Klarinet Archive - Posting 000999.txt from 1997/03

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Still more on Gershwin and glissando
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 17:06:05 -0500

On Sun, 30 Mar 1997, Gary Young wrote:

> I found the source of my belief that the clarinetist at the premiere of
> Rhapsody in Blue turned the opening run into a glissando/portamento. It's
> Pamela Weston's chapter in the Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet, at page
> 102:

Just a few days ago, one of the old Leonard Bernstein/New York
Philharmonic Young People's concerts was played on television. I think it
was on the Arts and Entertainment network. The show which was rebroadcast
was first played live on TV in 1958. The topic of this particular show
was "What Makes American Music American." An excerpt from the Rhapsody in
Blue was played. The clarinetist _did not_ play a glissando. I can't
remember who the clarinetist would have been at that time - maybe
McGinness?

Let me see if I can describe what he did. He played a chromatic run up to
about high Bb or so, then back down diatonically in the C scale to
3rd-space C, then back up to the high C. Obviously, this does not prove
anything about what Gershwin originally intended. Perhaps the clarinetist
at that time didn't have the glissando effect under control. In any
event, I had never heard it played that way, and it was rather startling
to hear it.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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