Klarinet Archive - Posting 001100.txt from 1999/03

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <danbascl@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] orchestra opening
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 20:49:25 -0500

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Neil,
You're absolutely right on the bass clarinet. Sometimes my colleagues
just look in wonderment that a bass clarinet can play the same things
that a clarinet can. In one way it is easy to play BUT in another it
isn't. When a bass clarinet is working well it's an angel but when ANY
thing is wrong with the instrument or reed - it's like riding a mule
with it's own mind - and it's always in slow soft exposed passages
(Barber 2nd Essay for Orch, Tosca, etc). I tend to become very
religious in times like that and promise to reform my church attendance.
One other thing is the bass clarinet does take more mental gymnastics
with bass clef parts or bass clef in A parts - but once you're
comfortable with that it's just second nature.

Dan

Neil Leupold wrote:
>
> On Thu, 18 Mar 1999 GrabnerWG@-----.com wrote:
>
> > Bass clarinet is the Rodney Dangerfield of the orchestra..... No
> > respect!!!!!!!!!
>
> I've never experienced this in my years as an orchestral
> bass clarinet player. 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. When I
> perform difficult and exposed passages in rehearsal, the
> other members of the ensemble perk up and pay attention,
> because they do not expect such "wizardry" to come from
> such a big and difficult instrument. I never give in to
> the pressure to let them know that the bass clarinet is
> much easier for me to play and requires no more work than
> soprano. Typically, it requires the same attention to
> scales and exercises, and when this diligence results in
> technique equal to what is possible on soprano, the
> respect-meter goes off the scale!
>
> Neil
>
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