Klarinet Archive - Posting 000011.txt from 2000/04

From: klarANNette h satterfield <klarann@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: info and judgement-- was Reed Vibration
Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2000 08:45:04 -0500

>Jonathan Cohler wrote:
>Many orchestra players around the world, prefer to make the clarinet
into a[cut]
>dull monotonic instrument, and therefore control there setup, lip and
>blowing pressure to avoid ever reaching the "reed-hitting" point. They
tend to:
>* Play on hard reeds (which also generate a large amount of whitenoise)
>* Use mouthpieces with small openings and low Bernoulli forces * And
they never >play
above "mf"

Conductors or section leaders could be asking for this effect. (more
fools they- ;-) )

There are unartistic players of any instrument, or as one local wit
expresses it, if the
individual is technically skilled, ("a ---------------------- (fill in
the blank) playing machine".
There are singers, violinists, musicians of any and every sound making
device who do not vary timbre. These are not interesting.

There are also individuals who are orchestra players who always play FF,
whether
appropriate or not.

>As an aside, there is large contingent of people who have been misguided
>into thinking that the white noise generated by too-hard reeds generates
a
>somehow "darker" sound. This, of course, is poppycock. White noise is,
>very simply, noise -- an undesirable random, and annoying sound.

I have a student who is going through this attitude now--the extraneous
sound seems to him to be "louder" and "richer".
I remember my resistance-junkie stage, when I believed the harder the
reed, the better the sound must be.
But *every* good comment I got from knowledgeable people was when I
thought the reed I was playing was too soft. So I learned to make
response, evenness and tonal flexibility the criteria for reed selection.

>However, if you would like to truly make the clarinet sing with a wide
>range of dynamics and a widely varied tonal pallette, the only way to do
it
>is to make use of the full range of the reeds "striking" possibilities!
>----------------------------->Jonathan Cohler >cohler@-----.net

This is the concept I aim to pass on to students. It seems a waste of the
capabilities of the instrument to do less.

David Blumberg <reedman@-----.com> writes in reply:>
>Jonathan, I highly respect your opinion, but what you wrote about the
>Orchestral Clarinetist just doesn't make sense to me. Far as I'm
concerned,
>a player who doesn't play above MF, and has noise when playing softly is

>not a good player - period! I certainly wouldn't want to hear them on a

>recording.

Unless it is appropriate to the music.

>Are you talking about Community Orchestra players?

For someone who has a great deal of information and knowledge and
ability, this comment is a Cheap Shot.
People who sneer seem insecure about their own abilities.

And in a public forum that includes community orchestra, band and all
levels of serious amateur players and musicians, I don't know why you
seem to be insulting some of the very people who are buying your
accompaniments.

Anyone can have an opinion, though some are more qualified than others.
Much of the same idea can be expressed as observation and information.
Information is useful and lasts longer.

an example...
student plays a classical passage with edgy, loud sound.
as a teacher, I can say, " I don't like your tone, it is too harsh."
or I can say, "This section sounded angry. does that fit the music? is
that what you want to
express?"

another example:
comment from musician in audience after performance, "That was a great
effect when you answered the cello solo, almost inaudible."
Very interesting, because I didn't intend to be that soft. And I played
some passages
differently after that. And I was more open to the comment because it
was intended as a compliment, and much more informative than 'you played
well'.

and:
I wondered if I was in balance, or even audible in a tune during a
Dixieland section. So I asked ahead of time for a buddy to tell me if he
could hear the clarinet in that section.
His answer, "yes, I could hear the clarinet 6ths to the trumpet."

Information. Great stuff.

annhall on the soapbox...

````````````````````````````````
Ann Satterfield
clarinetist and teacher
````````````````````````````````

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