Klarinet Archive - Posting 000528.txt from 2000/01

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Bb Clarinet part for Mozart clarinet quintet?
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 19:53:39 -0500

On Sun, 16 Jan 2000 18:46:39 EST, DPhilpot@-----.com said:

> Tony: Interesting that you have heard that Muehlfeld's sound wasn't
> especially forceful. Other reports I have read, and I haven't the
> slightest idea at the moment where those reports were printed, was
> that he had such a strong sound that some listeners were offended by
> it. That would seem to be supported by the thick writing Brahms used
> in creating the piano parts for the sonatas.

Really? It would be interesting to look out both the one I half
remember and the ones you speak of.

Can you do that?

Perhaps Mike Bryant has the article in CASS to hand, and may also have
heard of your reports. (He seems to know most things....:-)

I think that the English musician was a viola player, and I remember
one phrase: he said that Muehlfeld's sound was "a joke" as far as he was
concerned. But though I never took that as a serious criticism, because
Brahms clearly liked Muehlfeld's sound enormously, I seem to remember
getting the opposite impression about the strength of sound from the one
you indicate.

Brahms's piano had a different quality from the modern instrument, of
course. And I've certainly played the sonatas with pianists who don't
make the writing sound particularly thick -- though of course bad
pianists do create problems.

> Anyway, I don't think I've communicated my point about the response
> angle: it doesn't have to do with fingers but the response from
> inside the clarinet, not the the fingering outside.

I never mentioned fingerings in my original post. It was you who
mentioned fingerings. I was talking about the tractability of the
various arpeggios in one key or the other, played on those instruments.

So when, in my response to your remarks which brought in the notion of
fingerings, I said "the F# minor fingering is more viable in precisely
the sense you indicate", I simply meant that in that passage the A
clarinet responds "more quickly and cleanly" (to use your own very good
phrase) than does the Bb, in my experience.

Obviously, you *do* finger differently on the Bb. But that wasn't the
difference I had in mind.

> It might be reed or mouthpiece response or just some characteristic of
> the instrument, but there are times when fingers do a perfect job, but
> the instrument doesn't.

Tell me about it.

Though it would be still more accurate to say that at those times, the
instrument plus the player's address to it apart from his/her fingers,
doesn't.

In fact, I would say that the problem of playing the clarinet well
(cleanly, fluently) is not primarily one of fingering, though obviously
putting your fingers down in the right place at the right time is
something of a prerequisite. It's more a question of having the notes
that need to be strong, strong; and those that need to be less strong,
less strong, in some suitable sense of the word strong -- precisely what
I maintain is easier on the A than on the Bb in this case.

> I doubt that we will be able to determine why Muehlfeld chose the Bb
> over the A, but will have to concede that he did so for some very good
> reason which made perfect sense to him.

Well, clearly he had some reason that made sense to him, otherwise he
wouldn't have done it.

I'm just humbly sharing with you that, given that Muehlfeld was clearly
an excellent player, your particular explanation of why he did it
doesn't make much sense to me on those instruments, several examples of
which I happen to have performed on.

That I don't have a good alternative explanation doesn't affect this
judgement.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... I can't remember if I'm the good twin or the evil one.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org