Bartok Miraculous Mandarin

For those of you around Greensboro this summer, consider attending the Eastern Music Festival performance of this piece, will give you the best idea of the mood and style of this masterwork.

http://www.easternmusicfestival.org/schedule-2011.php#fest

This excerpt is on this list mostly for evaluation of those most qualified for orchestra and wind ensemble. If you don't expect to play in those ensembles next year, you may choose to practice this one the least of all the excerpts.

This piece doesn't get programmed that often, I think because of its PG-13 or R-rated subject matter. It is a "Ballet Pantomime," so meant to be acted on stage as the music is played. In the story (this is close to accurate, but is just how I think of it) is nighttime in an old Eastern European city, of a second-story window on a alley street. The window has thin curtains, easy to see silhouettes through it. The room is lit with mood lighting...if you want the stereotype, think red. There is a lady in the window, and when a man comes down the street, she starts dancing for him. As he shows interest, she invites him up to the room. He climbs up a dark, narrow staircase and she admits him into the room. Then the lights go out, men with clubs jump out from the next room and beat up the man, take his money and kill him or at least kick him back out on the street.

OK, so the excerpt in question is the SECOND one of these lurings in the piece. The clarinet plays the lady dancing. The image is important because it will influence the way you handle your phrasing. When you accent the first D, and then crescendo, the subtlety in the way you do that will evoke the subtlety of her dancing, like you are showing how fluid her movements are. Pacing is important, and again, think of the lady. Will she be successful if she dances more quickly? What is the kind of movement that will get the man to come upstairs? Use this as a model for your choices of tempo and rubato at the beginning of the excerpt. At the end of the excerpt, I assume that from the B-flat to A tremolos to the end, the man is getting beat up, so this thinking might influence the way you play the end of the excerpt. At the final note of the excerpt, the F-sharp, for me that moment is the moment the man passes out and falls limp.

You have probably heard how important it is listen to recordings when studying orchestral excerpts - in this one, it is more important than usual, not only for the imagery talked about above. If you listen to this passage, you will hear that the clarinet never seems to stop playing, and that is because the 2nd clarinet often continues the phrase when the 1st clarinet stops. Knowing when those passages are will really help your phrasing. Avoid tapering before rests if the 2nd is about to come in, sounds best to stop those portions of the phrase abruptly.

Suggestions about fingerings: at rehearsal 24, play alternate fingerings for the high D-flat when in tremolo to B-flat (I use overblown throat F-sharp), but you may wish to switch back to normal fingered D-flat for the sustained D-flats. For the two measures before rehearsal 25, I use a weird fingering for the high D-sharp: I finger the clarion B with my left hand and then play all four right hand side keys to get the D-sharp - B tremolo. My teacher at Cincinnati, Steve Cohen, he is able to use regular fingerings on this passage, but I have never gotten that to work for me. Feel free to experiment and find your own solution. Those two measures include both the first and second clarinet playing in unison, pretty loud, so the effect you want is scary, screaming, flailing. Use a fingering for D-sharp that is pretty in tune and can be played loudly.