Klarinet Archive - Posting 000774.txt from 1998/07

From: merlinw@-----.ca
Subj: Re: [kl] About the Mozart concerto on B-flat clarinet
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 15:42:38 -0400

On 07/22/98 11:41:08 you wrote:

>This topic is being hotly discussed in our community band. We are doing a nice
>band transcription of Copland's Hoedown. In itself, this is no trivial piece
>to play. But this particular transcription is made evil by being keyed in
>concert D major, giving the clarinets four sharps. We prima donna clarinet
>players are just not accustomed to seeing so many sharps! I'm convinced we're
>all wearing the plating right off our trill and alternate fingering keys.
>There are some parts of this for which I still not come up with adequate
>fingerings. I'd like to post some sequences to see if there are suggestions;
>right now, I'm doing it brute force, and I simply will not be able to do so at
>full speed. The melody, for example, starts with a turn on top space E3, then
>B2 C#2 E3 C#2 B2 G#2 F#2 E2 G#2 B2 E3, G#3, E3, C#2 B2 G#2 E2 F#2 A2 G#2 E2 E2.
>Those last seven notes, all throat tones, seem to require incredible dexterity
>in the left index finger.
>
>The reason this is relevant to the current topic: I have proposed as a
>solution taking this piece home, entering into Finale, and transposing the
>whole thing up one half step. With that, all the problems simply disappear.
>However, the purists in the group argue against this.

Are you talking about transposing the entire chart? That's an insane amount of work. Now, OTOH, just moving the clarinet parts up a half step and playing them on A clarinets - that's a great idea, if everybody in the section has A's!

Of course, the cantankerous old geezer that is emerging from the depths of my personality as I approach upper-middle age is hollerin', "Practice the damn part!"

Merlin Williams
merlinw@-----.ca
http://www.netcom.ca/~merlinw
(A member of the Sax Ring!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------