Hey, I was wondering what grade you are studying and the pieces you are doing for it.

I`m not doing exams at the moment. The last one I did was my Grade 8. For that I did a study by Polatschek (not sure of how to spell his name), the 2nd and 3rd movement of Weber 1, and the Malcolm Arnold Fantasy plus a ridiculous amount of technical work.
At the moment I play at around an LMusA level. What I`ve been working on last year and this year is
1. For an audition
Rossini: Introduction, Theme and Variations
Spohr: Concerto No. 3 in F minor
Martinu: Sonatine
2. After those 3, for my own enjoyment
Spohr: Concerto #2 in Eb major
Finzi: Concerto
3. What I plan to get next
Copland: Concerto
Nielsen: Concerto
Corigliano: Concerto

I`m doin my AmusA. Im doing weber`s concerto no. 2 in e flat, the whole thing, stravinsky`s 3 peces for solo clarinet, bax sonata and deak sonatina. and i don`t hav 2 do any technical work anymore!

Rachel...what in the world would possess one to learn the Corigliano? I don`t want to sound rude, but putting together the Neilsen and the Corigliano is about a three year endeavor...for a professional.

What in the world would possess someone to learn the Corigliano? Because it is a challenge, of course. Also because I like the concerto, and want to play it. What in the world would possess someone to try and make everything easy for themselves?

Sorry...I was not saying that to sound like a jerk. If thats what you want to do, by gosh do it! I just know that it can take a VERY long time to learn properly.A friend of mine studied the piece with Larry Combs off and on for over a year on it. He eventually played it with an orchestra, but it was a tough road to get there.

I didn`t mean to imply that you were sounding like a jerk. I just got annoyed because I had the same argument over at the woodwind.org forum recently.
At the moment I have all the time in the world to study pieces, because at uni I am studying composition, not clarinet, and I have no teacher to tell me "Ok, you are going to play this".
PS: Where are you from? I am presuming that you are either in a similar time zone to me, or staying up late. I am in Australia.

eastern US...how is tomorrow already? jk

What is your primary area of composition? I am not a comp major, but I enjoy composing serialist and 12 tone music.

Tommorrow is great- the world hasn`t ended, and I have a new student. (I teach clarinet and beginner piano).
I`m not sure how to describe my composition, I guess the best word would be NeoRomantic, because my music is very much concerned with beauty and expressiveness.
I`ve tried composing 12-tone and serialist music before, but I don`t like such a structured approach, so it hasn`t gone very far. I`ll have to try again- I imagine that it could produce some very beautiful music.

I guess that one reason I love it so much is because my teacher studied with Allen Forte, who is a biggie at Yale for that type of 20th century composition. I do not compose it to be beautiful per se, but instead love the clash of 0 and 1 together!

Ah, yes... the system that uses numbers instead of notes. Who is your teacher?

Er...should have said former. I am not a comp student. I was more referring to my music theory teacher, who had a great influence on my thoughts regarding 20th century music. Before his class, I never liked 20th century music. Now, I absolutely adore the music of Part, Penderecki, Gorecki, Schoenberg, and many others. Once I learned serialism, I grew very fascinated with the compositional style it used. So I started composing my own 12 tone music. Nothing too serious, but loads of fun at the same time.

Are you guys/girls all classic musicians or are there jazz musicians here as well??

i play jazz and classical