IMSLP Forums

This came up in the solo endings topic.

Not infrequently, a concerto or solo ends with the soloist and accompaniment (either orchestra or piano) not having the same note values. The first time I encountered it, I thought it was a misprint, but since then I have seen it in quite a few scores. For example, a slow movement where the clarinet has a final note minim (half-note) and the orchestra has a crotchet (quarter-note). Sometimes it's the other way around with the soloist having a shorter note. I always feel like it will come across as sloppy ensemble or lack of communication to play what's written.

Is there a history to this, or is it just sloppy writing/copying?

It would be great if you could supply details of the pieces you found. The differences could be due to the nature of the instruments involved (specifically, the speed of the "decay" of their sound, if any). But I suspect that they will have been written before 1850 and may even have been first printed after the composer had died, like most of Mozart's piano concertos. What you found could be a result of the somewhat more loose notational practices before the Romantic period, especially when it comes in the transfer from manuscript to printed page. For examples, take the still-controversial rhythms in the first two bars of Mozart's Don Giovanni, or the notorious "decrescendo" in the last bar of the Schubert 9th Symphony (which is most probably an emphatically written accent). By the mid 19th century composers and printers were much more consistent in their notation and when something looks "weird" it is probably meant to be played that way (e.g. the fermata and diminuendo for the winds on the last chord of Dvorak's New World Symphony).

--Sixtus

The one I dismissed initially was the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, 2nd movement -- the clarinet holds on for 1 beat after the orchestra has cut. This could be dismissed as a mistake, especially since the autograph manuscript has never been found.

Rabaud's Solo de Concours (1901) is the other way around, the piano ends one beat (plus fermata) after the clarinetist cuts.

There are a few others, which I would need to get to my office to find, but this is a start.