Caboodles of Clarinets, Trios, Vol. 2

Johann Christoph Faber (1669-1744) Johann Christoph was a German court composer who amused himself and his friends by embedding puzzles in his music, although I didn’t find any in this piece. The word “Partita” has at various times been used to mean simply a piece of music, a variation, or a collection of different pieces. This March and two Minuets (and the bourée in the flute trios, volume 1) would have been just the type of music a court composer might write for various courtly events. I have the 1960 Nagels Musik-Archiv edition and can see that this work is actually in C, not F and was composed originally for three recorders. A manuscript of the parts, which in 1960 was kept in the Wolfenbüttel Library, had “J.C.F.” indicated as the composer. Nagels Verlag has identified it as Johann Christoph Faber and dates the work from around 1730. I assume that it remains there today. Nagels Verlag has identified the “J.C.F.” on this one as Johann Christoph Faber and dates the work from around 1730. My colleague at Ohio Wesleyan, Dr. Tim Roden, tells me that the Wolfenbüttel library in Germany holds a number of rare and culturally important manuscripts.

Faber, March: Perhaps the best stylistic suggestion I can make for this is to strive for the slow, deliberate sort of march with a two beat feel, half note = 60. I also made lots of staccato marks on my music, so that I was sure to keep a crisp style. Remember that the quarter-note staccato notes will be longer than the eighth-note staccatos. I do appreciate the piano-crescendo markings that Professor Voxman added at mm. 9 to the end. I set a peak volume at mf in m. 12, so it doesn’t get too loud within that delicate section. This March goes well with the two minuets that follow as a mini partita.
Faber, Minuet I: Just as there was a slow-beat feel in the march, I like to have the rhythmic feel of this minuet to be in both three and one. I set the tempo around 126 to the quarter, but it can work slower. Minuets were traditionally very busy dances, lots of fancy footwork clicking heels and such, so the tempos probably weren’t too fast in Faber’s day. I also added crescendo-decrescendo markings every four measures from the beginning through m. 16.
Faber, Minuet II: This minuet also has a rhythmic feel in one and four-measure phrasing, crescendo-decrescendos added. Did you notice the short canon (imitation, similar to a round) in mm. 17-22? It’s a nice change of texture and gives this minuet a unique aspect.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) was the composer who knew people. His teachers were Mozart, Clementi, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Although Hummel and Beethoven’s students argued over who was the greater composer, Hummel and Beethoven were long-time friends with Hummel serving as one of the pallbearers at Beethoven’s funeral. Hummel was a child prodigy and led a similar early life as Mozart, touring Europe with his musician father, performing for the aristocracy and famous composers. As a composer, Hummel’s compositions had both Classical elements (tuneful melodies, clear forms and textures) and Romantic ones (harmonic and dramatic).
Ecossaise (French term for ‘Scottish’), in the late 1700s in France, was the term usually applied to a popular contradanse that has a Scottish or British Isles flavor. Beethoven and Schubert wrote them and many western Europeans danced the ecossaise. I found this short work among a collection of Hummel’s, titled Six Very Easy Pieces, Op. 52, which was composed in 1811. The ‘Ecossaise’ is No. 5 and is now available in volume three of a publication that boasts of being the first complete collection of Hummel’s piano music, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) The Complete Works for Piano, A Six-Volume Collection of Reprints and Facsimiles, edited with introductions by Joel Sachs, The Julliard School. Here is photo of the title page of Six Very Easy Pieces, Op. 52. I do love the script!

Before you get too far into this piece, I suggest you look at my video on clarinet staccato. There is so much staccato here that care must be taken to assure a good crisp staccato free from distorted clarinet tone. (In my studio we call this the ‘doink’ tone.) The central section, mm. 9-17 with repeats, is a contrasting style. I added crescendos at mm. 9-11 and m. 15 (decrescendo in m. 16). I wanted a one feel but set the click for the count off at the quarter at 132. I believe you will like the busy motor quality of this piece with all the parts having some interesting contributions to the mechanism.

