The piece Dialogue de l’ombre double is very hard technically. Honestly, it is the most difficult piece I have ever played. It is impossible to perform this piece without a good study method. We must remember this to avoid mistakes later in the preparation.
In general, this piece is very difficult for the clarinetist, but not only because of the music. The combination with lights and electronics also makes it complex. The sound technician must practice and study their part just like the clarinetist. Both are responsible for a good performance.
4.1 Legato
One problem I noticed while preparing the clarinet part is the legato. A big part of the piece uses legato for phrasing. The problem happens when there are big and uncomfortable jumps. These jumps make the music stop flowing. The piece can sound too broken or even have unwanted noises between notes. Because of this, we must be very careful and practice the legato in each difficult moment.
For example, to practice the jump in Sigle Initial from F# to low E in legato, I made a very simple exercise. Over time, this exercise became very useful. It is based on repeating the same gesture that happens at the end of Sigle Initial. This was a difficult part for me in the beginning.
To practice this exercise, we will start at a comfortable tempo, for example, ♩ = 120. As we improve, we can slowly increase the speed until we reach around ♩ = 190 (approximately the tempo in the score). This training will prepare us for many phrase endings, saving us a lot of study time in the future.
It is true that there are more phrase endings, F# to low E is not the only one. But using the same structure, we can make a similar exercise with different notes. For example, one of the most difficult legato moments is in bars 16-17, where there is a A to low E jump. Keeping this in mind, we can create another exercise just like the first one.
By doing this, we will realise what is causing problems in our legato. Perhaps we are applying too much pressure on the reed, or the airflow is not constant due to dynamic changes, or even the position of our hands on the clarinet is affecting it. By isolating this exercise, we can identify the key to mastering this passage.
We can also practise other intervals from different Strophes using the same method. For example, in Strophe V, most of the material consists of fast mordents tied to a note, which follows the same concept. Any difficult interval (or group of intervals) in this Strophe can be incorporated into the previous exercise to determine how to overcome technical difficulties.
I would like to emphasise that for a legato to work properly, a continuous and tension-free airflow is required. If we tense our body or any part involved in producing sound on the clarinet, the result will not be as expected. Therefore, we must practise these exercises with this in mind.
4.2 Stacatto
Another important aspect of this piece is the use of staccato. A fast, precise, and flexible articulation is essential. The frequent changes in articulation are crucial in this work. Any clarinet method focusing on articulation can help improve our staccato, but I would like to explain how I practised this aspect and managed to improve it.
In my case, single tonguing was not enough for certain passages in the piece, particularly in Strophe IV. This section is extremely demanding technically due to the very fast tempo and the staccato articulation. This led me to consider improving my single staccato or implementing double tonguing.
This technique involves using the tongue as usual to articulate a note, but then allowing the throat to articulate the next note. It is commonly used in other instruments such as the flute or brass instruments, but it is quite unusual for the clarinet, as we do not typically require it for most standard clarinet repertoire.
To improve double tonguing, we must be patient, as it is not a quick process. The throat must remain relaxed, the tongue must stay in a consistently low position, and the airflow must be strong. With this in mind, I have designed another exercise specifically to prepare for this piece.
This is the exercise I used to improve my double staccato. To make it effective and genuinely useful for developing our staccato, we should practise it in the following way:
First, play the exercise in a quasi-legato manner to focus on how the air flows through the instrument. This is important because we need to maintain the same airflow when using double tonguing. Once we understand how to sustain the air properly, we can begin to add articulation.
The letter “G” is the closest to the sound we aim to produce on the clarinet, along with “D”. The "G" is articulated with the throat, while the "D" is made with the tongue, but we must always begin with the throat articulation. It is essential to be patient until we gain full control over this technique. Once we feel that the movement becomes lighter and more natural, we can gradually increase the metronome marking, aiming to reach the tempo of Strophe IV (♩ = 152).
For this exercise, I chose the note A, as this note is repeated frequently in certain passages of the piece. It is important to be able to control it properly. Once we can perform this exercise at tempo, we can move on to the next step.
Of course, Strophe IV does not only contain repeated A semiquavers; there are also intervallic leaps, though the notes always appear in groups of two. This means that the previous exercise alone is not enough. To achieve the final result, we must be able to use this technique in more complex situations.
For this reason, I created another exercise to help bridge the gap towards our final goal. In this new exercise, I have isolated specific passages in the piece that require double tonguing, allowing us to develop a clear strategy for approaching them effectively. The dynamics and tempo can be adjusted according to the desired result.
I would like to emphasise that double staccato is much less direct than single staccato—it is almost like a legato, with a very soft articulation effect. We should not force the articulation to be too sharp, at least in this piece, as in Strophe IV, it always appears within a soft dynamic range.
When it comes to tempos, precision is extremely important in this piece, as the transitions rely heavily on them. To improve this, we can practise with a tape where the tempos change automatically. We can record this ourselves, programming the tempo changes in advance.
From my experience, it is best to work with small fragments rather than large sections. If you try to play long phrases using this method, the results may not be reliable, as the recording does not account for breathing, often causing you to fall behind metrically.
It is also important to be aware of key tempos. As we saw in the previous chapter, many tempos in this piece are linked or even notated differently while producing the same result (due to subdivision). Memorising and internalising some of the most frequent tempos is, in my opinion, a great approach.
For example, ♩ = 152 is one of the most commonly used tempos in the piece, so we must be very comfortable with it in order to perform it confidently.
4.3 Harmoniques
Another issue, maybe less important but still necessary, is the harmoniques or multiphonics with the embouchure. This really needs time to work well. These multiphonics would be much easier if they used special fingerings. But because they are only controlled with the embouchure, they are much harder to control, especially in soft dynamics. This means we need extra preparation for this technique.
I have created another exercise, which is basically isolating the harmoniques from Dialogue, so we can practise them separately. This way, we don’t have to deal with them only when we reach that point in the piece. Since they are short and not the most important thing, it is easy to ignore them and just play something close.
In this exercise, I include all the notes that have harmoniques in the piece. Like in the previous exercises, the dynamics and tempo can change, but I recommend practising everything in a soft dynamic, as this is how we will find this material in the piece.
C, G#, and F are the notes where we can use fingerings to produce the multiphonic more easily. For the rest, we will have to use the embouchure (with very relaxed lip and jaw pressure). Below, I suggest three positions for each note as a guide, but these should not be taken as fixed solutions, as they will depend on the clarinet and our personal playing style
4.4 Breathing plan
Lastly, I’d like to offer some advice about breathing. In the previous chapter, I mentioned my 'breathing plan' for some of the pieces, and this is because it's something crucial for this work. It’s a very demanding solo clarinet piece, so the places where we breathe will be important to ensure we can play the phrases without interrupting the composer’s intention and while feeling comfortable, instead of constantly being out of breath. For this reason, I encourage anyone preparing this piece to have a plan for their breathing, always open to change, but with this plan, we can have the structure of the piece more clearly in our minds and feel that we have enough air at all times.