Klarinet Archive - Posting 000440.txt from 1996/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Detlev Schrader comments on Amodio
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 22:31:39 -0400

In another life, Lorne Buick wrote:

> Gee Dan, is there really an _Italian School_ of clarinet playing? Could you
> identify an Italian clarinetist if you heard one? ;-)

In doing so he quote me as saying:

> > Detlev has commented on his remembrance of a recording of K. 581 by
> > the Italian clarinetist Luigi Amodio. While I have no information to
> > help him on this matter, it seems to me that we have never had a
> > discussion on the Italian clarinet school, particularly with reference
> > to contemporary Italian clarinet players.
> >

Ah! The sounds of irony ring in the air. Lorne knows well that I
deny the existence of a French sound, a German sound, an Italian
sound and feels that he has caught me in an inconsistency. He should
live so long. He should get up so early.

Lorne, I never denied the existence of a French school, a German school,
any school of clarinet teaching. Nor do I now do so. There are
very specific ways that the French teach their students (beginner,
intermediate, advanced) that are unique to the pedagogy of France.
That French school is essentially similar if one studies in Paris,
Lyon, Strassbourg, etc.; i.e., the overall educational system is
basically constant - same requirements to get in, to graduate, etc.

At one time (I don't know about now), there was an Italian school
of clarinet playing in that there existed an Italian perspective on
how one should learn to play the clarinet.

Come on, Lorne. You will have to get up a lot earlier to catch
me in that kind of an inconsistency. I think you simply misunderstood
what I mean by "school." I mean it literally. A school! You go
to "the school" in Parma or Rome or Venice or Turin or Bologna or
Napoli or Rimini or Brindisi or Vari or Florence or Milan, but you
learn essentially the same approach to the clarinet. Same thing is
true in the U.S. The distinction between players is very often
a function of the teacher who adds some special characteristic of
his or her own to the player. And in that respect, "the school"
in Elephant's Breath, Nebraska may turn out consistenly better overall
players than any other. But, all things being equal, the students
all learn a basic American approach to the matter of clarinet playing.
Their credits are transferable. Their entrance requirements fundamentally
the same for any place in "the American school."

And I still suggest that the idea of a French sound and a German
sound and an Italian sound and an English sound is horse hockey.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it! :-)))))
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LGB Lorne G Buick St. John's
> lgbuick@-----.net Newfoundland
> Canada
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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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