Klarinet Archive - Posting 000545.txt from 1997/01

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Request for more information [on Donald Martino...]
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 09:19:57 -0500

Andrew Siegel <gas11@-----.edu> wrote:

>I'm looking for information on what both Donald Martino and Art Bloom are
>presently doing (i.e. where they might be teaching if that is the case,
>any interesting recent information). I'll be performing Martino's _A Set
>for Clarinet_ in a few weeks and am trying to compile some up to date
>program notes.
>

Donald Martino retired a couple of years ago from his post as head of the
Music Department at Harvard University. He lives in Newton, Massachusetts
and is currently getting back into playing the clarinet after a lapse of
twenty or thirty years. He told me that he did play it now and then during
the long lapse but never for any extended periods.

After my most recent CD "The Clarinet Alone" (Ongaku Records 024-105) was
published, he wrote me a very nice letter and subsequently came over to
take a lesson. He gave me some old tapes of him playing some jazz and some
classical music, both of which were excellent. He is quite a jazzer for
those of you who didn't know!

He is 65 now and while building up his clarinet chops again, he also runs
his own music publishing business Dantalian Inc. where he can be reached
at:

11 Pembroke St.
Newton, MA 02158
(617) 244-7230

All I know about Art Bloom, is that he is (was?) an old friend of Donald
Martino's and he did the premiere performance of "A Set for Clarinet".
Donald has a tape of that original performance (I believe from 1959) that
he really likes. I don't know what the current status of Art Bloom is,
however.

Here is a copy of the notes about "A Set for Clarinet" that I wrote for my CD.

In the forty five years since it was written, A Set for Clarinet has earned
a distinguished place in the clarinet repertoire. It combines almost
shocking virtuosity with beautifully expressive and free bel canto playing
in a way that cannot be duplicated on any other instrument. A clarinetist
himself, the Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Donald Martino has
long been a leader in the field of new clarinet music and solo instrumental
writing in general.

This work, like the Five Pieces by William O. Smith also on this recording,
uses huge skips in register to great effect. The performer must often jump
three octaves up and then three octaves back down again in the space of
three rapid sixteenth notes. The resulting effect is spectacular and
jolting. It sounds almost as if there are two players. The rapid scalar
passages which continually mutate also create an unsettled sense of
agitation and energy that permeates the piece and culminates in a double
forte double high B flat!

The work is in three movements, with the first Allegro and second Adagio in
ternary form, while the final Allegro is in binary form. According to
Martino, the term "Set" in the title derives from "dance band parlance
[which] refers to the practice of collecting a number of pieces to be
played as a group before a short intermission." Needless to say, one
definitely needs an intermission after performing this monumental piece!

------------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net