Rhapsody In Blue 1st bar

[grantuss]

Hi there I wonder if anyone can assist with how the 64th notes of the clarinet smear in the opening bar of this are best played on the piano.

I had broken it down into using my right hand only and the way the notes fall easiest under the fingers is 1-4, 1-3, 1-4, 1-3, 1-3.

I am using this as an exercise to try and practice what Mr Chang calls parallel sets because I love this piece and therefore it gives me an interest to stick with a very demanding exercise for my present ability level.

I am trying to play this smoothly at half speed at the moment but I have seen it played using left and right hand which eliminates the trouble of crossing the thumb of the right hand however I can't figure out the fingering for using left and right and would be most grateful if anyone on here can advise as to the way they find it easiest to play.

Thanks.

[j_tour]

Hi there I wonder if anyone can assist with how the 64th notes of the clarinet smear in the opening bar of this are best played on the piano.

I had broken it down into using my right hand only and the way the notes fall easiest under the fingers is 1-4, 1-3, 1-4, 1-3, 1-3.

I am using this as an exercise to try and practice what Mr Chang calls parallel sets because I love this piece and therefore it gives me an interest to stick with a very demanding exercise for my present ability level.

I am trying to play this smoothly at half speed at the moment but I have seen it played using left and right hand which eliminates the trouble of crossing the thumb of the right hand however I can't figure out the fingering for using left and right and would be most grateful if anyone on here can advise as to the way they find it easiest to play.

Thanks.

I'd just do double-handed gliss, rather than finger a chromatic scale.  It's more an effect, in this piece, IMHO.  Think more Jerry Lee Lewis and less Liszt, is what I'd do.

[ted]

I'd just do double-handed gliss, rather than finger a chromatic scale.  It's more an effect, in this piece, IMHO.  Think more Jerry Lee Lewis and less Liszt, is what I'd do.

I hadn't thought of trying that, might sound good. I've played the piece most of my life and always just played a slowish ordinary scale, not too uniformly though. You could probably do a glissando with the end of 25/11 too come to think of it.

[j_tour]

I hadn't thought of trying that, might sound good. I've played the piece most of my life and always just played a slowish ordinary scale, not too uniformly though. You could probably do a glissando with the end of 25/11 too come to think of it.

Yeah, think like double-handed glissandi in one or more of Saint-Sæns's Exhibitions.

Granted, I can't do those with perfect time, but I think that's what you want.

Yeah, I guess you could do a regular chromatic ascending scale, but I don't think that;s the effect you want.   Eveerybody knows that clarinet gliss, and they just want to heaar that.

ETA You could do it in thirds, I guess, would sound pretty good.  Maybe just gliss thirds apart, and finger the last octave.  I don't know.  Whatever pleases the crowd, I guess.  I'd think about the vsual as well as well if I were doing a solo performance off the piece. 

[grantuss]

Thanks for the replies.

Ted it's probably a daft question but can you explain what you mean by the following please?

"You could probably do a glissando with the end of 25/11 too come to think of it."

Much appreciated

[perfect_pitch]

Yeah, unfortunately I have to disagree with Teds comment.

The scalic passage at the end of Op 25 - 11 is clearly an a melodic minor scale ascending, complete with F and G sharps.

Had it been a natural minor, I'd probably agree, but the presence of those sharps make the ending all too beautiful. A glissando would ruin it.

[ted]

Yeah, unfortunately I have to disagree with Teds comment.

The scalic passage at the end of Op 25 - 11 is clearly an a melodic minor scale ascending, complete with F and G sharps.

Had it been a natural minor, I'd probably agree, but the presence of those sharps make the ending all too beautiful. A glissando would ruin it.

Yes, having actually tried it, I have decided I don’t like it much in either piece. The thread made me realise I never play any sort of glissando in improvisation. It is possible, with practice, to get almost the same effect and speed using appropriately fingered grips and hand displacement without the black/white restriction. But to return to the original question, as the Rhapsody In Blue was reportedly conceived at the piano, might not the slur have been Ferde Grofe’s idea anyway ?

[j_tour]

But to return to the original question, as the Rhapsody In Blue was reportedly conceived at the piano, might not the slur have been Ferde Grofe’s idea anyway ?

Good point:  it sure could have been.  It's been a long time since I've played a reed instrument, and I don't remember how to do smears, if I ever did.  IIRC you can cheat a little with the embouchure, a tiny bit, but it's still mostly fingered, I'm pretty confident in saying.

Yeah, I guess it wouldn't really matter much to either doing a Mach-10 chromatic scale or a gliss with one hand on the white keys and the other on the black keys.  (If it is a true chromatic scale:  I don't think I'd have luck finding my copy at home, so please feel free to discard whatever I say that's not accurate!)

Probably like most people I've heard this piece any number of times, but just from vague memory, I don't remember that the gliss/chromatic scale is all that fast, and I don't remember it being necessarily absolutely uniform in rhythm (close, but some micro variations, is how I remember it best).

I just think the double-handed gliss looks more awesome! 

[cranston53]

I think it's perfectly fine to play the scale either way - as an individually fingered chromatic at a steady tempo, or as a concert glissando.

My suggestion would be it depends on the version you are playing. There is a sparser, more lean piano version (I believe this is the original that Gershwin worked on) and that is the version I have played. I focussed much more on keeping the strict tempo and almost approaching the piece as stride piano. I played the opening scale at the exact tempo I would maintain for the rest of the theme. There is a more ornate, orchestral score, and here i think the glissandos and enjoyable rubatos can come to the fore.

[grantuss]

The replies give food for thought.  The version I have found which seems attainable for me given some months of hard work is a 5-minute version I discovered on Musescore.

It contains all the main themes but does not require a degree of virtuosity to play.

Whilst being a stripped back and simplified version it still sounds reasonably good to my ear.

The pianist that shared it claimed to have been given the score by her piano teacher who was a friend of a friend of the composer.  I had not seen this version anywhere else and it brings this piece within range of my limited abilities.