Wolfgang Amadeus, Mozart (1756-1891) What can I add to Mozart’s famous story? Well, we can notice that fabulous name –– Johannes Christostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (Mozart himself took to the Latin translation of Theophilus: Amadeus, Amadé or Gottlieb for casual occasions). Do you think his parents just couldn’t decide? Let’s remember that Wolfgang was an extremely talented musician from birth with a wealth of training and experience in music from a very early age. His ability to hear and recall music with the accuracy of a recording device meant that his absorption of all the performances he heard on his tours of Europe and Great Britain was so complete, that his style not only came to embody the best of what we now call the ‘Common Practice Period’ but went beyond in innovative and remarkable new directions.These are the first two movements of the five-movement Divertimento No. 2, which is listed either as K.V.Anh. 229, No. 2 or NMA (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe) Series VIII/21 No. 2. The original instrumentation is listed as two oboes and bassoon in one reliable source and as a trio of basset horns in another. (A basset horn is a sort of alto clarinet, pitched in F, although much easier to play and sounds wonderful in all ranges, unlike the alto clarinet; however, the alto clarinet is making a comeback as a jazz instrument). The K.V.Anh. basically translates to ‘Mr. Köchel decided that this was probably composed by Mozart and added it later to the appendix of his Mozart catalog’. Here’s the NMA score. When you click the link below you will choose the following:

1. choose your preference for English or German (top right of screen)
2. choose the ‘+’ sign next to Series VIII: Chamber Music
3. choose the quarter-note icon to the right of NMA VIII/21: Duos and Trios for Strings and Woodwind Instruments
4. enter 79 in the ‘find page no.’ box. The minuetto is about half way down the page. Here’s the website.

I like to feel this minuet/trio in one, a little slower than marked (I recorded the minuet portion at 58 for the dotted half, the trio at 50). As with most minuet/trios, the trio is typically performed a bit slower than the minuet. This was possibly inherited from the actual dance in which a trio of couples were featured with more elaborate dance moves than the minuet proper, hence the need for the slower tempo.

Wolfgang Amadeus, Mozart (1756-1891) What can I add to Mozart’s famous story? Well, we can notice that fabulous name –– Johannes Christostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (Mozart himself took to the Latin translation of Theophilus: Amadeus, Amadé or Gottlieb for casual occasions). Do you think his parents just couldn’t decide? Let’s remember that Wolfgang was an extremely talented musician from birth with a wealth of training and experience in music from a very early age. His ability to hear and recall music with the accuracy of a recording device meant that his absorption of all the performances he heard on his tours of Europe and Great Britain was so complete, that his style not only came to embody the best of what we now call the ‘Common Practice Period’ but went beyond in innovative and remarkable new directions.J.C.W.T. (A.) Mozart wrote lots of divertimenti for all kinds of instruments and special events. Some were written for installing royalty, for university finals, for thanking a prince for offering an unpaid job, and many, many more dubious reasons. This one is Divertimento III, KV 439, No. 3. In the NMA (Neue Mozarteum-Ausgabe) you can find it by just looking in the drop down for “Series VIII: Chamber Music” and choose the note icon to the right of “NMA VIII/21: Duos and Trios for Strings and Woodwind Instruments”. This menuetto/trio is found on pp. 96-99. Here is the link to the NMA site and directions to navigate to this work:

1. choose your preference for English or German (top right of screen)
2. choose the ‘+’ sign next to Series VIII: Chamber Music
3. choose the quarter-note icon to the right of NMA VIII/21: Duos and Trios for Strings and Woodwind Instruments
4. enter 96 in the ‘find page no.’ box. Here’s the website.

I found for me that the natural tendency at the beginning to play too timidly. The dynamic marking could be modified to mp, just as a reminder to be confident. There are several 16th-note passages that must be impeccably clean. Just like the first section of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, mm. 24-27 in the first part of this arrangement must launch off of the tied ‘C’ without delay. This is a place the tempo can drag down, so work on this carefully and thoroughly. I settled on the tempos of 108 for the minuet and 96 for the trio. The original also does not have the second quarter note in the 3rd part in m. 89. I left it in because it’s so amusing, but technically Mozart didn’t use it there, just at the end of the Minuet. You may notice some crescendo/decrescendos added for some drama and a sympathetic fp in mm. 43, 57, and 65 in all the parts. I prefer that supporting parts reflect the drama in the melody. Perhaps Mozart assumed the other players would do so naturally.

