Klarinet Archive - Posting 000365.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: John Dohrmann and national sounds
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 1994 16:55:59 -0400

Well, I have sat here patiently for the last week and read everything that
crossed the board on national sounds. Several posts were particularly
thoughtful but, in my opinion, none have brought any cogent evidence to
support what I perceive as a preconception of what the world is and then
hunting for evidence to support that preconception. The subject line
of this note makes reference to an interesting note that asserts that
there is a national sound based on certain performing characteristics.

I can't swallow it. Performing style (such as Austrian waltzes with the
delayed om pah) is not a national sound charactertistic. It is a performing
practice that can be emulated by any orchestra in the world.

What started all this brouhaha was the assertion on someone's part (I forget
who) that suggested that players with different nationalities sounded
sufficiently different (for reasons that were never made clear), that one
can spot a German playing or a Frenchman or an Englishman, etc. simply by
listening to the character of their sound.

That critter still does not wash. Why has no one brought up the fact that
Frenchmen use the same clarinets, reeds, mouthpieces, ligatures, etc. as
American players? Do they sound differently? If so, and if hardware is
not the source, then what is it? Is it vibrato? Unlikely. Too many
American players use vibrato. Is is simply because they were born in
France? Is it because their training was exclusively French? Lots of
Americans get good training over long periods in France. Bottom line?
Of all the playing styles mentioned thus far, other than the German players,
it was the French who were supposed to have such a characteristic sound.
But from what? Garlic? Frogs legs?

Then there was another note from someone who suggested that he or she heard
a difference and actually picked out a player as German or French or
English without knowing who the players were. I think that here is
the possibility of reverse logic. One of the players was Sabine Meyer
and the listener picked her out as being German.

But Meyer's playing is so distinctive, so unique, that she is recognizable
by her playing, not necessarily by her sound. So the logic (though internal
and subconscious) was "Who is this person? Ah, that's Sabine Meyer. Her
playing is very unique. Meyer is German." And then out pops the conscious
thought "That is a German player." For what my opinion is worth, which is
not much, Meyer's playing is not German at all. It is only great!

Clarinet players, like singers, have very distinctive voices. Some of them
are so very distincitive (Benny Goodman was another, Giora Feidman a third)
that we recognize them because of the character of their playing and the
sound of their voice, a sound which I still assert is independent of the
geographyof their training or their nationality.

One of America's best players is an Oehler system performer. I have not heard
anyone cite her as sounding German. That is, of course, Michele Zukovsky who
used to be a Boehm system player and switched in mid life. Thus far, however,
I have not read a single cogent argument putting forward objective evidence
that clarifies the problem and enables one to identify the possible reasons
behind a national sound character or even that the statement is true.

There was one note that left me in awe, it was so thorough, so careful and
conservative in its views. And that one I read twice, kept it, and since
have read it again. I am thinking about it. But I did compliment the
author on his objective and intelligent view on the whole subject.

But I noticed that no one has agreed to a blind test.

I notice that some of the posters hit and run, not responding to ardent
requests for thoughtful analysis.

And I notice that the vast majority of the arguments are "Of course there
is a national style. I hear it. So it is there." This shows me that
clarinet players can be talked into anything. Let someone put a reasonably
logical statement on the table (even if it has no validity or even data
to back it up), and in 5 years it has become a truism that all know is gospel.

What makes Giora Feidman's playing identifiable? I think he was raised
in Chile or Uraguay or someplace in South America. Yet he sounds, in
his klezmer playing, as if he came out of the ghetto of Lvov. But he
was also the bass clarinet player in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
so he certainly did not play that way when he worked with them. That
orchestra is cosmopolitan, having Americans, Germans, Israelis, goodness
knows what else. Before Feidman left the IPO to pursue an international
career as a klezmer player, he was offered the position of bass clarinet
with a major American orchestra. He turned it down, but if he had taken
it, would he have been at a disadvantage having a Chilean/Israeli/Klezmer
sound?

The former principle flute of the Berlin Philharmonic is an Irishman.
He certainly did not sound like "Terry Dancers" in the BP. He sounded
like a flute player, and a great one at that. Now he plays in America
a great deal of the time and sounds no different from when he played
in the BP. So is there a flute sound based on national characteristics?

Sabine Meyer was in San Francisco 5 years ago to do the Mozart concerto.
All the players in the bay area heard her and drooled, wanting to sound
just like her. That did not mean they wanted to sound German (what ever
that is). They just wanted to sound like her. I want to sound like her.
I want to play like her.

Jerry Kirkbride, who teaches at Univ. of Arizona in Tucson, had considerable
training in Italy, and he played professionally in Italy as an orchestral
musician. No one noticed that he was an American. He sounded like what he
was: a clarinet player.

The first clarinet player in the San Jose Symphony who is my colleague, Mike
Corner, was with a Swiss Orchestra for a number of years. He plays a Boehm
system like most of us and suffered no negative comparisons.

When Kell came over to America after WW2, he so frightened the American players
out of their wits, that they made up stories about the "English sound" or
the "English vibrato." And it ruined Kell's life, his health, and finally
his interest in playing clarinet. John Denman, from Tucson, took an audition
and was asked not to play with the usual English vibrato. John said, "I never
played with a vibrato in my life. Do they think that all Englishmen do?"

If I were to assert that no national sound character exists because I listen
and can't hear a difference, I would probably be mailbombed. But, except for
only a few remarks on this subject, the converse of this argument is all I have
been reading for more than a week.

Hey Ron Monson. You studied in England for quite while. Do you sound English?

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
(leeson@-----.edu)
(dnl2073@-----.edu)
Any of the above three addresses may be used. Take your pick.
====================================