Klarinet Archive - Posting 000920.txt from 1995/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Abby asking about bass clarinet
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 09:41:57 -0400

Abby you have gotten very good advice from a lot of people about switching
to bass clarinet. Let me add a completely different dimension to this
set of answers.

Some people gravitate to one kind of clarinet or another (high, middle, or low)
based on a psychologically inner preference for the kind or style of musical
line played by that instrument. Personally, I have always preferred the bass
or alto voice in the orchestral choir. I don't know why those lines draw me
but they do. If I were not a clarinetist, I would be a cellist and not a
violinist. When I read scores of string quartets, I invariably find the
viola and cello lines to be the interesting ones. That does not mean that
they are. Simply that I find them to be.

So keep in mind that part of your interest in bass clarinet is technical
and part is at some much deeper internal level that has to do with the
kinds of parts played by that instrument.

Now that I think about it, I realize and remember that I played tuba in
high school because I preferred the bass voice to the soprano voice of
the clarinet. And I would rather eat a snake than play e-flat clarinet
not because I don't like the instrument but because I don't like
melodic lines.

Think about how this applies to yourself, if it does at all.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
====================================

   
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