Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 1998/12

From: Martin Pergler <pergler@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Martin Pergler on Why i can't play in tune
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 21:06:07 -0500

Clark, thanks for your comments. It's been a crazy week (with 3 more
concerts this weekend) so it's taken me a while to respond. The
"ease" of intonation which is regularly the case in some
professional ensembles, and happens sometimes in groups at my level,
has been on my mind, and I haven't really decided whether and how to
mention it---I'll try to link it up as you did with your well-taken
comment on the "fallacy" of the top-down model versus bottom-up
intonation, though I think I'll use the terms network versus tree. I
had actually heard (and partially experienced) this but somehow
forgot about it....unfortunately in both groups I play with
regularly, the second bassoon cannot reliably fight the tendency to
sharpness in the lower register. Thanks again!

Umm, while I have you "on the line", a quick question if you have
time. A couple of years ago you worked on my clarinets and
measured my Kaspar Cicero 13 mouthpiece. I happily use this
as my regular mouthpiece, but it seems to me I should look around
for a "backup" in case something ever happened to it...at
the moment I just have a couple of stock Van Dorens and I think
I'd be in for a surprise if I needed to use them. Do you have
suggestions for what to get? I got my Kaspar by pure chance
at a bargain price, and I cannot afford the going rate for a
second to use as backup (besides, I find something philosophically
wrong about hoarding these things, and am not sure if I'm willing
to assign so much mystical value to them in the first place). I
could afford $150 range if that's what it takes.

I'm going into this not looking for "the best" mouthpiece, but
rather something *comparable* to what I have. Of course, if I
run across something better in the process, I'll switch.

THanks for any suggestions, Martin

On Tue, 1 Dec 1998 reedman@-----.com wrote:

> Martin,
>
> What a succint and excellent article! Your explanations were very
> clear
> and the informationwas well researched.
>
> I only have a few comments.
>
> You commented on the policy of principal winds listenting to each
> other and the section members then adjusting to the principals. This is
> something that I think falls more under the category of musical sociology.
> It's what I call the politics of intonation. It is a very flawed way of
> tuning and I think that you will find in most of the better orchestras that
> good intonation is generated from the bottom up and not the top down. For
> this reason it is essential that any good wind section have an
> exceptionally stong bassoon section and that the 2nd basson has the ability
> to keep the pitch down - which is difficult in the low register.
>
> The only other comment I would like to make is that despite all of the
> "good" reasons for faulty intonation, a talented group of experienced and
> highly trained musicians can play with exceptional intonation.
>
> My best frame of reference is the San Francisco Symphony. In that wind
> section intonation is *easy* because everyone listens. Everyone also works
> conciously toward good intonation, but at some point it becomes merely an
> element that serves the music. At these moments we become one with the
> music and the instrument and we are no longer clarinetists, we are
> vocalists with auxilliary vocal chords.
>
> Clark w Fobes
>
> Clark W Fobes
> Web Page http://www.sneezy.org/clark_fobes
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>

--
Martin Pergler pergler@-----.edu
Grad student, Mathematics http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~pergler
Univ. of Chicago

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