Klarinet Archive - Posting 000426.txt from 1999/05

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] C Clarinets (was Orchestral Rep Question)
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 11:49:22 -0400

In a message dated 5/9/99 10:40:19 AM Central Daylight Time,
mgustav@-----.com writes:

<< From: mgustav@-----.com (Mark Gustavson)
Reply-to: klarinet@-----.org
To: klarinet@-----.org

I remember when I was a kid I heard the CSO perform "Symphony Fantastique",
the
year they got a Grammy for the recording, and I was amazed at how Larry Combs
made the Eb clarinet solos sound like a Bb clarinet solo. His tone was so
robust
and focused and not at all shrill. >>

I must be a curmudgeon this morning.

Why does everybody assume that the sound of an Eb clarinet must in some way
be unpleasant?

I have always strived to have a rich, full tone throughout the entire range
in my Eb playing.

Sure, there are places in the literature where the Eb is used for a shrill,
piercing tone quality. But there are as many places where it is used as
another color. In Til Eulenspiegel, for example, there is only the one
instance where the Eb shrieks; when Til is hanged.

Many of the other solo passages are in the throat and clarion registers and
express Til's puckish character. Not shrill at all, or NOT in my opinion
anyway.

Walter Grabner
Eb Players ARISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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