Klarinet Archive - Posting 001041.txt from 1997/10

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: selmer
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 22:28:49 -0400

Selmer
Alexandre Selmer was left fatherless at a tender age, one of a family of
13 children.

His father, Frederic, had given his sons, a good foundation in
instrumental music, fortunately.
Alexandre did much of his studying in the tents of the French soldiers
in Algiers, as he was compelled to become "a child of the regiment", the
son of a renowned army bandmaster who passed to his reward without
leaving behind sufficient wherewithal to enable his widow to keep her
family together.
Six to eight hours actual study and practice per day was his schedule.

At 14 he became the first clarinetist of the famed Monte Carlo.

At 17 he became member of the Lamoureaux Symphony orchestra which he
served as 15 years as principal clarinet.
Then to the Opera Comique and then to Boston Symphony, Cincinnati
symphony and the New York Philharmonic under the great Gustav Mahler
In 1910 he returned to Paris to be with his brother in the Selmer
instrument factory.

[ It would be interesting to tell some of the descriptions of
Alexandre's playing ]

His execution was so complete that he would take a rather simple theme
and gradually embellish it with so many rapid and brilliant variations
that one only hearing him=85without seeing him=85would surely think that
there are two clarinetists playing.
I have heard him play the most intricate cadenzas, passages that worry
the finest of players, in the regular key, smooth as oil

Without facial contortions or unusual gestures of the arms, hand or
fingers, seemingly impossible figuration would pour out of his clarinet
like water
He had a nervously sensitive ear for precise intonation as is seldom
given to any but fine string players.

[ I hope to add some of Alexandre's playing philosophy in future
postings ]=20
Avrahm Galper