Nielsen Quintet, Variation 7
Variation 7 in the Nielsen Quintet is a bassoon solo.
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Variation 7 in the Nielsen Quintet is a bassoon solo.
The original transcript is available here.
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Transcript with Time Codes
00:00Introduction
Welcome to this third video in a series on playing chamber music. This video is devoted to variation 7 in the Nielsen Quintet. Well, this is perhaps the highlight of the quintet for the bassoonist. You have a solo variation here that is so wonderfully crafted and so rewarding to study as an exercise in its own right. I want to comment on a couple of places here.
00:48Breathing
I breathe in the two places I indicate here in the score (which you can see on the screen). This means that I have to regulate my air so that I can make it through the last three lines well. I do make a contrast in the dynamics as given here. After the second breath I increase the dynamics. I feel that the music warrants a bit of crescendo there particularly because you need to decrescendo before you get to the low C.
01:30Difficult Passage
here. This is found in the second to last measure. Once we reach that high A you need to come down to the Eb and often that does not respond well on the instrument. What I do—and left me show you with my left thumb—I come from A and then to Eb holding the C# key. Here is high A to the Eb4. I find that the Eb responds a lot better when I do that. That Eb comes out. Well, here it is. Listen as I perform this.
02:33Performance
I think you can hear that I vary the tempo a little bit. I take liberties with the dynamics. I think you need to that. One of the pleasures of this movement is that you are allowed some creativity. I think you should experiment with that. Enjoy this movement! God bless you. music: Nielsen Quintet, first movement
Credits
- author Terry B. Ewell
- composer Carl Nielsen
- work Wind Quintet, Op. 43
- movement Variation 7
- catalog number Op. 43