Klarinet Archive - Posting 001018.txt from 1999/03

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] orchestra opening
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 16:02:11 -0500

On Thu, 18 Mar 1999, Neil Leupold wrote:
> Most non-clarinetists, and even
> many clarinet players as well, assume that the bass clar-
> inet is more difficult to play than soprano, simply by
> virtue of its size. They assume it takes more work, re-
> quires more air by serveral orders of magnitude, and that
> it is less technically weildy than the soprano.

This has not been my experience. In support of the opposite viewpoint, I
remember when Lawrie Bloom of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra told me that
bass clarinetists are not regarded as clarinetists - that they are viewed
more as people who can't play the clarinet so they play the clarinet. He
has had to fight this view in his 19 year (or so) tenure in the CSO. I
fought the same battle in the Illinois Symphony and the Peoria Symphony -
and, briefly, in the Oregon Symphony. My opinion is that the above
experience is not the norm.

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director - Concert Band, Symphonic Winds & Titan Band
Advisor - Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University

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