The Clarinet Cadenza from the Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century Eras

The cadenza (found in concerti, vocal arias, and jazz compositions) provides an opportunity for performers to showcase their virtuosic talent and improvisation skills. Although the cadenza improvisatory in style, the compositional structure varied during the Classical (1750-1820), Romantic (1820-1900), and 20th Century (1900-1999) eras. With the intent of improving music pedagogy and performance, the purpose of this research is to investigate the clarinet cadenza during the Classical, Romantic, and 20th century. The particular problems of this study were to trace the historical development of cadenzas from 1600-1999; to identify stylistic characteristics during the Classical, Romantic, and 20th century eras; and to analyze cadenzas in Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791); Clarinet Concerto No.1 in F minor by Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826); and Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland (1900-1990). During the Classical era, the enlightened way of thinking leads to more secular music with more clarity, simplicity, formal balance and naturalness; the Romantic era brought more elaborate cadenzas that were partially written, the 20th-centurycadenzas were completely written out. During the three different eras, the style of the cadenza flourished and evolved. The analysis of the tree cadenzas changed in many ways, like length