In the loft at my Mom's yesterday trying to see what music I had stashed up there (nothing ) and came across an old wind syllabus from 1986/7.

With all the talk today of the education system dumbing down it was interesting to see that the ABRSM appear to have "dumbed up" over the years. We have to do a lot more scales now at the lower grades, when I did grade 6 there were only 3 majors and 3 minors, diminished 7ths didn't appear until Gr 6 either. The Aural tests were a lot less involved too. Much less choice back then, only 6 pieces per section.

While a lot of the tried and trusted clarinet repertoire is still there the solo studies are very different. Whereas we see a lot of James Rae now, in the late 80's it was some guy called Victor Polatshek that appeared in every grade.

I did my Gr 7 in 1986 ( Brahms Sonata in F minor 4th movement, Poulenc Sonata Romanza and a study by Klose - I'd ticked them all off in the booklet!!)

Apparently according to the ticks in the booklet I also did my Gr 6 Flute and Grade 5 Alto Sax in this year too but I can't remember, must be age creeping up on me

Anyway enough of the waffling!

Lois

Ah, Victor Polatschek

His works didn't seem to have the same popularity as, say, the pieces in '50 Classical Studies' (the orange/white Pamela Weston edited tome), but they were (are!) pretty tuneful numbers. Perhaps it's time for his works to return to the syllabus. Trinity renews in 2012...

That was about the time I was doing clarinet exams, but I don't remember Victor Polatschek. It was Demnitz for me then a switch to the 50 Classical Studies.

I think my favourite pieces I did for exams were Lutoslawski Dance Preludes. I think I did one for grade 5 and one for grade 6 and I might have learnt one for grade 7 (but never got round to taking that exam). I remember a really nice sonata by Lefevre too, and a Spohr concerto - I think I played the slow movement in an exam but I was obsessed with trying to play the fast movement because it was so much more exciting!

I did my Grade V clarinet in 1986, so this thread resonates with me

I played Mozart (No. 2 from the Four Church Sonatas), Moskowski (the first of the Two Spanish Dances, for which I scored 27 ). I can't remember which study; I have a feeling it would have been some Demnitz.

My marks were very variable, ranging from the aforementioned 27 for list B, down to 12 for aural. Amusing comments throughout, but a delightful "Promising" in the general remarks. Grand total was 120.

And yes, I remember Polatschek - 24 Clarinet Studies for Beginners, anyone? Amusing things in my battered old copy are a star for No. 8 , playing No. 9 for Grade III; finding the F# major of No. 14 REALLY difficult; not being phased by the changes of time signature in No. 15 or the syncopation in No. 18. Ah, happy days <goes to reminisce>

I note that it is still in print, so I might have to inflict some of it on my mob soon

Ok I'll join in the nostalgia

I don't remember Polatschek at all - it was 50 classical all the way for me (except G4 'cos the syllabus specified Demnitz so although I learnt it as study 12 I borrowed my teacher's copy for the exam).

I did G5 in 1988, can't remember the list A piece (that's bugging me now - I know it wasn't the same Mozart as Deborah) but did the Mokovwki Spanish Dance - and remember being annoyed with my teacher that it was a book with only 2 pieces and we never looked at the other one. The study was the Tarentella from 50 Classical (no 26 I think - my copy is upstairs and taking 'sheet' music a bit too literally as a description!)

G4 was some monstrous Gordon Jacob from the ABRSM New Pieces book, Voi Che Sapete, plus Demnitz the year before.

G6 Study again from 50 Classical, Crusell from Cl solos Vol 2 and the Saint-Saens Sonata Mov 2

Skipped 7

G8 1st time Study from.......yes you've guessed it 50 Classical, Mozart 3rd Movement, Cooke Sonata can't remember if I did 2nd or 4th movement.....know I enjoyed it about as much as the Gordon Jacob for 4!

2nd time: same study, Milhaud Duo Concertante, Crusell F minor concerto 1st movement.

Thus ends my summary of 4 years with my 2nd teacher - it didn't seem that rushed at the time but looking back on it I took about 2 terms per exam with a slightly longer gap between 5 and 6 whilst I learnt theory from scratch.

Then again I don't remember covering a huge amount of repertoire other than exam pieces other than between the 2 attempts at G8 (both passed but I wasn't happy with the mark the 1st time as I wasn't really ready). That gap was the summer after GCSEs which I spent learning the whole of the repertoire off the G8 syllabus having only just discovered how many pieces were on it.

Snap! In fact, I thought it was the law that all Grade IV clarinettists had to play Voi Che Sapete! I also played the Tchaikowsky Waltz in Eb from "Seven Romantics". Can't remember the study, but it was probably Demnitz.


Snap! Also played Molter from Clarinet Solos Vol. 2 and definitely Demnitz (the Ab major arpeggio study).


Snap, snap, and, er snap! Was the study No. 48?

Pretty sure it was - the one with the interesting leaps into the altissimo in the bottom 3rd of the page......this is scary I took that exam (both times!) in 1990 and can still remember where on the page the difficult bits were!

Yes, I found a similar thing for violin. In my grade 3 books there are no position shifts, 3rd position came in grade 4. In the current grade 3 syllabus every piece has 3rd position in it, and while one technically has no shifts it's because it's restez 3rd all the way through. Youch! Maybe it's because the prep test has come in on many instruments that grade 1 could be knocked up a notch?

Yes very intriguing that, how violin pieces seem technically more challenging at the lower grades compared with 20 years ago. And even at the higher grades, the higher positions needed are much more demanding than I remember - we never went above 5th position until grade 7, but now its often expected at grade 6...

On the reminiscing point, I have only now realised that, for every grade from 4 upwards, I chose an Italian Baroque work from List A -

4 - Corelli
5 - Albinoni
6 - Veracini
7 - Locatelli
8 - Vivaldi

Ah, bellissimo....


denmark

When I took grade 3 (about 1976) I had to use 3rd position in one piece (and the D major scale...) and 2nd position came in at grade 4. I agree that the technical work is MUCH harder now - I'm sure I didn't come across a dominant 7th until I was taking grade 6...

W