Klarinet Archive - Posting 001133.txt from 1998/01

From: Rob Breen <robert.v.breen@-----.net>
Subj: Pasquale Cardillo
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 00:22:11 -0500

I was lucky enough to study with Pasquale Cardillo at Boston University
in the '70s and I was saddened to read Jonathan Cohler's post about his
recent death. Memories of Mr. Cardillo have been at the forefront of
my thoughts for the past few days, and I offer the following as a
postscript to Mr. Cohler's and the Boston Globe's fine tributes.

Mr. Cardillo did not seem to me to be a reed fanatic. The only tool I
ever saw him use on reeds was a large file he carried in his case
and used to rub the back of a reed on to flatten out a warp. During
a lesson in his studio at home he showed me a shoebox full of barely
played rejects and said grinning "Some work, some don't". Fortunately
for me, he was much more patient with his students.

He didn't like my double lip embouchure, but let me use it as long
as I followed his advice to "build your embouchure at the center".
When I finally understood what he meant, it made all the difference.
Think about it. Isn't the most important part of the embouchure the
point where it meets the reed? He also quoted a retired collegue
(Archangeli I think he said) as saying "Your fingers are only as
good as your embouchure."

He often demonstrated what he expected of me and I was always amazed
at how flawlessly he could execute the most difficult of technical
passages. Moreover, his musical instruction to me awesome. He insisted
that I play with respect to musical detail and after a while it began
to dawn on me that good playing is so much more than just beautiful
tone and technical accuracy. The music, not the devil, is in the
details.

The Globe mentioned his passion for trout fishing, but not golf. He
hated
having to work on new music for the BSO in the springtime because it cut
into his fairway time. A few years ago I wrote to tell him about my
growing
family and modest clarinet successes. I mentioned that I had taken up
golf.
He was thrilled and advised that I get my wife to play so that she would
understand the new disease I had aquired.

He told me that he went to New England Conservatory on a scholarship
which
required him to do some sort of janitorial work at the school. As he
put
it "just like in Gilbert and Sullivan, I polished up the handle on the
big front door" and then hit the practice room. From there to a 45 year
career in the BSO. That's world class.

--
Regards,

Rob