Klarinet Archive - Posting 000885.txt from 1998/05

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: intonation in large groups
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 14:27:20 -0400

Ah, the pitfalls of a community band.

Our community band problems are just a bit different. Even with 8 clarinets,
we stay pretty well in tune (except for notes above the staff; there are
several younger players who are afraid to try a reed harder than 2.5, even
though *I* believe it would benefit them greatly). However, I have a couple
of players who, like saxophonists, have only one volume: "ff". This drives me
nuts. I memorize music easily, so I have a tendency to look ahead in the
music quite a ways. I start to cringe 10 bars before we come to a "p"
section, because I KNOW there will be two players blasting out at full volume.
I've tried shushing, and calling out "THAT'S PIANO", but that only helps
temporarily.

At one concert, I even resorted to "OK, in this section, let's drop to every
other player. You, you and you please sit out." It worked, but that's not
very friendly.

Our oboe section is another story. We have two players: an experienced and
very serious amateur, who we use as our tuning standard, and a high-school
student who is not quite as serious. When the jokes went around a week or so
ago, the one about "what do you call two oboes playing in unison? A minor
second" struck way too close to home.

Overall, however, the community band is one of the joys of my life. We've
considered making T-shirts which say "I Live For Tuesday Nights."

We're doing a concert on the 31st where I will play the solo in the beautiful
2nd movement of the Holst 2nd Suite in F. It seems to me this solo just cries
out for a little vibrato; it's slow and emotional, in a very singing style. I
know vibrato is an extremely controversial topic, but I wonder if there is any
factual insight as to its appropriateness in this particular piece. The solo
was originally written for English horn, was it not? Wouldn't the English
horn have played it with vibrato?

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For additional commands, e-mail: klarinet-help@-----.org
For other problems, e-mail: klarinet-owner@-----.org