Klarinet Archive - Posting 000175.txt from 1996/03

From: David Gilman <dgilman@-----.EDU>
Subj: clarinet tone in orchestras (fwd)
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 15:24:53 -0500

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 1996 18:02:37 -0600
From: Daniel A. Paprocki <dap@-----.US>
To: Multiple recipients of list KLARINET <KLARINET@-----.BITNET>
Subject: clarinet tone in orchestras

It's interesting listening to strings, especially virtuoso violins.
Some have sounds that would cut steel (we're talking laser!!) but these
players are recognized as top musicians. Are we as clarinetists too
obsessed with darkness? Everyone wants to sound like Wright or Leister but
I don't hear many people say they want to play (phrase) like Wright or
Leister. I think we're examining one leaf and sometimes missing the beauty
of the whole tree (or forest for that matter!).

Flame On!! (by the way, that's from the comic "Fantastic Four")

Dan

Dan,

I couldn't agree more about certain violinists. I've heard some that can
cause cancer in laboratory rats. There are a few with strident sounds yet
wonderful phrasing and great musical ideas and communication with an
audience. But, I still would not want to listen to them because the sound
they use to deliver those ideas is unpleasant to me. One major ingredient
of of the musical package is sorely lacking. [My father wanted me to take
violin when I was very young, but I would have no part of it because of
just that sound. Several years later I found out that the violin is
capable of great beauty as well.]

Perhaps we clarinetists are so paranoid about our tone quality because we
know how variable it is on our instrument. We have such a range of colors
available to us, from those gorgeous sounds the top orchestral players
give us to grinding squeals, that we constantly strive for something
better and fear the worst. Without a doubt, many of us were attracted to
the clarinet because of the sounds it can produce. I certainly was.

IMO, tone color is very important to our music. It deserves to be
cultivated, but it is still a means, not an end. It should be used; along
with technique, dynamics, phrasing, rubato, etc.; to create the whole
musical picture. [Dan, I like your leaf/tree analogy.] Plus, you have to
be satisfied enough with your sound that you can listen to it every day.

Now if only we could agree on what a good sound is.

Such for my $0.02.

David Gilman

   
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