good friend of С. Schumann, J. Brahms, E. Grieg, is virtually unknown in the post-Soviet space and little mentioned in the works of musicologists from other countries. The composer’s creativity has long been almost completely forgotten, possibly due to both her untimely death (at the age of 41) and thanks to lack of the research interest in the work of women composers over the past century. The latter, at least in domestic musicology, has significantly intensified in recent decades, which is due in part to the advancement in the second half of the XX and early XXI centuries of a constellation of the talanted women-composers in Ukraine – L. Dychko, H. Havrylets, A. Zagaikevych, I. Aleksiichuk, formerly – G. Ustvolska, S. Gubaydulina in Russia, etc. Today, it is obvious that the development of the world art is associated not only with the activities of male artists, but also with the creative achievements of women: writers, artists, musicians. During her life, A. Maier was the well-known artist in Europe and in the world and the same participant in the musical-historical process as more famous today the musicians of the Romantic era. Objectives and methodology. The proposed study should complement the idea of the work of women-composers of the 19th century and fill in one of the gap on the music map of Europe at that time. The purpose of this article is to characterize the genre-stylistic and compositional-dramaturgical features of selected chamber music works by A. Röntgen-Maier. In this research are used historical-stylistic, structural and functional, analytical, comparative, genre methods. Research results. Carolina Amanda Erika Maier-Röntgen was born in Landskrona, Sweden, where she received her first music lessons from her father. Then she studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she mastered playing on the several instruments at once – violin, cello, piano, organ, as well as studied the music theory. She became the first woman received the title of “Musik Direktor” after successfully graduating from college. She continued her studies at the Leipzig Conservatory – in the composition under Carl Reineke and Ernst Friedrich Richter direction, in the violin – with Engelbert Röntgen (concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the father of her future husband J. Röntgen). She toured Europe a lot, firstly as a violinist, performing her own works and her husband’s works, alongside with world classics. After the birth of her two sons, she withdrew from active concert activities due to the deterioration of her health, but often participated in music salons, which she and her husband organized at home, and whose guests were J. Brahms, C. Schumann, E. Grieg with his wife, and A. Rubinstein. It is known that Amanda Maier performed violin sonatas by J. Brahms together with Clara Schumann. The main part of the composer’s creative work consists of chamber and instrumental works. She wrote the Sonata in B minor (1878); Six Pieces for violin and piano (1879); “Dialogues” – 10 small pieces for piano, some of which were created by Julius Röntgen (1883); Swedish songs and dances for violin and piano; Quartet for piano, violin, viola and cello E minor (1891), Romance for violin and piano; Trio for violin, cello and piano (1874); Concert for violin and orchestra (1875); Quartet for piano, violin, viola and clarinet E minor; “Nordiska Tonbilder” for violin and piano (1876); Intermezzo for piano; Two string quartets; March for piano, violin, viola and cello; Romances on the texts of David Wiersen; Trio for piano and two violins; 25 Preludes for piano. Sizable part of the works from this list is still unpublished. Some manuscripts are stored in the archives of the Stockholm State Library, scanned copies of some manuscripts and printed publications are freely available on the Petrucci music library website, but the location of the other musical scores by A. Maier is currently unknown to the author of this material; this is the question that requires a separate study. Due to the limited volume of the article, we will focus in detail on two opuses, which were published during the life of the composer, and which today have gained some popularity among performers around the world. These are the Sonata in B minor for Violin and Piano and the Six Pieces for Violin and Piano. Sonata in B minor is a classical three-part cycle. The first movement – lyricaldramatic sonata allegro (B minor), the second – Andantino – Allegretto, un poco vivace – Tempo I (G major) – combines lyrical and playful semantic functions, the third – Allegro molto vivace (B minor) is an active finale with a classical rondosonata structure. The Six Pieces for Violin and Piano rightly cannot be called the cycle, in the Schumann sense of this word, because there is no common literary program for all plays, intonation-thematic connections between this musical numbers, end-to-end thematic development that would permeate the entire opus. But this opus has the certain signs of cyclization and the common features to all plays, contributing to its unification: tonal plan, construction of the whole on the principle of contrast, genre, song and dance intonation, the leading role of the violin in the presentation of thematic material. Conclusions and research perspectives. Amanda Maier’s chamber work freely synthesizes the classical (Beethoven) and the romantic (Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann) traditions, which the composer, undoubtedly, learned through the Leipzig school. From there come the classical harmony, the orderliness of her thinking, clarity, conciseness, harmony of form, skill in ensemble writing, polyphonic ingenuity. There are also parallels with the music of J. Brahms. With the latter, A. Maier’s creativity correlates trough the ability to embody freely and effortlessly the subtle lyrical psychological content, being within the traditional forms, to feel natural within the tradition, without denying it and without trying to break it. The melodic outlines and rhythmic structures of some themes and certain techniques of textured presentation in the piano part also refer us to the works of the German composer. However, this is hardly a conscious reliance on the achievements of J. Brahms, because the creative process of the two musicians took place in parallel, and A. Maier’s Violin Sonata appeared even a little earlier than similar works by J. Brahms in this genre. Prospects for further research in this direction relate to the search for new information about A. Maier’s life and creativity and the detailed examination of her other works.

