Klarinet Archive - Posting 000846.txt from 1998/04

From: "Scott Morrow" <sdm@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: wind instruments and circus tricks
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:30:00 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Date: Wednesday, April 15, 1998 10:45 PM
Subject: Re: wind instruments and circus tricks

>Agrenci's defense of Neidich, circle breathing in the oboe Romances, is
>very well stated and I second it.
>
>TO answer his query, Berlioz writing circa 1850 describes an Asian
>shawmist at a Pris exhibition, circular breathing an A, "until we all
>had our fill of that note" or something to that effedct. This implies
>that the technique was not part of the Western bag-of-tricks. See
>Joseph Marx's book of essays (The Writings of Josef Marx, pub. 1980ish
>by McGinnis and Marx) for a fuller description and exact quote.
>
>If we call this a circus trick, what do we make of flutter tongueing,
>vibrato, triple tonguing, use of notes above high G, multiphonics, and
>for that matter, trilling? Where does technique end and show-off begin?
>

I would like to propose that they only become circus tricks if you do them
on stilts or a unicycle while juggling!

-Scott