Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K 622
Either back in Jr high or early high school I decided to become a musician and play an instrument. As the only one available was a clarinet my parents got for my older sister, it was what I tried to learn to play. I quickly gave up on the idea and as far as I know that clarinet is still in our old farm house that has since collapse in on itself.
I have always loved listening to the clarinet and this piece is no exception but what I love here is the performance of Arngunnur Árnadóttir, the lady soloing on the clarinet. She just keeps playing and keeps playing, what amazing stamina.
This piece was published after Mozarts death. and has an interesting back story
“As there is no autograph for this concerto and as it was published posthumously, it is difficult to understand all of Mozart’s intentions.[citation needed] The only relic of this concerto written in Mozart’s hand is an excerpt of an earlier rendition of the concerto written for basset horn in G (K. 584b/621b).[citation needed] This excerpt is nearly identical to the corresponding section in the published version for A clarinet.[citation needed]
Mozart originally intended the piece to be written for basset horn, as Anton Stadler was also a virtuoso basset horn player, but eventually was convinced the piece would be more effective for clarinet.[citation needed] However, several notes throughout the piece go beyond the conventional range of the A clarinet; Mozart may have intended the piece to be played on the basset clarinet, a special clarinet championed by Stadler that had a range down to low (written) C, instead of stopping at (written) E as standard clarinets do.[1]
Even in Mozart’s day, the basset clarinet was a rare, custom-made instrument, so when the piece was published posthumously, a new version was arranged with the low notes transposed to regular range.”
Enjoy, Jack
jack, thank you. beautiful way to start what promises to be a sunny (at last) day. at least for the first half before the clouds set in again. a few flakes of snow expected tonight.
they’re baaaaaccckk! well, guess they really never left, just moved around.
the hill:
State election officials in Ohio said that the state detected and stopped an election-related cyber attack earlier this month, the Associated Press reported.
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) stated the “relatively unsophisticated” cyber attack took place Nov. 5 – Election Day – and that the attack originated in Panama, but was traced back to a Russian-owned firm.
“They [were] poking around for soft spots,” LaRose told the Columbus Dispatch Tuesday.
LaRose confirmed that the votes cast in Ohio that day were safe because the election machines and the ballot counters Ohio uses aren’t connected to the internet.
“The good guys won that day and the bad guys lost,” he said.
Jack… beautiful!
Pogo… Rick and I watched the second half… we were rooting for Alabama. Have a beer on me.
Bink… I don’t sell my scarves online. I sell them through galleries. Some crafts have to be seen and touched… my scarves are like that. Thanks for asking.
Yup, i get it. The mall it is.
Moz is boss.
I, too, played clarinet not by choice, but because they had a demo at the music store my grandparents could sort of afford. I hated the taste of reeds and the smell of cork grease. I hated the terrible sound it made, not only by me but IMO, by professionals like Henry Cuesta on The Lawrence Welk Show. I wanted to play drums or the flute. When I was in college, I rented a flute and taught myself a few songs. I hate the clarinet. When I’m queen of the world, I will outlaw leaf blowers and clarinets.
From a musical standpoint the way that boy Mozart (rhymes with Beaux Art) thinks sometimes is just downright scary.
If you live in the country
Everybody is your neighbor,
and they’re all operating Leaf Blowers.
When I lived in the country I never worried about leaves, We had a big yard and they just piled up against the fence by the chicken house and eventually decomposed. They did provide a lot of bugs for the chickens as they were always scratching through the leaves. Made for tasty eggs.
Bid, what you said about the clarinet,
When I left home to become a hippy I tried to play the guitar. I wasn’t any better with it but it did make a better wall decoration.
Jack
Benny Goodman did his thing on a clarinet.
Yesterday, was family thanks giving at my sisters. She followes a tradition my mother started. “You kids go to your inlaws Thursday and we get the weekend” Seems to work. I got to be an uncle to my new niece. Actually she is a great niece, not to disparage my regular nieces. But she is pretty special. She sat on my lap staring at my beard and soon she had a big hand full of it. Just like her mother did at that age. It is fun being an uncle been one for over 40 years now.
