Klarinet Archive - Posting 000955.txt from 2000/09

From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Silly things with Clarinets
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 16:52:29 -0400

Marcia S. Bundi posted:
<<<I've played pieces that used these techniques, and actually, enjoyed them
a great deal. Doing strange things with your instrument can make you feel
mighty funny, but the music itself was a hoot. It was fun to play, and I
liked *listening* to it, too.

For what it's worth, the mouthpiece was in "Grand Serenade for an Awful
Lot of Winds and Percussion" by Peter Schickele . . . .>>>

Sure -- all of these techniques have been used for great musical effect . .
. elsewhere. The champagne glasses wasn't this composer's original idea;
his (bad) piece essentially copied the effect from Schwanter's "And the
Moutnains Rising Nowhere" which I consider terrific.

The key-clicking has uses. The composer suggesting that I remove some of
the cork bumpers from my instrument to make it click louder was perhaps not
a smart idea. Ditto with actually hitting the instrument with a stick. (I
ended up bringing in my tenor saxophone -- er, the basso profundo key
clickophone -- and a wood block; we were both happy).

I have played the Schickele, too. It is a joke, and a funny one indeed. In
the piece I referred to, though, we were supposed to be whales of some sort.
It was supposed to be a terribly serious piece about humankind's
exploitation of water-borne sentient beings. Mouthpiece use aside, it
wasn't a very successful work.

kjf

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