Klarinet Archive - Posting 000060.txt from 2000/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] What is it? (Masochism)
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 19:07:28 -0500

On Tue, 31 Oct 2000 20:57:57 EST, ShawThings@-----.com said:

> In a message dated 1/11/00 7:04:38 AM AUS Eastern Daylight Time,
> Tony@-----.uk writes:
>
> > Note, *having to*, not *choosing to*.
>
> > But, not to be left out, I'm dangling a chicken's guts down this
> > instrument I've just got, in order to flatten it -- it's the right
> > period, but the wrong pitch -- and filling up some tone-holes with
> > clotted blood....it all helps....
> >
> > We're starting rehearsals the day after tomorrow, you see. But
> > I'd much rather go to that orgy round the corner....
> >
> > Clue: this instrument is only in one movement...
>
> In previous e-mails Allen Levin suggested Berlioz; Leila Loban
> narrowed it down to the "witches sabbath" part from his "Symphonie
> Fantastique".

Quite right.

By the way, Lelia, I had a go at finding 'Fantastique' by Marvin Kaye,
but it doesn't even show up as having gone out of print here -- no
record of it whatever at Blackwells or Waterstones.

I'll try Bibliofind, etc.

[snip]

> "Right period, wrong pitch" suggests that either Tony has a higher
> pitch 19th century Eb clarinet which needs to be flattened to Eb or
> even D. Playing a sopranino clarinet is difficult enough; I imagine
> that playing a period instrument unnaturally tuned would be
> horrendously difficult.

Unfortunately almost every original instrument is 'unnaturally tuned',
in the sense that we don't really know what pitch it was designed to
play at.

The way we talk about it is, will it go at 435? -- or 438?

In this concert, we'd agreed to play at 435 because the bassoons have
recently found a good pair of instruments that won't go higher.

This Eb clarinet, a Simiot of around Berlioz's time, was designed to go
quite a lot higher, I think. It's missing a mouthpiece, and a more
modern style mouthpiece that isn't really what would have been used in
the period puts it at around 438. Hence the dangling of a cord through
the instrument, and filling in some holes.

But that bit of it was OK. The intonation of an instrument with such a
cord through it is really surprisingly good, and the sound is changed
only a little. And I'm sure that in those days people had to do that
sort of thing if they travelled and played with different orchestras,
or different organs.

So what finally went wrong today, apart from what I was having to
extemporise with the faulty keywork (oversized sleeves, worn threads,
pads not closing properly) was that a crack opened in the top joint that
meant that the instrument wouldn't have been reliable enough on tour to
Spain and Germany. Plus that the keywork needed more time for me to get
used to -- everything is very close together, and it was too easy to
touch the wrong key by mistake, and stop the right note (or indeed,
*anything*) from coming out.

Fortunately my good friend Lesley Schatzberger was willing to help out,
and is sending her own instrument by courier to London from York
tomorrow. I'll have an hour with that before the rehearsal.

She says it knows the piece. I'll let you know!

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

... Insanity doesn't just run in my family; it practically gallops

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