Introduction
Title: Tattoo for One
Composer: Poul Ruders (b. 1949)
Composition Year: 1980
Instrumentation: Solo Clarinet in B-flat
Extended Techniques: Timbre changes, extreme high altissimo
Difficulty Level: 5/5
Tattoo for One. If I had to make a list of the top ten hardest unaccompanied pieces for clarinet, this is one that would easily find a place on that list. Put simply, Tattoo for One is a massive technical drill for the clarinet. This is one of those pieces that starts and just keeps going and going until you hit the end, with only a few brief moments of rest for the performer throughout. I have firsthand knowledge of how difficult this piece is: I performed it as part of a concert with the Temple University New Music Ensemble in December 2019, during my final year of undergrad. It was a late addition to the program - I only had about three weeks to get the part learned. It was a grind, for sure, but a good one.
Tattoo for One was written in 1980 by Danish composer Poul Ruders and dedicated to clarinetist Mette Bugge Madsen. Ruders later expanded the work to include parts for piano and cello and renamed it Tattoo for Three. In 2017, he added a violin part to the mix, creating the most recent incarnation of the piece, Tattoo for Four. Tattoo for One, however, is still in publication in its original form.
Analysis
The “tattoo” referenced in the title is not an ink tattoo that you would get on your skin, but a military exercise performed at dusk (more specifically, this can refer to either a bugle call used to signal lights out for soldiers, or to the elaborate military band performances put on for entertainment or ceremonial occasions). Thus, Tattoo for One is highly militaristic in character, with lots of pointed, accented energy and very strict, sudden changes in meter and dynamics.
Now, let’s look at the challenges this piece presents:
The extreme nature of the piece. As you might imagine, the technical demands of Tattoo for One aren’t found in flowing, linear passages like in Daphnis and Chloe. Instead, the phrases in this piece are intense, pointed, and intervallic. Ruders’s notation makes the intended character abundantly clear: Almost every single note is accented, marcato, or staccato, with a near constant fff dynamic marking. These louder parts are frequently interrupted by shorter, very soft passages. Many of the dynamic changes are also marked subito. The melodic content, fanfarish in nature, is also characterized by huge leaps between registers. In case it isn’t already clear, you are regularly hopping between extremes in this piece.
My advice for this aspect of Tattoo for One: Slow practice. Like any other work with high technical demands, this piece just demands lots of woodshedding. Don’t rush any part of the learning process. Break the piece into chunks and practice them on a rotating basis - again, slowly, and only gradually raising the tempo. It might feel tedious at first, but I promise you, it will have been worth it. Don’t take the louder dynamic markings too literally, lest you risk overblowing and getting a spread tone. Obviously, you want to observe them, but they should be used to determine energy levels instead of pure volume.
Since there are so many accents and marcatos in this piece, I see them as indicators of air direction rather than points of emphasis. The accents should be played “horizontally” and the marcatos “vertically.” That is, feel each accented note as leading into the note immediately after it, and each marcato note as firmly landing in place. Be careful not to make any of the notes short to the point of being “peckish.” Remember that staccatos are only there to indicate separation of notes - don’t make them too short, either.
Regarding the timbre trills: For the C#s, alternate the second and third fingers of the right hand. For the F#s, your alternate fingering will vary depending on which fingering you use.
The rhythms. The name of the game is subdivision. You need to feel the eighth note pulse the entire way through in order to play all the rhythms correctly. Notice how I wrote “feel” not “count.” Actively counting will do you more harm than good in a performance - you’ll be working too hard and putting undue stress on your mind (chances are, you’ll be nervous enough as it is!). Internalizing the pulse and locking into it before you start is the key to a steady, accurate rendition. The original part is unmetered but contains measures of varying value. In my opinion, you’re better off acting like those bar lines aren’t even there. Just feel a straight eighth note pulse the whole way through and you’ll be fine.
The computer game section. At one point in Tattoo for One, Ruders inserts a brief interlude that takes on a completely different character from the rest of the piece. This entire section is marked with a pppp dynamic, and has the oddly specific direction of, “Extremely short and dry, like a beep-beep computer game,” which I find rather humorous. Ruders is clear about the character he wants here - just imagine you’re mimicking the beeps and pings of an old computer like the Commodore 64 - but there’s some tricky finger technique to sort out. I have two pieces of advice for the computer game section
1. For all the altissimo stuff, alternate fingerings are your friends. All those high Ebs and F#/Gbs will speak much more easily at the written dynamic if you use their “long” fingerings (for Eb, use TR -23|--3 Ab/Eb, and for F#, use TR 12-|123 Ab/Eb). For the high As, I recommend using the left pinky F#/C# lever key instead of the Ab/Eb pinky key.
2. Do NOT take too many breaths. It might be tempting to keep breathing in with all the sixteenth rests present, but doing so will only cause unnecessary tension in your upper body. Relaxation is the key to good execution in any performance. You don’t actually need to breathe that much to make it through this part. Just find two or three spots to sneak in a quick breath and you’ll be fine.
The “extremely fast and wild” section. This is the final big section of the piece, and it is marked at dotted quarter = 160. Do not worry about taking this part under tempo if you have to; cleanliness is always more important than speed. Be careful not to compress the groups of two. At the very end, take time to get a solid breath in after each timbre trill measure. For the extreme high D at the end, use a normal altissimo D fingering (for more information on extreme high altissimo playing, see my Clarinet Solitude analysis). Hold that D out as long as you see fit, and make it super brilliant. Show the audience your “ultimate power!”
Final thoughts: Ultimately, the style you’re going for here is high militaristic intensity. Think less “Sousa” and more “basic training.” For me, Tattoo for One invokes images of soldiers going through PT in boot camp. Don’t be afraid to push your sound’s limits in pursuit of musical effect, but also be careful to not actually exceed those limits and cross over into a spread sound. Remember, you have to keep the energy going for about 6-7 minutes straight, so keep a centered tone and pace yourself. Lastly, when I was learning the section marked “trumpet-like,” my teacher, Paul Demers, suggested that I raise the instrument into the air for those first few measures, like one would in a Mahler symphony. I also recommend doing that - it’s fun!
Special thanks Mr. Demers and Temple University New Music Ensemble director Jan Krzywicki for their guidance on this challenging but rewarding piece.
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