Worst Page Turns in Clarinet Music
Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by terrible page turns.
Me too.
Here’s my (ever-growing) list of page turns so poorly planned they are known to cause heart palpitations among clarinetists worldwide:
- Grand duo Concertant by Carl Maria von Weber, 3rd movement (TBH I’m equally interested in seeing how performers execute the final page turn as I am at hearing their interpretation of the piece)
- Time Pieces by Robert Muczynski, 4th movement (Fun fact: 99% of technical errors in this movement are caused by looming page-turning anxiety)
- Concerto for Clarinet by Henri Tomasi, 3rd movement (*inserts G.P. as I fumble to turn the page*)
- Premiere Rhapsodie by Claude Debussy (the first page turn isn’t as bad as some, but it stressed me out enough to copy the first page to avoid the risk of impending Impressionistic doom)
- Le Tombeau de Ravel, Andante, semplice (Nothing about this page turn is andante or semplice)
- Concerto for Clarinet by Carl Nielsen (as if this wasn’t already difficult enough to play, we throw awkward page turns into the mix)
Moral of the story: Plan and prepare your page turns in advance!