Wolfgang Amadeus, Mozart (1756-1891) What can I add to Mozart’s famous story? Well, we can notice that fabulous name –– Johannes Christostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (Mozart himself took to the Latin translation of Theophilus: Amadeus, Amadé or Gottlieb for casual occasions). Do you think his parents just couldn’t decide? Let’s remember that Wolfgang was an extremely talented musician from birth with a wealth of training and experience in music from a very early age. His ability to hear and recall music with the accuracy of a recording device meant that his absorption of all the performances he heard on his tours of Europe and Great Britain was so complete, that his style not only came to embody the best of what we now call the ‘Common Practice Period’ but went beyond in innovative and remarkable new directions.Divertimenti were often written as music for special events. Some of the others were written for installing royalty, for university finals, for thanking a prince for offering an unpaid job, and many, many more dubious occasions. This one is Divertimento IV, KV 439, No. 4. Here is the link to the NMA (Neue Mozarteum-Ausgabe) site and directions to navigate to this work:

1. choose your preference for English or German (top right of screen)
2. choose the ‘+’ sign next to Series VIII: Chamber Music
3. choose the quarter-note icon to the right of NMA VIII/21: Duos and Trios for Strings and Woodwind Instruments
4. enter 111 in the ‘find page no.’ box. Here’s the website:

I would advise that you work on making the piano measures and the forte measures very different in terms of style: legato and staccato respectively. There is a good bit of drama in this one with the minor B section, mm. 33-48, and the temporary modulation to F major in the C section, mm. 65-80. If your quartet has clarinetists that have yet to develop a good staccato, remember that there is an instructional video on clarinet articulation. Have fun with this one, it’s a great one to play quickly (my version is at 140) but it does work slower as well.

This folksong is from the British Isles. Here is some information from the website below about the tune: “The origin of the tune is not known. It does not appear earlier than around 1770. The words are Ben Johnson’s poem, ‘To Celia,’ written in 1616. According to the Oxford Companion to Music, the tune cannot be traced back beyond about 1770. Best Loved Songs of the American People states the tune is sometimes attributed to Mozart, but that there is no verification of the fact. Sir Walter Scott used the tune for a song County Guy. The tune has also been credited to Colonel Mellish. However, that is unlikely as he is believed to have been born in 1777. Grattan Flood asserted that he had seen an edition of the song dating from about 1803 with Henry Herrington of Bath (1727-1816).” (From Best Loved Songs of The American People and the Oxford Companion to Music as a post on uk.music.folk). Here are the words and a MIDI file of the tune.

I chose my tempo based on what it seemed that the words to the folksong required. The indication of ‘very legato’ is another topic for our technique videos, so be sure to watch that video for a demonstration. You may notice that I added a ritardando at the end. I marked that as the pickup eighth note to the second to last measure, as with the line “I | would not change for | thine” | (underlined words are downbeats).

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was as contemporary of Beethoven’s, studied with some of the same Viennese composers and was the torch bearer at Beethoven’s funeral. Schubert wrote hundreds of art songs for which he is well known but composed symphonies, chamber music, piano works and church music as well. He wrote a handful of operas and he composed this one, Rosamunde, Fürstin von Cypern (Princess of Cyprus) in 1823. It was an opera that was not a success as a production during its time (it only had two performances) and shortly after the libretto was lost. However, the music has endured and is a favorite for symphony pops concerts. The Entr’acte (French for “between the acts”) is the term used for the music to keep the audience entertained while the sets are changed and the heroine is frantically changing costumes.

There are several orchestral recordings of this Entr’acte that you might want to listen to. I found several on Grooveshark. In the original the first eight bars are repeated and there are several sections that are omitted from this arrangement. However, you can get a sense of the delicate nature I was attempting in this recording – legato throughout, a sense of stillness, grace, and slow-motion emotion. Since we don’t have the story, I made up my own: imagine a lovely pastoral scene, with the warmth of a sunny Spring day, a light breeze wafting about. There are storm clouds on the horizon but for now it is idyllic. The pedals from the flowering trees are floating slowly on the breeze, then along comes the mother ox and her young calf, strolling along the pasture. Now make up your own story!