Klarinet Archive - Posting 000802.txt from 1998/04

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: Re: wind instruments and circus tricks
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 22:21:55 -0400

Why are you listening to clarinet players doing oboe music? We don't do
the Fantasiestucke on oboe d'amore....

Were you an oboist, as am I, you would know that what Mr. Neidich has
found is not a circus trick, but a valauble expressive device.
Labelling it a "trick" only displays impatience at not being able to do
it oneself. Without circle breathing, I can play a solo for 45-50
seconds without pause on the oboe; this is always impressive in the slow
movement of the Unfinished Symphony, whereas the clarinet plays the long
solo in c# minor with three breaths, I play it later in a minor with
none. Keeps the audience--and your fellows in the orchestra--on the
edge of their seats.

I play the end of the first Romance, the last three lines, without
breath. Same effect.

Don't deny yourself a valuable expressive device.

Robert Howe

Daniel A. Paprocki wrote:
>
> I know this will bring out the flame throwers but so what. I just finished
> listening to a couple of recordings of the Schumann 3 Romances. I wanted
> to hear different interpretations and where everyone breathed. The three
> CDs were Richard Stolzman, Paul Meyer, and Charles Neidich. Everything was
> fine until I listened to the Neidich disc with headphones. Neidich doen't
> breath (well normally) throughout the movements. He's almost always
> circular breathing AND you can hear it AND it is annoying and detracts from
> the music. I do realize this is the latest trick that everyone wants to
> master (along with double tonguing) but why??? We are playing a wind
> instrument that people like to compare to the human voice so why do we have
> to circular breath?
> Who first started to circular breath? Was it for the sake of the
> music or as a circus trick? A friend of mine in Europe likes to refer to
> people like that as real tricksters - in a noncomplimentary way. It still
> amazes me that at the clarinet conventions, tricksters will get standing
> ovations and someone that ONLY plays musically will just get applause. Why
> can't we look past the flying fingers, tonguing, and aqualung breathing and
> be able to tell when we hear truly great musicians?
>
> Dan
>
> *********************************************************************
> Daniel A. Paprocki
>
> Instructor of Clarinet & Music, Malone College
> Adjunct Professor of Clarinet, Kent State University - Stark Campus
>
> dap@-----.net
> **********************************************************************