Klarinet Archive - Posting 000011.txt from 1995/03

From: Jeff Bowles <jbowles@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: eb sop. clar.
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 16:32:14 -0500

``if you play this *&%^% instrument, please list specs, likes, dislikes
adventures...''

I have an old Selmer E-flat soprano, and the highest
register (altissimo?) is about a half-step flat. It's
positively maddening, because that's where the "money
notes" are.

It's interesting to look at the way the parts are arranged
for concert band.
1. Sometimes the combination of piccolo, oboe, and E-flat
clarinet are used for chords, to reinforce one another,
etc. (That's neat.)
2. Sometimes, the E-flat just doubles the 1st clarinet,
which is utterly uninteresting. (It's like when the
alto clarinet lines double the 3rd clarinet or the bass
clarinet. Big yawn.)
3. Sometimes, it doubles the flute parts. This is more interesting,
because it adds a cutting edge that the flutes just can't give
you.
4. Sometimes, it's an altogether different part, such as in
the Hindemith Symphony in B-flat. In this, the first clarinet
and E-flat clarinet toss ornamentation back and forth, and no
other instruments get involved. It's pretty fun. Moreover,
there's a strange rhythmic thingie at the end in which the
E-flat has triples against duples everywhere else in the band.
Sometimes, arrangers/composers actually write for the brightness
and color of the E-flat clarinet. When they do, it's a lot of fun.

But the intonation of that instrument is maddening. Completely.

Jeff Bowles