Little Scores for Audition Success

This edition consists of a collection of twelve orchestral excerpts, arranged for three or four clarinets by Jeffrey Anderson and Ralph Skiano:

Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622, Movement I Exposition

Symphony No. 4, Op. 60, Movement II
Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 'Pastoral', Movement I
Symphony No. 6, Op. 68 'Pastoral', Movement II
Symphony No. 8, Movement III Trio

Symphonie fantastique, Movement III

Symphony No. 3, Op. 90, Movement I
Symphony No. 3, Op. 90, Movement II
Symphony No. 4, Op. 98, Movement II

Symphony No. 3, Op. 56 'Scottish', Movement II

Symphony No. 2, Op. 27, Movement III

Symphony No. 8, D 759 'Unfinished', Movement II

The amount and type of clarinets for each excerpt are noted in the table below:

From the introduction:

"When I first started auditioning professionally, my teacher told me, "respond only to the music, not to the negative thoughts in your head." But how do you respond to music that's not there? Soon, I understood that the music in my mind needed to be so clear and my reactions to it so convincing that an audition committee could almost hear the orchestra playing along with me.

At first, I tried listening obsessively to recordings, which worked in the practice room but not as well at the audition. Then, I added playing along with the recordings, which definitely helped, but still felt memorized more than internalized.

Around the same time, I was rehearsing some chamber music. After long weeks of intense rehearsals with the ensemble, I would wake up every morning with the melodies and countermelodies swirling uncontrollably through my mind. I was sure the music I was hearing was the right pitch and the right tempo, and it felt like the music was part of me. I wanted to harness this experience for auditions, so I decided to make chamber music arrangements of each excerpt and record all of the lines myself, ''rehearsing" them daily to achieve the same effect.

Since then, I've created multi-track recordings of arrangements like these for every audition. Creating and practicing with these recordings harmonically informs my phrasing choices, reinforces my pitch and rhythm, and I makes my imaginary orchestra more vivid. As a bonus, the effect seems to be more indelible, especially under pressure.