The Beginner's Guide to Orchestral Excerpts

Originally published on jennyclarinet.com

If you’re a musician, you’ve probably crossed paths with a few orchestral excerpts throughout the years. For such short snippets of symphonic literature, you’d think excerpts would be more manageable and less stressful…but unfortunately, that’s not the case.

For the uninitiated, what are orchestral excerpts and what’s the big deal?

I remember my first experience with an orchestral excerpt. I was asked to record an excerpt from the Brahms 3rd Symphony for an audition in early high school. Having been raised as your typical band geek, I was well-versed in the ways of marching band tunes, patriotic pep songs, and other school band toe-tappers, but I had had little knowledge of the orchestral realm up until this point. I first looked at the second movement of Brahms 3rd and thought, “What’s the big deal? This looks pretty easy, and why can’t I just play an All State étude or something?”

Ah, to be so young and naïve again! Little did I know that the world of excerpts would introduce me to the masterpieces of symphonic repertoire. Not to mention the fact that future performance and career opportunities depended on my familiarity with these excerpts and the ability to play them at a moment’s notice. If you’re ready to begin your orchestral excerpt journey, grab a notebook and a metronome and let’s get to work!

All About Excerpts

Let’s start with the basics.

What are orchestral excerpts? Orchestral excerpts are short sections (excerpts) from the symphonic repertoire. Standard orchestral excerpts vary from instrument to instrument, and they are chosen for their technical difficulty, expressive nuances, or exposure in a piece of orchestral literature.

Why are excerpts important? If you want to eventually play in an orchestra, your future is at the mercy of orchestral excerpts – specifically, your ability to play them. Excerpts demonstrate a musician’s lyrical and technical capabilities in important passages in various pieces, and they are the foundation of any orchestra audition. Each audition will have a slightly different list of required excerpts, but the standard list remains more or less the same. Orchestral auditions usually ask for 10-20 excerpts, but the jury might only ask to hear a few.

Collecting & Gathering Excerpts

• Research standard orchestral excerpts. First things first – find out what the standard excerpts are for your instrument. A simple Google search should reveal the most commonly requested excerpts for each instrument. Create a list of these excerpts, and as you discover new excerpts, make sure to add them to your list. Ask your teachers, friends, and colleagues to read your list and suggest any excerpts you might have missed. Good news for my clarinet readers! I’ve included a list of standard clarinet excerpts at the bottom of this article.
• Acquire the music. Many orchestral excerpts are public domain, so you can find quite a lot of excerpts online. Websites like IMSLP even have the entire scores and parts for any public domain piece for you to print and use. Many orchestras include the actual excerpts in their audition package, so if you ever see an orchestral position announced, browse through the requirements (even if you don’t plan on taking the audition) to make sure that you have all of the excerpts. There are also orchestral excerpt collections written by experts in each field which include helpful tips on how to practice and prepare each excerpt. Although you will only be asked to play short excerpts at auditions, I advise you to acquire entire parts and scores so you can study each piece in its entirety. Important: Make sure that you are not breaking copyright law by photocopying, printing, or sharing non-public domain music. Individual parts of orchestral literature are for sale through various music publishers, and by using illegal copies, you are hurting the music industry.
• Make an excerpt notebook. Gather all of the excerpts which you’ve collected and keep them in one place. I use a 3-ring binder to store all of my excerpts in sheet protectors. I arrange my excerpts alphabetically by composer, and if I have multiple copies of excerpts (like the many copies of Mendelssohn’s “Scherzo” I’ve obtained over the years), I keep them in the same sheet protector so I can compare articulations, dynamics, and other discrepancies between different editions.

