Klarinet Archive - Posting 000033.txt from 1997/09

From: benevolent1@-----.com
Subj: Re: A student's multiple questions
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 1997 16:50:24 -0400

>Concerning the ownership of an A clarinet, it's actually the other
>way around, i.e.; it's unreasonable of a prospective orchestral
>clarinetist to hope for acceptance into a serious performing ensemble
>without owning an A clarinet. This applies as much at the youth
>orchestra level as it does at the professional level, but with greater
>flexibility in the former case. The burden is still upon the player,
>not the orchestra,

I can speak from experience. My youth orchestra made it quite clear that
clarinet players should be either able to transpose on sight the keys of
D, C, and A, or have clarinets pitched in those keys. I can transpose,
but my life got a whole lot easier when I bought an A clarinet last year.
(I worked for almost a year to get enough money for it, so it better be
easier. :) ). I also play Eb clarinet, so I have three clarinets on
hand in one concert. We played a couple pieces by Rossini in C (La
Italiana en Algeri is one with a pretty neat-o clarinet solo. Boy am I
glad that I can transpose, it could have ruined my reputation in the eyes
of those weird string players.) That is another issue. In my orchestra,
the string players get their music about two weeks before the orchestra
reads it, but the winds don't get it until that rehearsal. They think
they are really hot stuff, "reading" that music, and make fun of us for
not being able to sight read it perfectly. I have asked if I could get
copies before rehearsal, or even just the names of the pieces so I could
at the very least listen to it, just to see what was expected, but they
tell me no. Last week, we got Capriccio espagnol (sp?), and it was all I
could muster just to keep up, never mind the solos. Oh, I got off
subject. That was not my original intention, but there it is.