Klarinet Archive - Posting 000323.txt from 1998/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Closing the book on Dunedin
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 19:06:49 -0400

Way back in March, there was some correspondence on this list and
privately between myself and Steve Cranefield, principal clarinet
with the Dunedin Symphony orchestra which is notable by virtue
of the fact that it is the southernmost symphony orchestra in the
world!! Going all the way round the world, one finds a few pieces
of land that are more south than Dunedin but they have no
orchestras that we know of. One such place is the south pole.
Then there is the southernmost tip of South America.

Anyway, Steve mentioned that the group was going to do the Gran
Partitta so I sent a specific performance suggestion regarding
the elimination of a measure in the 5th movement of the work and
told him that the cost of all that work on my part was a copy
of the program (signed by all the key players) and a tape of
the performance.

Well, it just came, signed by the conductor, Nicholas Braithwaite,
all the clarinet players (except for James Mackay, 2nd clar.)
and both bassoonists. I heard the tape of this very delightful
and very southerly performance and enjoyed it no end, not only
because of the nice playing but because of the whole "toute
ensemble." There was also a newspaper article from the Otago
Daily Times (which is the paper for Dunedin) that had a picture
of clarinetist Peter Adams staring at the basset horn that had
been imported from the New Zealand SO. The newspaper made the
traditional jokes about basset horns and basset hounds and said
that they sounded like cows. I'm putting out a contract on the
author of the article, Tracle Barrett!

The tape sent to me tuned slightly below American pitch so I
am coming up with the theory that the more south you are, the
lower your pitch. At the south pole, clarinets must be tuned
to A@-----. Going east and west
does not seem to matter very much. But the tempo goes faster
as you go east and slower as you go west. If you travel
diagonally, it impacts both the pitch and the speed.

So now I have this nice treasure of all the details behind the
southermost performance of the Gran Partita, and I hope that
you are all green with envy and jealousy.

To make you even more jealous, be aware that on my recently
concluded vacation, I went to the Carnegie Deli in NY and ate
a Danny Rose special. If you have seen the Woody Allen movie,
"Broadway Danny Rose" you will know what that is all about. If
you have not seen the movie or do not like pastrami, there is
not much I can do for you other than to suggest that you
practice faster and switch to bass drum.

Not like pastrami, indeed!!

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
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