Klarinet Archive - Posting 000396.txt from 1996/02

From: Stan Geidel <00smgeidel@-----.EDU>
Subj: "Dark" sound -- again!!
Date: Wed, 14 Feb 1996 13:52:05 -0500

Friends,

Comments are reappearing on the "dark" sound issue once again. Many have
commented on this rather extensively in the past, and Dan Leeson has written
on this in The Online Clarinet Resource. But--there are some new folks here
that perhaps were not here before, and the subject *is* an interesting one.

I offer the following to give some perspective on the issue. Last night the
American Chamber Players gave a concert here at Ball State University.
Loren Kitt is the clarinetist in that group. For those of you who do not
know, Loren Kitt is the principal clarinetist in the National Symphony
(Wahsington, DC) and is a superb clarinetist who possesses a marvelous gift,
both instrumentally and musically. He played the Brahms Clarinet Trio, Op.
114. He played beautifully, as he always does. Very beautifully, in fact.
After the concert I asked several of my colleagues--all musicians, none of
whom play clarinet--to comment on Loren's sound. All the comments--save
one--did not mention color. People described his sound as beautiful, full,
sonorous, elegant, refined, lovely, gorgeous... only one colleague made a
comment related to color. This person, who happens to be an excellent
bassoonist, mentioned Kitt's "beautiful dark tone."

I wonder if much of the "dark clarinet sound" phenomenon is a discussion
which primarily takes place among clarinetists themselves...other
instrumentalists seem to speak of a "characteristic" clarinet sound, but not
often, in my experience, to they assign a color descriptor to it.

-- Here we go again!! --

Stan Geidel