Klarinet Archive - Posting 000878.txt from 2000/02

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Boehm on height of fingers
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 17:52:05 -0500

On Fri, 11 Feb 2000 05:32:34 -0500, agalper@-----.com said:

> This is taken from a book about Boehm, the inventor of the Boehm flute.

Right. No offence intended to you, Avrahm, in what follows.

> The method of practicing:
>
> When the embouchure has become good and certain, one should study the
> scales and chords in all keys, for this is the foundation of all
> passages.

Yes.

> As it has been said, it is only a waste of time to repeat anything
> that can already be played without stumbling.

Well, I don't know about that. It depends who you're talking to (as
always in this sort of thing.) If Boehm means that it's silly to go on
playing the things that you can quite obviously already play when you
might be practising the things you quite obviously can't, then I agree.

On the other hand, you might very well come up with new ways of playing
a particular passage by repeating it. And that's a very worthwhile
thing to do from a musical point of view.

> Difficult fingering on the contrary must be gone over very slowly at
> first so that in the slurred tone-combinations no interpolated notes
> are audible and no lack of purity is noticeable.

Yes.

> To secure this smoothness, there must be no perceptible cramping
> tension of the muscles in either the hand or arm; this cramping
> results from an entirely unnecessary expenditure of force.

Yes, could be.

> Many players have the habit of raising the fingers not only too high,

Perhaps.

> but also to unequal heights, whereby complicated finger movements
> become unecessary difficult; since when several fingers are closed at
> the same time, if one finger must move further than another, it is
> perfectly evident that they cannot reach the end at the same time.

This is of course, complete bullshit. (Please realise that you need not
think that because someone is a famous person, they necessarily talk
sense.)

> The fingers therefore should be held at equal heights, and not higher
> than is necessary on the instrument.

Again, bullshit. He's writing off the top of his head, without looking
at what good players necessarily do.

> To secure this, and especially as most players do not realize how high
> they have raised their fingers, I advise my pupils, when practicing
> the scales, to stand before a mirror.

Good. (IMO).

> They are then in the position to see not only the finger movements and
> the whole manner of holding the instrument, but also to detect many
> bad habits such as distortion of the features and unnecessary
> movements of head, arms and body.

That's fine. The judgement of what is necessary, though, may be a
delicate one. Are the hand movements of an expressive actor,
*necessary*?

Boehm, like many before him, falls here at least twice into the trap of
dogmatic assertion to what is inevitably a very heterogeneous audience,
many of whom may not benefit from what he says.

I'd just like to say again on this list, that, here, I'm much more
interested in reasoned argument, and suggestions of possibilities, than
I am interested in the famous recorded words of marcelli, some of whom
might indeed not have wanted to be so represented, if they'd thought
about it a bit more deeply.

It's probably worth pointing out that I'm using the lower case term
'marcellus' and its plural 'marcelli' in a somewhat technical sense.

The term 'marcellus', when used by me, is not in general to be taken to
refer to the justly famous American clarinettist Robert Marcellus.
Rather, it is a generic term for something like, 'unquestioned
authority', or 'best clarinet player in the world', or any of the other
equivalently vomit-inducing, lipserving, unquestioning. kowtowing stuff
we sometimes see here.

The superficial similarity between the words 'Marcellus' and 'marcellus'
is intended to highlight the difference between the profound artistry of
the one and the hollow concept of the other.

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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