Klarinet Archive - Posting 000843.txt from 2000/02

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Apt Dweller
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2000 22:58:38 -0500

on 2/22/00 9:22 PM, SLewis7700@-----.com wrote (but not quite in this
order):

>One can always play loud, but how many
>people can control the whole range of the clarinet playing soft?

Actually on clarinet I think it's pretty easy to play softly. Leon
Russianoff would tell us that the hardest thing to do on the clarinet is
to play loudly with good sound quality. I think he was right - it's easy
to do it ugly, but not well.

>My community
>bands have a miserable time playing soft, and they should learn to do this.

Most amateur musicians have trouble doing this with the proper control.
Especially brasses, and beware the pitch of the flutes!

>When I was in a hotel on business, I would practice as quietly as I could.
>It's good practice playing that way.

It's good practice if you get the balance of air and embouchure right.
Otherwise you end up with a pinched tone quality and sharpness of pitch.
But done well, it's a beautiful quality on the clarinet - see Beethoven
Sym #4 or Pines of Rome (to name just two).

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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