Trance for Unaccompanied Clarinet in B flat

Rhythmic Interpretation: a Guideline.

This work is written using a free rhythm but with dotted barlines (accidentals last for the whole bar as in standard music!). The whole piece can be played with quite a bit of rubato (to the taste of the performer) although the strong rhythms such as b.25 should be played fairly straight. I have not used the feathered beaming that some composers go in for, where one line grows into 2 then into 3 indicating that the phrase has an inbuilt accelerando. Instead (where applicable i.e. bbs 49, 51 etc.) I have used miniature pause signs with accel. in brackets; the meaning is certainly similar to feathered beaming.

Rhythmically the piece is certainly complex, but it is not intended to be bewildering! Generally, demisemiquavers are faster than semiquavers and tuplets (where given) i.e. quintuplets, septuplets etc. are meant to be relatively strict. In many cases tuplets are ignored and demisemiquavers are found in groups of 9,10 and 13 (as well as the normal 8!); Performance here is left to the taste of the individual who may play these groups straight, or with longer notes to start with and a mini accel. this all depends on the taste and ideas of the performer.

The piece has been newly written up and notated using Sibelius Software. The original version had few barlines, but Sibelius recommend that dotted barlines are a good alternative to a lot of blank space. Using the dotted barlines has also allowed me to imply a slight accent at the beginning of each bar/phrase which would have been impossible without barlines of any description.

Finally, I have experimented with legato, staccato and no articulation. Where no articulation is indicated, once again it is up to the taste of the performer to choose the degree of staccato that they are most comfortable with.

Jonathan S. FeBland (27.6.01)

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