Practicing Excerpts

• Listen to recordings and study the score. It’s important to be able to play your excerpts, but it’s even more important to know the score and how your music fits in with the other parts of the orchestra. Before you begin practicing a new excerpt, listen to several different recordings of the piece to get a general understanding of the style, mood, and tempo of the piece. Make sure to listen to each piece in its entirety – not just the section or movement which contains the excerpt. Many videos on YouTube have recordings synced to the complete score, which is useful when you’re listening to unfamiliar pieces.
• Start slow. When you first start working on a new excerpt, be extra methodical and make sure no detail goes unturned – notes, rhythm, phrasing, dynamics, tempo, etc. Just like scales, you’ll never outgrow excerpts, so make sure you create a solid foundation to build upon for years to come.
• Use a metronome. This is a no-brainer for me, but I’m always shocked at to see how many musicians rarely use a metronome! At auditions, your judge might play a different instrument and could miss some instrument-specific details, but rhythm is universal. Even at the highest level of orchestral auditions, many final rounds come down to rhythmic accuracy. Rhythm is always important, but even more so when the structural integrity of a piece depends on individual rhythmic precision.
• Record yourself. Microphones tell no lies – a painful truth of which I’m constantly reminded. Get in the habit of regularly recording yourself and being critical of what you hear. Incorporate your critique into your next practice session.
• Play along with recordings. Practice and play your part along with a recording to get the experience of “performing” each piece with an orchestra. Play along with several different recordings so you’re exposed to a variety of different interpretations.
• Get in character. Each excerpt embodies a different style and mood, and this can make excerpts even more challenging. As you go from one excerpt to another, make sure that you switch to whatever the character of the piece is. I like to write certain words or phrases at the top of my music, and I have certain mental images associated with each excerpt. Example: Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of clarinetists like hearing the phrase “In a twinkling, the cat climbed up the tree.” To get in Prokofiev’s feline frame of mind, I always think of the stray cat I encountered in Sintra, Portugal, who scampered up a tree to avoid me.
• Practice and rotate excerpts regularly. Create and maintain a consistent practice routine in which you regularly rotate excerpts so you can be ready at a moment’s notice if an audition is announced. Keep your excerpts fresh by practicing them in different orders, because you’ll never be able to predict the order they’re called at an audition. You can even get crafty and make a bucket-o-excerpts to randomly select ones to practice.
• Do mock auditions. Once you’ve mastered a handful of excerpts, enlist your teachers, colleagues, friends, neighbors, or anyone else to adjudicate a mock audition. Give them a list of excerpts and have them call out the excerpts in a random order. If you want to up the ante, have them stop you in the middle of some excerpts, which can happen at actual auditions. Add further pressure by competing against your fellow excerpt-practicing friends and have the jury announce a winner of the mock audition. Make sure to record the mock audition and ask for feedback.
• Take auditions. Audition-taking is an art form in itself, so take as many auditions as you can to hone your auditioning skills. Not only are you putting your musical skills to the test, you are also perfecting your audition strategy. Winning orchestra auditions is a little bit like winning the lottery, so take as many auditions as you can. Don’t get discouraged or doubt your ability as a musician if you lose an audition – music is a highly subjective art, so give yourself time to mope, then hit the practice room with a newfound determination for your next audition.

Standard Clarinet Excerpts

Disclaimer: The following list (arranged alphabetically by composer) contains some of the most commonly requested clarinet orchestral excerpts asked at auditions and is not meant to be comprehensive.

• Bartók – The Miraculous Mandarin, Op. 19, Sz. 73 BB 82
• Beethoven – Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60
• Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68
• Beethoven – Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
• Berlioz – Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
• Borodin – Polovtsian Dances/Prince Igor
• Brahms – Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
• Brahms – Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
• Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
• Kodály – Dances of Galánta
• Mendelssohn – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 61
• Mendelssohn – Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 (“Scottish”)
• Nielsen – Symphony No. 5, Op. 50
• Prokofiev – Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67
• Rachmaninoff – Symphony No. 2 in e minor, Op. 27
• Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé
• Ravel – Boléro
• Respighi – Pines of Rome
• Rimsky-Korsakov – Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34
• Rimsky-Korsakov – Scheherazade Op. 35
• Rimsky-Korsakov – Le Coq d’or
• Schubert – Symphony No.8 in B minor, D.759 (“Unfinished”)
• Shotakovich – Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10
• Shostakovich – Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47
• Shostakovich – Symphony No. 9 in E-flat major, Op. 70
• Sibelius – Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39
• Smetana – The Bartered Bride
• R. Strauss – Don Juan, Op. 20
• R. Strauss – Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28
• Stravinsky – Firebird
• Stravinsky – Le Sacre du printemps
• Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36
• Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64
• Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, (“Pathétique”)

Excerpt books & collections

• The Audition Method for Clarinet – Mark Nuccio & Benjamin Baron
• Orchestral Excerpts for Clarinet (series) – Robert McGinnis
• Orchestral Studies for Clarinet – Daniel Bonade
• The Working Clarinetist – Peter Hadcock

Happy practicing!

