Klarinet Archive - Posting 000128.txt from 2000/12

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Mahler 4
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2000 21:38:18 -0500

Neithamer said:

<< For a "talk & squawk" concert
> we were doing excerpts of the Tchaikovsky, and the variation movement was
> cut. When I showed up at the concert, it had been reinstated. Thank
> goodness for years of practicing that transposition! >>

Walter said:
>
> You can't show up at EVERY rehearsal with your Bb, A, Eb, D, C, Bb Bass
and A
> bass. >>

Dan Leeson said something about being paid to show up with the right
instruments.........

My reply:

My original point was about the necessity of knowing how to transpose.

David N. related an incident about a situation where suddenly he was
presented a C part unexpectedly, and he was glad that he had retained the
ability to transpose on sight.

My comment should have said "You can't possible bring every clarinet possible
to a rehearsal or concert JUST in case a transposition situation appears."

That was what I was trying to say.

However to continue:

Regarding the use of a Bb or A clarinet in place of a C clarinet, I AM not
going to argue with you. You have many years of scholarship on these topics,
and I respect your opinion very much.

I will say one thing. When I was playing in the Toledo Symphony and teaching
at Heidelberg College, and teaching privately, and accepting every gig I
possibly could, I was so poor, that one year I had to borrow $25 from my
father so I could buy license plates for my car.

Notwithstanding, I went out and bought the best Eb and bass clarinets I could
afford, and obtained custom mouthpieces as well. (at the expense of proper
clothing or any luxuries above shelter and food.)

No one, including John Mohler, Al Zetzer (Cleveland Orchestra), David
Shifrin, or Larry McDonald (Oberlin) ever suggested to me that I had to have
a C clarinet or a bass clarinet in A. The Toledo Symphony did not require it.
I do remember David Shifrin brining a C clarinet down for one concert, but he
transposed C parts regularly, as I assume he did in the Cleveland, Dallas and
Honolulu Symphonies.

I understand your "mission" to get the world to use the "right" clarinet. At
the time, however, I did not have the financial means AND it was never
SUGGESTED by people I learned from and that I highly respect to this day.

Now that I am out of the "music biz", I can afford many things I could not
then, and I probably will pick up a C clarinet.

I doubt that I will ever go out and buy a D clarinet, so that I can play
"Til" on the clarinet that it was written for. If I was in a major Symphony,
I would certainly consider it. But I am not, and very few people on this list
are in that performance category.

Thirdly, I am very glad you had an A bass clarinet to play on. I have only
seen one in my lifetime, and it was a rather poor specimen.

How much would it cost to have an A bass clarinet made? Are they made
anywhere, and in the same quality as the new Buffet?

I would be interested, if anyone knows, how many bass clarinetists in the
major symphonies own and regularly play A bass clarinets?

Greg Smith....if you have bothered to read this far......do you know of any?
Does Lawrie Bloom play on an A bass? Does anyone?

Walter

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