Notes for Clarinetists: A Guide to the Repertoire by Albert R. Rice (review)

ISBN 9780190205201 (hardcover), $105; 9780190205218 (paperback), $27.95. Also available as an e-book (ISBN and price varies).] Music examples, illustrations, bibliography, index.

Albert R. Rice is a well-known author of scholarly works about the clarinet and its history, literature, and development. His research on the clarinet in the Baroque and Classical periods has been praised as a "massive and rather daunting organizational task" (Eric Hoeprich, review of The Baroque Clarinet, by Albert R. Rice, Notes 50, no. 1 [September 1993]: 187) involving "a vast amount of data" (Alissa Abrams, review of The Clarinet in the Classical Period, by Albert R. Rice, Notes 62, no. 3 [March 2006]: 729). Like his earlier works, Rice's most recent publication, Notes for Clarinetists: A Guide to the Repertoire, is thoroughly researched and full of useful detail. It provides a valuable store of information about the clarinet's core repertoire.

The second volume in the Notes for Performers series produced by Oxford University Press, Notes for Clarinetists provides a list of some of the most important compositions for solo clarinet, clarinet and piano, or clarinet and orchestra (p. xi). The series follows two key guidelines: (1) pieces must be among the best known for the instrument, and (2) only one work may be chosen per composer. In his preface, Rice further stipulates that he chose repertoire for its musical quality, frequency of performance, and "substantial and creative use of the clarinet" (p. xii). These criteria are somewhat subjective, leading to a list of compositions that includes a few works that might not make everyone's inventory of clarinet standards. However, the vast majority of the pieces described in the book are important and popular contributions to the clarinet repertoire.

Each chapter in Notes for Clarinetists focuses on a different composition, organized alphabetically by the last names of the composers, ranging from Arthur Benjamin to Carl Maria von Weber. Chapters follow a standard formula consisting of biographical material on the composers, a short explanation of their compositions, and an analysis of their specific pieces for clarinet. For each piece, Rice also outlines its technical and expressive challenges and how it might best fit into a concert program. Although each chapter is fewer than ten pages in length, Rice manages to pack a great deal of detail into a small space. In addition to tempo indications (such as allegro), he often provides metronome markings, stipulating when these markings are his own suggestions. He augments his simple form charts for each piece or movement with discussions of important aspects of the composition, including pitch, rhythm, meter, and dynamics. There is some flexibility built into this format, which allows Rice to discuss a wide-ranging selection of works. For example, in the section on William O. Smith's Variants for Solo Clarinet, he concentrates on advanced techniques such as multiphonics and flutter tonguing, but in the next chapter, about Louis Spohr's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, op. 26, his focus shifts to musical form and how the friendships between Spohr, Johann Simon Hermstedt, and various clarinet makers influenced the development of the instrument (pp. 206–19).

In some cases, Rice corrects mistakes in specific editions or recommends which editions the performer should favor over others. This advice can be quite helpful, for example in the case of the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano by Francis Poulenc. Rice points out that the first edition has a number of "notation ambiguities" (p. 163) because Poulenc died before the work was premiered. In spite of multiple revisions and much study over the years, numerous errors persisted until the publication of the sixteenth edition in 2006 (p. 164).

Similarly, Rice discusses the many different editions and arrangements of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, K. 622 (pp. 128–35). Originally written for the basset-horn, the piece is now more frequently performed on a modern clarinet in A. Because the range of...