The chamber-instrumental ensemble music in the Ukrainian musical culture of the last third of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries occupies one of the leading places and is characterized by powerful processes in its development. Such circumstances caused the Ukrainian musicologist interests to the problems of chamber-instrumental music creativity and performance. There are appeared researches in the field of theory, history and performance problems covering the most important questions like chamber music definitions, specific genre issues, the growing function of piano in the Ukrainian chamber music, the increasing questions of technique and timbre importance of modern instrumental ensembles. In the significant multifaceted creative work of contemporary Ukrainian composer, Oleksandr Yakovchuk, the genre of chamber instrumental ensemble music represents a complex and interesting phenomenon. Original and skillfully written compositions reflect artistic world of the composer of postmodern time and gained recognition in music life of Ukraine and beyond. These works are highly appreciated in performing practice of our days. The purpose of the article is to analyze the work — “Little Trio” for clarinet, bassoon and piano (1980), which has the signs of neoclassical tendency in the composer’s style. The methodological basis of this research is a comprehensive approach in theoretical understanding of the subject of research (the methods of textology, source study as well as the method of interviewing the author were used). The scientific novelty of this article is in the priority of its main provisions, since the “Little Trio” entered the scientific circulation for the first time. The three-movement “Little Trio” (1980) is notable for the light feeling of timbre colours and the shape clarity. The Ist movement — Allegretto giocoso — is written in a sonata form following all classical traditions. Quite interesting are the two monologues of clarinet and bassoon from the IInd movement, they represent very modern line in Ukrainian chamber music — the possibility of sincere confession which comes through the solo cadence. In the IIIrd movement, the composer took advantage from the folk Ukrainian dance “hopak” using the rhythm of it and creating dance character of the Final.

Musicians make elaborate movements while performing, often using gestures that might seem extraneous. To explore these movements, we motion-captured and audio-recorded different pairings of clarinetists and pianists performing Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata No. 1 with two manipulations: (a) allowing the performers full vs. no visual feedback, and (b) allowing the performers full vs. partial auditory feedback (i.e., the clarinetist could not hear the pianist). We found that observer ratings of audio–visual point-light renditions discriminated between manipulations and refined this insight through subsequent audio-alone and visual-alone experiments, providing an understanding of each modality’s contribution. This novel approach of evaluating point-light displays of performances under systematically manipulated conditions provides new perspective on the ways in which ancillary gestures contribute to both performer communication and audience reception of live performances.

Alexander Grechaninov was one of the most important composers of the late Russian Romantic School. By the second half of the twentieth century he remained one of the few living composers who continued the traditions of the great Russian Romantic masters, such as Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. He is primarily known for his liturgical works, which are truly masterpieces of this genre. Because many of his instrumental works remain unpublished, particularly the chamber works, they continue to be undeservedly ignored in the concert hall. Grechaninov's unpublished works for clarinet include Septet for Clarinet, Bassoon and String Quintet, Op. 172a, Serenade for Clarinet and String Orchestra (without opus number), and Sonata No. 1 for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 161. This project not only brings to light Grechaninov's unpublished clarinet works, but also emphasizes the importance of his published clarinet pieces which have to date been forgotten, especially in the United States. The writer prepares a performance edition of the Sonata No. 1, Op.161 from Grechaninov's original autograph manuscript which is held in the New York Public Library's Toscanini Archives. After a brief introduction, the document describes Grechaninov's biography, including his historical and societal background, compositional growth throughout his career, and outside influences to which he would have been exposed (Chapter 2). Chapter 3 discusses in details Grechaninov's compositional output and distinct features of his style. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the published and unpublished works for clarinet by Grechaninov. Chapter 6 provides a detailed structural and tonal analysis of the Sonata No. 1, Op. 161 and discusses the process of editing. Included in the appendices are: performance edition of the Sonata No. 1 for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 161 (score and clarinet part); photocopy of the original autograph manuscript of the Sonata No. 1 for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 161 (score and viola part); photocopy of the original autograph manuscript of the Septet for Clarinet, Bassoon and String Quintet, Op. 172a; and photocopy of the original autograph manuscript of the Serenade for Clarinet and String Orchestra, without opus number.

David Baker (b. 1931) is an educator, composer, and jazz legend. He has composed at least fifteen works that include the clarinet. Baker’s Clarinet Sonata (1989) has become a standard of clarinet repertoire and a popular recital inclusion. His chamber work Heritage: A Tribute to Great Clarinetists (1996) interweaves solo transcriptions of five jazz clarinetists. The compositional style of Baker’s clarinet works frequently links jazz and classical idioms. The two works discussed in this document are excellent examples for classically trained musicians who would like to increase their ability and experience in interpreting jazz styles. The purpose of this document is: (1) to provide background, style, and performance considerations for Baker’s Clarinet Sonata and Heritage: A Tribute for Great Clarinetists, for Clarinet, Violin, Piano and Double Bass; (2) based on these style elements, to provide suggestions for interpreting jazz-style works for classically trained clarinetists; and (3) to archive Baker’s published and unpublished clarinet compositions. Appendices include transcripts of interviews with David Baker and other experts in this field (James Campbell, Rosana Eckert, Mike Steinel and Steven Harlos).

This dissertation is an analytical comparison of the works for solo clarinet by Paul Hindemith and his student Arnold Cooke. A total of seven compositions are studied and analyzed for style, covering aspects of melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and texture. From this data, conclusions concerning the accessibility of Cooke's music for solo clarinet to the player and listener are made. Although Hindemith's music for solo clarinet is more often played, it is this author's conclusion that Cooke's works are more satisfactory in their accessibility and ease of performance.