Klarinet Archive - Posting 000586.txt from 1998/01

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Matt Snyder and vibrato
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 11:43:37 -0500

Wonderful posting Mark. I am so VERY glad you dug it out of
the archives!!! Of course it is by no means authoritative, but
it is wonderful to have in any case.

Thank you so much for the effort.

Dan Leeson

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.82
> Subj: Re: Matt Snyder and vibrato

> Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
> <snip>
> > Who
> > is to say that Brahms' clarinetist did not use vibrato? There
> > is no writing that I know of that speaks of this aspect of his
> > playing, either pro or con.
>
> An article I have on sneezy, authored by Conrad Josias (found in
> the Klarinet Archives - reprinted at
> http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Vibrato.html):
>
> > In view of the recent discussions about Anton Stadler and his
> > basset clarinet(s), I couldn't resist saying something about
> > another historical clarinetist -- something that relates to
> > your comment about vibrato. I thought you might be interested.
> >
> > I cite the following passage about Richard Muhlfeld, the
> > clarinetist who inspired Brahms' great chamber works. This
> > quotation is from the book, "Clarinet," by Jack Brymer, which
> > is one of the Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides:
> >
> > ".........A reminiscence of no less a player than Muhlfeld
> > himself seems to suggest that the use of vibrato may have
> > fallen out of fashion temporarily after his day, to return
> > after about thirty years. Just before World War II a
> > question was put to a very old viola player, sometime
> > conductor of the Duke of Devonshire's Orchestra, about the
> > playing of Muhlfeld. The old man had occasionally been
> > called by Joachim to play in his quartet, and on several
> > occasions had played the Brahms Quintet with the great
> > Muhlfeld. Of the clarinetist's playing he was most
> > enthusiastic, saying that three things mainly stuck in his
> > memory. 'He used two clarinets, A and Bb, for the slow
> > movement, to simplify the gypsy section; he had a fiery
> > technique with a warm tone -- and a big vibrato.' Asked
> > again by a startled questioner if he didn't mean to say
> > 'rubato' the old man looked puzzled. 'No' he said, 'vibrato
> > -- much more than Joachim, and as much as the cellist.'"
> >
> > How about them apples? Brymer concedes that, without a second-party
> > confirmation, the report is without official authority. But he
> > points out that the achievements of exceptional players like
> > Muhlfeld do not always take root in the years that follow their
> > finest period.
> >
> > Posted on Klarinet Fri, 28 Oct 1994
>
> Some of the gems buried in the archives ...
> --
> Mark Charette, Webmaster - http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet
> Web/Personal - charette@-----.org
> Business - charette@-----.com
> "There's already an educational TV channel - it's called 'off'."
> Lily Henderson, age 11
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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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