Klarinet Archive - Posting 000863.txt from 1999/11
From: Jeff Chan <Jeff.Chan@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] pitch bending and the Gershwin Blue Cadenza
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 17:22:57 -0500
To all,
Having played RinB featuring a clarinetist who plays in a Whiteman style
big-band and who had studied Gorman's recordings, I feel obliged to say that
the opening glissando is but one element to a successful performance. It
wasn't until I heard this clarinetist play the entire piece that other
stylistic elements fell into place. In a solo later in the introduction,
the score calls out for three slap-tongue notes. In the recordings that I
have heard, apart from the Whiteman originals, these notes have been played
straight, no slap-tongue. If, however, the clarinet plays these notes as
written, i.e., with slap-tongue, that will set up the trumpet entrance
directly following. Without the slap-tongue, the wah-wah mute of the
trumpet seems out of context. With the slap-tongue notes, the wah-wah muted
trumpet fits right in.
Jeff Chan
-----Original Message-----
From: klara hall [mailto:klahall@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] pitch bending and the Gershwin Blue Cadenza
Donald,
Thanks for the info. One of the libraries here used to have a recording
of that 1st Whitman performance, which was facinating to compare with
current orchestra version.
klara
On Wed, 17 Nov 1999 20:55:06 -0500 Don Longacre <nw2v@-----.com>
writes:
> Klara Hall:
>
> I recall having seen a print of the original Gershwin cadenza
> as premiered
> by the Paul Whiteman band in 1924. Gershwin's intent was a
> chromatic ascent to
> the top note. But Ross Gorman, the clarinet player,took the
> unbelievable
> liberty of making a prolonged glissando out of it with the net
> result the gliss
> was left in forevermore. I have also heard it played chromatically
> up to the
> break then glissed in the clarion register. For just the glissando
> you might
> try a softer reed on an open tip mp then switch back to your
> customary setup.
>
> Ferde Grofe' (Grand Canyon Suite) was a sideman with Whiteman at the
> time and
> is credited with the arrangement of R in B which Whiteman used for
> years.
> Since Whiteman commissioned the work from Gershwin and rushed him to
> get it
> done, references hold that Gershwin orchestrated the premier
> performance at
> Aeolian Hall in 1924 and played the piano part as well. This
> happened two
> years before I was born and needless to say I wasn't there. I do
> enjoy
> though, these anecdotal incidents in music history. All this may be
> nothing
> new but I thought I'd send it along. Can you imagine the colossal
> nerve of
> that clarinet player? But, I think of that glissando as a banner,
> emblematic
> of the jazz age. Good luck on yours!
>
> Donald Longacre
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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