Klarinet Archive - Posting 000818.txt from 1997/11

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: two is company, three's a pain in the ears
Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 10:38:22 -0500

On Fri, 21 Nov 1997, Edinger/Gilman wrote:
> I greatly prefer listening
> to orchestras (and playing in them too). And the worst part is, I think
> it's the clarinets that make me so prejudiced. Fifteen clarinets is a
> woefully inadequate substitute for a violin section. Groups of
> clarinets just sound thin, strained, and usually at least have the
> suggestion of being at least marginally out of tune. And I truly love
> the clarinet. I just don't like more than about two at a time (except
> in Mahler symphonies, where there are at least six of everything
> anyway). Sorry.

Nothing wrong with preferring a symphony orchestra because of the thinner
woodwind texture and (I think) what inadequacies you hear in a 15 person
clarinet section of a band. Consider that most 15 person clarinet
sections play marginally out of tune because they play that way normally.
I wonder if you enjoy the average community or high school
orchestra over a fine unversity band? The strings in this kind of
ensemble play more marginally out of tune than the professional orchestras
we buy in cd and tape stores. Do you regularly listen to these kinds of
orchestra on your stereo? Why do we have this impression of bands (other
than personal experience in community or ok military bands)? Simply put,
it is because there are not a lot of professional bands, and the ones we
hear, are not made commercially available on cd or tape to the general
public. Yes, they make cd's for publicity purposes, but the cd's are not
available commercially. If we only hear or play in ensembles that are,
comparably, much less talented than the professional orchestras we are
comparing to, we are going to hear differences in tone, intonation, blend,
balance, etc... And let's keep in mind again.....the repertoire
available for the band medium is not as diverse and extensive as it's
orchestral counterpart. It is unfortunate that a full size symphony band
(with the instruments we have today) did not exist during the classical
and romantic periods.....I believe we would have much more and much better
repertoire in the area of bands than we do today.

There is nothing wrong with preferreing one medium over another...but if
you specify thin tones and intonation as the basic cause of the
reason, there are reasons that this cause exists!

Roger Garrett
IWU