First of all. There is no guarantee that my memory is very
reliable on this article. Second, this is nothing but some
words exchanged between two NTU students long ago.
We played many James W.'s work because his music is not too
challenging and one learns to count and phrase in his music.
In one occasion our conductor choose an extremely fast tempo
(compare to the metronome mark on the score) in a fast section
of W.'s work. He kind of explored the excitement to an extreme.
The effect was trememdous, partly because other bands in our time
played the same piece much slower.
After one rehearsal my friend C. came and said "we should let
D. listen to a tape, he SHOULD conduct this piece with the CORRECT
tempo."
I smiled and kept silence. "What is the CORRECT tempo?", I thought.
People don't complain different tempo in different interpretations of
Tchaikovsky symphonies!
Later, we played the "famous" Armenian Dances part I by Alfred Reed.
I hated that piece, frankly speaking. Many people got excited when they
talked about that piece. That sounded like it was the extreme of technical
challenge to college or high school bands. Actually, as the clarinet
part is concerned, most bands which performed it should not choose it
to make their clarinetists sound like........ well, there was no sound.
The part which made many people excited was the last section, the finger
flying of woodwinds. If you look at the score, you understand people
play it much faster than the metronome mark (even now, I guess).
Many bands in our time just played like crazy,
it seemed that if you could play it faster than
others, you were a better band. More, I heard the clarinetists in NTU talking
about how fast some band played that piece. Of course that's why I hated
to play that piece. It's not the music, it was the attitude.
I thought I did not like to proof how fast I could play. I preferred
to make that part sound like one of the DANCES. Therefore, I might have
a chance to like that piece. SO, I talked to C., because he was going
to conduct it in a competition. The result was not too disappointing.
We played it not faster than any other "crazy" bands, but not slower
than any slower interpretation. Of course we played it faster than the
metronome mark. The happy part was we won a competition which we would
like to win for more than 10 years. (if you always win, it is not very
exciting to win)
Hsuan-Yi Chen
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