Klarinet Archive - Posting 000763.txt from 1996/03

From: niethamer@-----.BITNET
Subj: Re: Obituary, Symphonic Contrabass (not necessarily related!!)
Date: Wed, 27 Mar 1996 23:14:15 -0500

On Wed, 27 Mar 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> I did the first performance of Henry Brant's "The Old Italians Dying"
> and it opens up with a contrabass solo that I had to play in the
> balcony. The opening tune is "O Solo Mio." This is not a joke.

"Los Altos" Dan is jogging a lot of old memories lately! My first job out
of undergrad was a part time job teaching beginning woodwinds in the
Caldwell NJ school system for Keith Brion (now the John Phillip Sousa
impersonator). Keith commissiond Henry Brant for a piece for his HS band,
and Henry delivered "Immortal Combat" for two bands, one on stage, and one
in the balcony. Henry wanted the sounds of dinosaurs fighting to the
death, if I recall correctly, and I seem to remember that the picture was
vivid!

Anyway, Henry had the great idea to take this show on the road, and
spread the forces out even further by playing in three groups from the
balconies of all three halls at Lincoln Center. All the proper NYC noise
permits(!!) were obtained, and after a long discussion with the various
stage hands (who were loathe to allow *anyone*, even kids, to transport
any sort of stage equipment within the hallowed walls without a union
stagehand), the forces were assembled.

I happened to be standing behind Brant as the performance commenced, and
within a minute of the beginning, thunder and lightning struck, adding to
the visual and aural pallete. Henry, dressed in his overalls and striped
locomotive engineer's cap gazed skyward, and in his best '60's voice
murmurred "Oh..Wow!!...Oh..Wow!!..."

> There is also an extensive part for contrabass in the concerto for
> contrabassoon written by the head of the Boston Conservatory. I forget
> his name. He was a horn player with the Metropolitan Opera and a good
> one too.
>
> The concerto has an extended section for contrabassoon and contrabass
> clarinet and when I played it I felt it to be the ugliest piece of music
> I had ever performed.

Gunther Schuller, yes?

On Mon, 25 Mar 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> In this morning's NY Times (3/25, West Coast Edition), the death of
> Vaclav Nelhybel was reported. Some of you may have played his
> band music.

Before his band music made him really famous, Nelhybel was a good friend
of my undergrad clarinet teacher, Frank Stachow. He would come to Lebanon
Valley regularly, and we played much of his band music "hot off the
presses". Nelhybel was *fascinated* by the clarinet choir, which was an
LVC clarinet major's four year Wed 8 a.m. nightmare, and he wrote us
several pieces, and conducted them whenever he came. He was interested in
this sound because it reminded him of his own instrument, the organ.

I mention this because, at one point in my tenure at LVC, we obtained a
Conn Multivider, which would take the sound of whatever insrtument was
attached by pickup, and convert it to any other instrument in literally
any octave. It was crude, even by late 60's standards, with the sound of
a cheap electric home organ. But it did allow us to hook up two Bb
players, and take them down two octaves to provide electronically
"enhanced" Contrbass clarinets! This in addition to our two real live
contrabasses, and a contra-alto. Nelhybel loved it, because it reminded
him of the pedals on the organ.

David Niethamer