L'Arlésienne Menuet — where to take a breath?
I'm learning the menuet from the L'Arlésienne suite no. 2 for the treble recorder (IMSLP). I'm having trouble getting from rehearsal mark C to D on one breath, but there don't seem to be any good places in between to steal a breath.
Do flutists usually take the passage in a single breath? If not, is there
a good solution?
Excerpt:
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It is usually not good practice to take a breath just before a dynamic maximum, especially after a crescendo: it will break the sentence.
Personally, i would sneak in a quick breath right at the end of bar 34, when the decrescendo ends and you start a new sentence.
I would be able to reach from 35 to D on one breath, but if you must, you could sneak another small breath in the second count of bar 39.
If this is not a solo passage, it is easier to sneak breaths: discuss with the other players, and just take single beats here and there, making sure that no more than 1 player breathes at a time.
On the flute (and probably on the recorder) it's almost impossible to play this in one breath.
It's probably playable in two breaths, but there is no good solution. I have a recording of Emmanuel Pahud playing this, where he breathes at the end of bar 36 and I think this is probably the best of the bad solutions.
If you need three breaths then the end of bar 34 (end of a phrase) is good for the first one. Bar 38 is unaccompanied so you could take a breath at the end, just make sure your accompanist knows that so they don't start bar 39 too early.
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