Klarinet Archive - Posting 000735.txt from 1995/03

From: Laurence Liberson <hardreed@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Swing Low
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 08:14:15 -0500

>Been on KLARINET for a couple of months and I've been systematically
>reading all of the logs in the archives. It's been an adventure. Save a
>lot of info from Fobes and Prescott. You guys are invaluable.
>
>Also read a lot of Dan Leeson. It's hard to miss him. Last June, Dan had
>a message about hitting a low Eb and D. He actually had an extension
>fashioned as a link between the lower joint and bell to get this D.
>
>I didn't know you could hit anything lower than the low E on a Bb
>clarinet. Of course, there's a lot I don't know, so I wasn't surprised.
>How do you flatten the low E? I've run into this only once. I have a
>transcription of a Pete Fountain solo that calls for this note.
>
>What's the technique involved?
>
>fred cicetti <cicetti@-----.com>
>

In the Stravinsky "Song of the Nightengale," the second clarinet part (which
also doubles E-flat clarinet) descends to a series of low Ds (BTW, if my
feeble memory serves me, I'm on the A clarinet here!) on the last page! (OK,
Dan--why do you think Stravinsky did that? :)).

I got the Ds out with a reliable, although an admittedly very crude method:
I took off my bell and put on a straight tube (a plastic sleeve from an old
weightlifting set which just happened to fit the tenon perfectly!) which
produced, with a bit of assistance from my embouchure, the correct pitch,
although the quality was not exactly exemplary of my sound!

I'm sure that the clarinet servicemen and technicians that contribute to
this list might have much better suggestions and/or methods to effect this.
I suppose if I had more time to "prepare" for that occasion, I might have
sought out some "legitimate" solution--but it worked nevertheless!

Larry Liberson
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
hardreed@-----.com