Klarinet Archive - Posting 000012.txt from 1994/04

From: James Langdell <James.Langdell@-----.COM>
Subj: Clarinet poem
Date: Tue, 5 Apr 1994 13:29:15 -0400

Here's a poem about the clarinet (and its players)
from "People of Note: A Score of Symphony Faces"
by Laurence McKinney (1940):

CLARINET

The happiest of the woodwinds yet

The liquid, limpid CLARINET,

Here is the instrument that's best

Wherewith to soothe the savage breast,

Invade a cobra's bailiwick,

Accompany a Hindu trick,

Or charm a tiger, stop a leopard

Or just to imitate a shepherd.

Its upper notes, uplifting, gay,

Make children dance their cares away

While others gurgled soft and deep

Give listeners a needed sleep.

And yet, should clarinetists plan

To sport like Fauns and play like Pan

And dance in amorous gyrations--

Congress would start investigations.

This book (long out of print, I suppose) has a verse for
each orchestral entity and an illustration by Gluyas Williams,
an artist best known for his drawings of Robert Benchley.

(As I type this, I'm hearing KPFA's broadcast of a concert tape
of clarinetist Ben Goldberg and saxaphonist John Zorn with
their klezmer-meets-free-jazz band Masada.)

--James Langdell jamesc@-----.com
Sun Microsystems Mountain View, Calif.