Dr. Jenny Maclay enjoys a diverse career as a clarinet soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, pedagogue, and blogger. In 2021, she was the Visiting Instructor of Clarinet at Brandon University (Canada) and was Visiting Lecturer of Clarinet at Iowa State University in 2020. Online, she is known as Jenny Clarinet, where she created her eponymous popular blog, and she is also the Social Media Coordinator for the International Clarinet Association.

In addition to teaching and performing, Jenny is also interested in travelling and researching clarinet cultures around the world. To date, she has visited and performed in over 30 countries, and she enjoys meeting other clarinetists during her travels. Recently, she was selected by the Council of Faroese Artists as an artist-in-residence in Tjørnuvík, Faroe Islands, where she performed and promoted clarinet compositions by Faroese composers. She has also been named an Artist-in-Residence Niederösterreich, and she will study the clarinet compositions of Ernst Krenek and his wife Gladys Nordenstrom during her residency in Austria in 2022.

Jenny was the recipient of the 2015-2016 Harriet Hale Woolley Award for musical study in Paris, where she was an artist-in-residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis. She received her Master of Musique, interprétation, et patrimoine at the Versailles Conservatoire in the class of Philippe Cuper and her Doctorat en musique interprétation at the Université de Montréal in the class of André Moisan. She has achieved a number of other notable musical honors, including selection as a prizewinner, finalist, and semi-finalist for such international competitions as Concerts Artists Guild and Astral Artists, and other recent prizes include 1st prize at the 2017 Clé d’Or international music competition and highest-ranking clarinetist at the 2016 Tunbridge Wells International Young Artist Competition in England. Most recently, Jenny performed a virtual recital at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest 2021, featuring a transcription of Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91 for clarinet, theremin, and piano. Other recent performances include a virtual recital for the U.S. Embassy France and a collaborative duo recital with Sauro Berti, solo bass clarinetist of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma at ClarinetFest 2019.

Jenny has performed with orchestras throughout Europe and North America. In 2017, she toured with the Jeune Philharmonie franco-allemande et hongroise, an international orchestra comprised of musicians from over 20 different countries. During past seasons, she has performed with several orchestras, including the Ensemble Orchestral Les Voyages Extraordinaires, Écoute Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine, Orchestre d’Harmonie de Levallois, Florida Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony, and Ocala Symphony. As a chamber musician, she has performed several masterworks in prestigious venues, including the Mozart clarinet quintet at La Seine Musicale and the Messiaen Quatuor pour la fin du temps at the Fondation des Etats-Unis in Paris.

Jenny received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Florida, where she graduated summa cum laude and was a Fulbright Scholar alternate. Her teachers include Philippe Cuper, Karl Leister, André Moisan, Mitchell Estrin, Todd Waldecker, John Cooper, and Donald Dowdy. She was the youngest presenter of refereed research at the 2014 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest. Recently, Jenny has been an invited artist and presented lectures on musicpreneurship at Louisiana State University, University of Memphis, University of Iowa, Loyola University, Millikin University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Alabama Birmingham, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of Southern Mississippi, and has been a featured soloist at the keynote ceremony of the Alabama Music Educators Association Conference.

Jenny Clarinet has been featured in The Clarinet and the Clarineat podcast and has been named one of Feedspot’s “Top 20 Clarinet Blogs, Websites, and Influencers to Follow.” To date, she has published over 300 articles which have been read in over 177 countries and translated into multiple languages, and she has contributed articles which have been featured in The Clarinet, Vandoren WAVE newsletter, Deutsche Klarinetten-Gesellschaft, Rodriguez Musical Services blog, and Lisa’s Clarinet Shop blog. Her first book, an examination of unaccompanied clarinet repertoire, is currently in publication. Jenny Maclay performs exclusively on Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures.

In addition to clarinet, Jenny is also learning to play the theremin, an early electronic instrument and the only one played without physical contact. After writing this blog post, Jenny became interested in the theremin and has collaborated and performed with theremin virtuosi Grégoire Blanc and Charlie Draper. You can listen to some of these collaborations here and here.

When she’s not onstage or in a practice room, Jenny enjoys travelling and has visited over 30 countries. During her travels, she likes to befriend the local cats and enjoys reading books at kitschy cafés. Her caffeination of choice is espresso or Earl Grey tea.

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