Klarinet Archive - Posting 000702.txt from 2000/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Opinions and metaphors
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 14:03:53 -0500

On Tue, 21 Nov 2000 13:49:32 -0500, alevin@-----.net said:

[snip]

> In the case of your Albert, I have a mental sound image of the
> improvement - and I'm comfortable with that image. But without hearing
> it, I can never be certain that I understand what you heard.

I feel I was a little unfair to you: let me try harder:-)

The sound of a clarinet can be more 'intimate', in general, than the
sounds of the trumpet or saxophone, which are more 'open', in general.

A great trumpet player may be able to achieve this intimacy, as may a
great saxophone player. A trumpet player is helped if the trumpet is
muted, because then we get a sense that the sound is more 'contained',
or 'restricted'. You *can* mute a saxophone, but it's less commonly
done.

A similar thing happened to the sound of the Albert when I put the cable
down it. The Albert blows quite 'freely', so first of all, with the
mouthpiece I had, I got a more 'trumpet-like', or 'saxophone-like'
quality; but with the cable, it was as though it was a little muted.

The quality wasn't unlike the quality of playing a German bore
instrument with a German mouthpiece. There was a sense of intimacy,
even when the sound became loud.

So, it was particularly appropriate for the Wesendonck Lieder and the
Siegfried Idyll.

Like most musicians, mostly I think in terms of qualities like
'intimacy' or 'openness', or 'aggression', or 'timidity', or
'gentleness', or.... So I resist wanting to translate those
higher-level concepts into stuff about harmonics. I find that it just
isn't useful.

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

... What do you mean, you've never heard of me?

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