Klarinet Archive - Posting 000494.txt from 1999/10

From: Nicholas Yuk Sing Yip <nyip@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] try Eb was-Altissimo on bass clarinet - A story
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 05:19:14 -0400

I had the same situation with Eb, and piccolo. I decided to play the part
in this piece( forgot the name). It was easy, then I started playing it.
Yes, the fingers fit perfectly, but the intonation was off, th horn was
horrible and it was a butt naked soli with the piccolo with no one else
playing. Very unusual, huh! I tried horn after horn and reed after reed to
get it. It came down to dress and I still could not get it together. The
conductor knew, as well as everyone else. However, on the day of the
performance for some reason everything fell together. After the
performance was finished, the ensemble was astonished and confused.
Consider it as a compliment. I guess we get those days!

On Sat, 16 Oct 1999 CmdrHerel@-----.com wrote:

> So one day in grad school, I was handed the clarinet part to Britten's opera,
> Albert Herring.
>
> "Nifty," I thought, since I like opera, and I like playing clarinet. I
> flipped through the part, came to the pages with bass clarinet and thought,
> "Not so nifty..." since I didn't own a bass clarinet, and from the range of
> the part, not only did I need to borrow one, I needed to borrow one that
> worked.
>
> So I dug though our school's collection and dragged our best one to rehearsal
> and cacked the part probably worse than I've ever cacked anything. Not even
> close to nifty...
>
> In the next three weeks, I went through ALL the school's basses, borrowed two
> from colleagues, and ordered every possible strength of bass clarinet reeds
> to get it all to work with my mouthpiece.
>
> The part continued to reek every rehearsal, and I became increasingly
> humiliated and terrified as we approached the opening night. If you've ever
> heard or played Herring, you know that there is a beautiful, weaving
> counterpoint with bass clarinet and alto flute about... three minutes? long.
> Maybe longer - it seemed like a half hour at the time. During this part, for
> reasons I never investigated, NOTHING is happening on stage... It's dark up
> there so the only thing the audience has to do is listen to the bass clarinet
> and alto flute...
>
> By the dress rehearsal I was still screwing around with the best of the horns
> I'd borrowed and experimenting with fingerings... And could not play the
> part! I mean, entire *sections* were left out because I could not get the
> altissimo and some of the high range to work. The flute player had lost a
> year of her life by then. The conductor... well who knows, since I refused
> to make eye contact with him.
>
> The big day arrived, and the gods must have conferred to give me a slight
> break, because by some lucky accident, that morning I found the right
> strength of reed, the right mouthpiece, and the right clarinet to get some
> altissimo notes. Well, that's all kinds of nifty, but now that the notes
> worked, I needed to learn the part!
>
> I spent the morning making up my own fingerings. No joke. I wish I'd copied
> my part because it was outrageous - it was all diagrams over the notes for my
> fingerings... Diagrams, arrows, circles... I worked it as best I could and
> stopped before my chops were blown.
>
> The Night comes. The lights go down. The show starts without a hitch...
> Then comes... The Part... Oh God. We start it. It starts in a range I can
> play. We go on... Intonation is great. Phrasing is great, style's all
> there... Here comes Mr. Altissimo passage...
>
> I took a huge breath, (where it was marked and circled) read my fingering
> diagrams, arrows, circles, notes to myself... And every last phrase sang.
> Every single note. The flute player was a treasure and worked her part into
> passages she'd never heard before! When we finished, half the orchestra was
> chuckling, (I was shaking) and the flute player, trying not to laugh, simply
> says, "You xxxxx." I think it is one of the best compliments I've ever
> gotten.
>
> We did it again the next night, and while it worked a second time, it somehow
> didn't have the same drama and... "edge" it had the night before... :D
>
> Teri Herel
>
>
>
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