Scheherazade Pros And Cons
The bassoon solo in Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade which I believe is considered to be one of the famous solo in the orchestral literature and is requested in most orchestral auditions. One of the biggest reasons why I selected this excerpt is because it allows for a wide range of interpretations including the style, tone color, articulations, pushing and pulling and so much more from the performer. The bassoonist is like the painter and is responsible to mix the colors together and paint them out to the audience in their own unique way.
I got the opportunity to explore three different editions of this excerpt and hope to bring out the pros and cons while comparing them to the Edwin F.Kalmus bassoon part and score marked by Leonard Bernstein …show more content…
Different publishing companies and editors have different interpretation styles they would prefer to stick with over the ones written on the score. So far the Kessler edition has the least articulation ideas compared to the score and the Kalmus part. For example, in the Kessler’s edition on mm.3 there is in accent on the note B. On mm. 6 the F-sharp has an accent marked and finally the E doesn’t have an accent marked. The Righini and Belwin Mills Publishing Corp editions also have a slight change of articulation on mm. 11 counting from the 3/8 time signature there are tenuto markings instead of accents on the E and the F-sharp provided in the Kalmus and Kessler edition. Finally, it is very important to know that although the three editions have different musical ideas compared to the original score and bassoon part it is very important as a bassoonist, to be able to know the part really well through score reading, listening to several recordings, and to really be able to see the similarities and differences of different musical ideas and narrow it down and make it your own interpretation. Finally, I believe that as musicians we are constantly learning and improving everyday. There are good and bad editions, but I would highly recommend to constantly check the score for errors, discuss with the conductor to see what he or she expects to hear, and when you finally have your own interpretation, to always have a musical plan and a blueprint for future
I got the opportunity to explore three different editions of this excerpt and hope to bring out the pros and cons while comparing them to the Edwin F.Kalmus bassoon part and score marked by Leonard Bernstein …show more content…
Different publishing companies and editors have different interpretation styles they would prefer to stick with over the ones written on the score. So far the Kessler edition has the least articulation ideas compared to the score and the Kalmus part. For example, in the Kessler’s edition on mm.3 there is in accent on the note B. On mm. 6 the F-sharp has an accent marked and finally the E doesn’t have an accent marked. The Righini and Belwin Mills Publishing Corp editions also have a slight change of articulation on mm. 11 counting from the 3/8 time signature there are tenuto markings instead of accents on the E and the F-sharp provided in the Kalmus and Kessler edition. Finally, it is very important to know that although the three editions have different musical ideas compared to the original score and bassoon part it is very important as a bassoonist, to be able to know the part really well through score reading, listening to several recordings, and to really be able to see the similarities and differences of different musical ideas and narrow it down and make it your own interpretation. Finally, I believe that as musicians we are constantly learning and improving everyday. There are good and bad editions, but I would highly recommend to constantly check the score for errors, discuss with the conductor to see what he or she expects to hear, and when you finally have your own interpretation, to always have a musical plan and a blueprint for future