Klarinet Archive - Posting 000342.txt from 1999/05
From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Le Garde Republicaine
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 23:31:23 -0400
Le Garde Republicaine
A few nights ago they had a TV documentary about the last century of
development. In it they showed an exposition in Paris, France. And
there was Souza and his band. Not one note was played but just the
picture of Souza in front of his band.
The Garde Republicaine was here in the early fifties. I went to hear
them. The thing that I remember most was the way they played marches.
It was done with such aplomb and showmanship.
And-- SLOW. They even played the Stars and Stripe, but slowly. It
sounded great. The way they played those marches you felt that you
could get up and start marching.
The marches were all done at the end. They played the last movement
Weber concerto #2. The entire clarinet section. It was amazing.
I have a review of a well-noted clarinet player in his day, Robert
Willaman. He was the first American (I believe) to write a book about
clarinet called "The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing".
Here is what he wrote in the Clarinet Quarterly of those days:
"I drove to Norfolk, Conn. to hear the band play in a hall that was only
two thirds full, due to incredibly inadequate publicity.
The performance was a new experience for me. Surely, no band in this
country has, or ever had a clarinet section that can play as fast, as
accurately, and with as much precision as does this group.
The speed, individually and collectively, is beyond the power of words
to describe. All I will say is that this mastery brings into the
repertoire of this band, symphonic music that has been considered
impossible.
Outstanding was Till Eulenspiegel. All those violin figures sounded,
and correctly. The Weber concerto was tremendous. No group here could
play the fast movement without a single wrong note. It seemed that any
man in the section could occupy the first chair without any difference
to the group.
It was a distinct novelty to hear every note of the melody above the
accompaniment even in pp and in the low register. This was because the
solo line was magnified ten times by that many players.
Every note in the Weber concerto was heard and just the sight of the
fingers rippling was something to behold.
To me the outstanding player was the piccolo player. He played so
effortlessly that I had to look sharp to see where all those
stratospheric pearls were coming from.
The brass players were of course fine too, but were subdued, that as a
friend of mine remarked, the band had played four tunes before he
realized they had any brass.
We would have to get used to that kind of brass. Roman Carnival is a
brilliant number. My friends agreed that it should have been brassier,
that it did not sound as brilliant as in a symphony.
To sum up, there never was such a band gathered together in this
country. Speed, precision, flexibility of dynamics were greater than
most seasoned players here could imagine.
We would have been more enchanted with the product of these technical
wizards if they had used a more robust clarinet tone.
--
Avrahm Galper
CLARINET TONE TECHNIQUE AND STACCATO
CLARINET UPBEAT SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html
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