Jack
I like Benny, I fine with other folks playing just as long as I don’t have to pick it up. The ptsd I got from all those music lessons isn’t that severe..
Jack
Yes, leaf-blowing has become a recreational activity, far and wide.
Honestly, they’re a menace, although i’ll concede they’re convenient.
if one is only raking or blowing leaves away to expose the lawn in order to scatter store bought fertilizer on it, one IMHO is pretty stupid. mulched/decomposing leaves left where they lay best for the lawn and the environment as a whole. cheaper on the back and wallet too.
…the goal is always to get the leaves to the back-corner of the neighbor’s property.
“Hey, sorry! I got some leaves in your lawn but you can borrow my blower”, they might say. Who would turn that down? Now, there is twice-as-much leaf-blowing as before.
So, you can see how one leaf-blower can corrupt an entire community.
(Please, don’t think the darker corners if my heart haven’t been tempted by the seductive more-annoying-than-an-actual-siren song of ease and illusory achievement. Oh, they have. They’re also heavy.)
I think it depends on the leaves. Maple leaves mulch nicely but my ginkos are such a heavy mat that they smother any plant under them. If I want a yard and garden I rake. BTW if leaves were such good fertlizer then that Ozark hill farm I grew up on would have been the richest soil in the world. What you find in a forest is a bed of leaves and when you rake them aside you see a 1/2 inch of topsoil on top of clay. Too much acid. Pine forests are even worse. Rake the Pine needles aside and you have sand. So if you want to compost the leaves with the dog poop for nitrogen being sure to stir it or you will end up with a pile of stinking dog poop kimchee. The every year work up a part of you yard/garden and incorporate the organic matter into it.
Jack
Life is so much easier if you just accept that everything looks shitty for a few months in the winter.
As to leaf blowers, I don’t mind the noise and you can use them to your hearts content as long as it is not a criminal offense to do as Rand Paul’s neighbor did, which is to stomp Mr Rand into the ground for blowing his leaves into said neighbors yard.
Jack
But Bink, if I don’t want it to look shitty next spring I rake leaves.
of course it is your yard and your milage may vary.
BTW I had a neighbor kid help me rake up the ginko leaves and I took a pickup load (stomped and packed) to the leaf and brush dump where they will be composted. It was a lot of leaves for a 5o ft by 50ft back yard.
Next I battle to save my garden/yard from the neighbors pin oak. But those leaves are lighter and I can use the mower and bagger. Mulch them bag them and put them in the compost pile.
Jack
Back to Mozart. Jack’s soloist du jour played the entire symphony not once looking at the conductor for prompting nor at a piece of sheet music; she had the entire K550 imprinted on her brain. Extraordinary.
OMG… what a big hubbub about leaf blowers. Y’all can come over here tomorrow morning and listen to the snow blowers as we’re expecting somewhere between a foot to a foot and a half of snow.
never heard of snow making good mulch…. does do wonders for the water table though…
When I lived in a suburb of Rochester, NY the smaller lots were 1/4 acre with many trees unlike here where there’re zero lot lines- you can shake your neighbor’s hand out the window. All we had to do was wait a bit and wind would blow the leaves into the next eastern county. Worked out well for us.
My older son used our new leaf blower for the first time on very damp leaves. That took care of that. Burned out the motor. We waited for the wind then.
Renee, thanks. I will have that beer – with dinner tonight. Thx.
leaf blowers – they are annoying for sure, but they beat rakes once your shoulders go to shit – if you need to rake or sweep the buggers I’m with patd. Haven’t raked leaves in over 15 years, and even then just to mulch them.
Bloomberg is not a Democrat. If he wants to beat Trump he should run in the Republican primaries
Is “phony scam” a double negative?
crackers – True. I think some Repugz who’ve had it with Trumpsky will vote in Dem primary if they can in their state, and Mike might just be the “Dem” nominee.
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