Bohuslav Martinů, Sonatina

Martinů Sonatina

For the next two weeks we're working on Martinů's Sonatina for clarinet and piano. I'm going to be offering you two excerpts to choose from (or learn both!). 

If you're feeling very ambitious, you can learn the whole piece: I can't share a PDF of the whole thing with you because it's still in copyright, but it is on Nkoda if you use that. 

Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959) was a Czech composer whose music blends his homeland’s folk traditions with French impressionism, neo-classicism, and a lively rhythmic drive - I love what I can hear both of Stravinsky and Debussy in his music. Born in the church tower of Polička (!), where his father was the bell-ringer, Martinů studied in Prague but spent much of his career abroad, including formative years in Paris and later exile in the United States during World War II. Prolific and versatile, he wrote symphonies, concertos, operas, chamber music, and works for solo instruments, often marked by bright colors, quick changes of mood, and a distinctive melodic charm. All of which you'll hear in the Sonatina (1956) for clarinet and piano!

One of my favorite recordings appears on Michael Collins' 'The Virtuoso Clarinet'. Listen on Spotify here. 

Your tasks for this week:

  • Learn the excerpt(s) and record them for feedback and encouragement from the group
  • Share with us: have you performed this piece before? Are there other pieces you love by Martinů? Is there a favorite recording of yours?

Priorities for practicing these excerpts (also covered in the video):

  • Listen to a recording, especially for the opening excerpt, where the shifting harmonies can be confusing if you don't have them in your ear (but are so beautiful once you do!)
  • Keeping a supported legato sound despite the use of the tongue - try practicing without the tongue first, really focusing on a consistent legato
  • Light, lyrical playing in the first excerpt - enjoy that crescendo in bar 3!
  • Big triumphant forte at the beginning of the 5th line!
  • Good pinky management in the second excerpt.
  • Don't be afraid of the ascents into the altissimo, allow yourself to crescendo
  • There's a lot of rotating around the break (one of the reasons I picked this section!) - lots of air to facilitate this, you could also try practicing using 'air sound' only if that helps you to think about what your fingers are doing. 

8 replies

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    • Head of Clarinet
    • Heather
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Someone asked what the metronome tempi should be for each excerpt - the opening one is at about 84 and the second one at 116!

    • Marcelo_Rosa
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi,

    I want to share where I am at with the two excerpts after some work on them.
     

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Amazing, Marcelo, I didn’t expect to hear anyone play these excerpts so soon, sounds like you have time to learn more of the piece ;)

      The opening excerpt sounds so beautifully musical, you’ve really nailed the quality here - I think you can probably afford to give a little more in a few places, like when you hit the high C (excellent control of that register by the way) and come down, I think that poco forte can stay - which means you kind of need to do a little crescendo as you descend the scale. So then one almost has the effect of a subito piano in the following bar. After this it’s gorgeous - that bit at the beginning of the 5th line (it drives me crazy there are no bar numbers in the score) sounds brilliantly triumphant. 

      The technical excerpt you’re playing very well, the notes are definitely all there and it sounds super fluent, I don’t feel you are struggling at all - I suppose the question now is how you phrase it so it doesn’t sound too much like a study - I might for example play those first little arpeggios a bit softer, and then do a little crescendo into the first scale passage, for example. 

      • Marcelo_Rosa
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Thank you so much for the feedback! On the technical excerpt I really struggled to imprint more expression. I think I got too focused on getting the right notes and fingering that I still wasn't able to figure it out a phrasing. I will keep working on it.

    • Jennie_Gough
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Heather, question for you...I'm cracking when I move from my high E to my C at the end of the first line in the excerpt. It's only those notes and only going down. I've got good support, I think my fingers are coordinated, it's driving me mad. Any ideas?

    • Howard_Lewis
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Jennie,

    It could be the reed, maybe not balanced Rt to Lt side. - you can test for that- that is a complicated discussion. To test the Rt and left ear separately you play an open G- fff and fade to p by using a rapid decay. The way you test each ear separately is you rotate the mouthpiece maybe 20-30 degree clockwise to dampen right side and play left side. with the open G. And vice Versus-rotate counter clockwise to dampen left side and play right side. Do the decay over 3-4 seconds. you should  play your high E to C to see if squeeks on one side or both. You can flex   the right and left side to see if they are equal .

    The other test is to play low C, press the left thumb register key to G above the staff. Then raise your left index to E above the staff while pressing the Rt pinky lowA flat key. The last note is you use the left hand pinky C# lever to get that really high A. You should test the right and left side of reed by the rotation method and use both loud and soft.  If you hear both side   squeek then you keep clipping the smallest increment of reed tip until it  stop.

    These methods are described by Thomas Ridenhour in his short book and he describes how to properly sand and finish the tip , side, and heart of the reeds.

    This is long discussion and I would like to know if anyone has tried any special reed tools such as the reed wizard, reed geek , and reed trimmer. 

    If one side squeeks, I know that  be too soft .I can clip the reed tipboth sides  in tiny increments until squeek is eliminated . If the reed plays too hard you may need to use knife, reed rush , or sandpaper to slightly remove some reed on both sides.  You always want to go against the grain with sandpaper . I I have saved many bad reeds using this method.

    You might want to try a different fingering for E. I know of two others. Placing the left index finger down partially covering the hole and second one is completely covering the first hole with left index finger while simultaneously using the left index finger to depress the "A" key. I would try some other reeds. 

    Howard Lewis

      • Head of Clarinet
      • Heather
      • 1 mth ago
      • Reported - view

       Fantastic ideas here, just going to tag  so she definitely sees this too. I haven’t thought about this testing the different sides of the reed in ages, it’s so helpful to be reminded of it and I’ll be curious to know what Jennie’s results are and whether that helps. Certainly also a harder reed might also help with a bit more resistance (which can be tiring but often helps with control). 

      I would also like Howard recommend trying some different fingerings for the high E - not necessarily to switch to that long term, but just to see if you get different results - my other one to try would be to play basically a clarion G and adding the side G# key. 

      And I’d be curious to see in a video exactly what is happening (especially if you could show me on the side) if you were up for making one. 

      The E and the C are in two different registers - the C is the top of the clarion and the E is low in the altissimo - and so what I think is probably happening is when you switch from the E back to the C, your tongue/embouchure is staying in the “altissimo” position. Your tongue needs to adjust and come back to the clarion position, and there are a few ways to play with this. 

      One fun thing you could try is whatever note you get when you play the fingering for the high C, see if you can repeat it - can you hold it and play a long tone on it? The idea here being if we can control the “squeak” then maybe we can work on it not happening when we don’t want it. And then I would also practice some descending chromatisc: E D# E D E C# E C - and see if that helps, do it nice and slow and really legato so you’re working on building up that connection. 

    • Jennie_Gough
    • 1 mth ago
    • Reported - view

    Thanks everyone! I never considered the reed, I assumed it was a "me" problem. I'll try suggestions and let you know 😀

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