Klarinet Archive - Posting 000951.txt from 1997/03

From: "David B. Niethamer" <niethamer@-----.EDU>
Subj:
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 19:58:16 -0500

I've just done a minor update to my home page (nothing much that you'd
notice) and wanted to call a few of the items to your attention.

Allan Blank has been a long time friend, and even before I knew him, I
knew and admired his work, and his compositions for clarinet. He recently
gave me two new works which I urge you to check out. Both are available
from American Composers Alliance.

"Six Studies for Two Bb Clarinets" is a "serious' work. Allan writes in
the forward Six Studies...has its genesis in a re-exploration of the
character and expressive nature of intervals. This quickly influenced
other parameters, most notably texture. The varying texture mixtures can
be labeled as contrapuntal, heterophonic, imitative, accompanimental,
variational, or independent - all in shifting degrees of interaction.

Performers are free to use these studies independently or in whatever
grouping is useful."

"Melodies From Around the World" is a collection of 19 folk melodies from
various countries, with a 2nd clarinet part written by Allan Blank. I've
been reading them with my intermediate to advanced students this week,
and some of the more advanced ones will have to be practiced! Allan
writes, "This collection of two part settings...grew out of composition
exercises I prescribed for students at varying points in my teaching. The
objective was to combine something given...with something invented...for
two of the same treble instruments. The students were free to use
whatever folk material appealed to them. The examples that follow are
based on a wide assortment of melodies that appealed to me. From an
instrumental point of view, I constructed the parts so that they could be
used in the clarinet studio for students in the first few years of their
development."

Both my students and myself have had a great time reading these duets,
and I highly recommend them. Allan told me they will probably be picked
up by Roncorp in the fall, and be available there as well as from ACA now.

I also added a link to my home page for Tom Labadorf's excellent article
about intonation and warmup. In addition, I made a link to the home page
of "TUNEUP", a CD based intonation training system. Tuneup is more
expensive, but comes with a book and a practice CD called "Bootcamp". In
this revised version, the interval study and the linear harmony model are
reproduced in all twelve keys, which means you don't have to learn or
teach transposition before you can use it! In using this CD with
students, a CD boom box that you can pause/backup works great. You can
email for info from the TUNEUP home page. To get there, visit *my* home
page (in the sig below) and follow the link to "Other Clarinet Resources".

Cheers!

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
niethamer@-----.edu
dbnclar1@-----.com
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

This message sent from Claris Em@-----.0