Klarinet Archive - Posting 000183.txt from 2000/04

From: "J. Michael Norsworthy" <mnorswor@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: Mandat
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 19:54:24 -0400

Actually Dave... he's speaking about Eric Mandat's "Folk Songs". The 4th
movement of the piece calls for the flute sound you're describing. Ideas
that I have, having studied with Eric for 2 years myself are...

To produce the sound, I have to place a large portion of my lower lip over
the hole. (top of the upper joint) I also really relax my lower lip a lot,
almost making a cushion out of it. Move the clarinet around and try blowing
diagonally into the hole at various angles until you hear the beginning of a
sound. After this, REMEMBER WHAT ANGLE YOU WERE AT!!! It's very difficult
to find this so you don't want to have to do it twice. It requires a large
amount of air to maintain this "flute-like" sound, so one should concentrate
the air stream as much as possible to preserve air in the lungs.

The multiphonics...

There's a great book by Ron Caravan that takes you through the beginnings of
these things. (Someone help with the title or where to get it?!) Once
you're past the beginning stages though, I recommend getting Phil Rehfeldt's
"New Directions for Clarinet" or E. Michael Richards' "The Clarinet of the
21st Century" and just going through the various notated fingerings and
pitches, trying to get as close as possible to what's notated.

With multiphonics, it's usually customary that there will be changes in one
or more of the following areas, depending on the multiphonic desired:

Air speed/pressure
Shape of the embochure
Tightness/looseness of the embochure
Positioning of the toungue in the mouth
Angle of the instrument
Position of the mouthpiece in your mouth (push in or pull out)

And of course there's many more things that come into play with their unique
characteristics to the player. Also, some multiphonics work much better at
certain dynamics and not at others. (this is a common problem)

Hope this helps and good luck!

All the best,
J. Michael Norsworthy
E-mail: mnorswor@-----.net OR
jnorsworthy@-----.edu
Internet: http://www.msu.edu/~norswort

> Thanks for all the advice about circular breathing. Didn't know glass
> blowers used the same principle.
> I have a couple of other questions. There are two more movements
> in the Eric
> Mandat piece which Michael would like to learn (not for the
> competition, but
> just so). In one of them, one must sing a particular note and play other
> notes simultaneously. Anybody know how to practice that?
> The other one asks you to remove the mouthpiece and then blow over the
> barrel kind of like one plays the flute and you produce a flute sound. I
> know it can be done because I heard Eric Mandat play his piece live at a
> clarinet fest one year. It was wonderful to hear. We also have his CD.
> Anybody have ideas on how to work on that?
> Thanks again,
> Cindy
>
>
> ----------------------------
>
> If you are speaking about Mandat 5 Preludes (I think you are)

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