Klarinet Archive - Posting 000159.txt from 2000/12

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The clarinet & modern music
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 13:51:22 -0500

Stephanie,
I`m not quite sure what you mean by <contemporary works>. You mention the
Moody Blues, so I am thinking that you don`t mean late 20th century serious
clarinet music, (modern classical if you like). Anyway, read on, I hope the
following will be of some interest.
I believe that a lot of singers have difficulty in adapting from an
academically trained "classical style" to the "pop" style.
And vice versa also. It may be due to the fact that singers are actually
using their body to create the sound, which when trained in a certain
direction, then finds it tricky to adapt to other styles. Musicians, on the
other hand don`t use their bodies quite so much, as they have an instrument
to create the sound. All they do is bang it, scrape it, or blow into it. A
musician is trained (in college) to adapt to several styles as part of
his/her normal
course work. Early music, which involves a lot of ornamentation
improvisation, classical, romantic, modern etc
all have slightly different approaches for the player to pursue. The jazz
feel is also included in some colleges.
Singers do not, (<I think> - I`m no expert in the curriculum of voice
training) cover such a <wide> spectrum of study. Or perhaps I should say
<have not>. I think that modern singing teaching is now diversifying much
more that 25/30 years ago. It`s the same for all the arts these days - one
has to do <everything> to be able to survive. The reason for this is the
demands on artistes by inexperienced writers/composers which, when looked at
sensibly, are demands which 75% of the time go beyond reasonability.
Artistes <have> to <produce>, or they don`t get the job. A good example of
this is Andrew LLoyd Webber`s music and songs, which give the solo artistes
on stage <burn out>, and they have to quit to rest. Not confined to modern
times Steph. Handel and Mozart inflicted <burn out> on their soloists` also.
<They> should have known better shouldn`t they?!?!
I digress. Musicians therefore, are a little more competent in dealing with
change overs and can in fact change their sound as well as style. Jazz has
taken a sort of back seat in <pop> music since the `50`s, but pops up from
time to time. Authentic jazz musicians are booked to play the backing
tracks, - not quite so much the solo singer/artiste. In real pop music
orchestra backing, the change over style does not require the pure jazzer to
be booked. Classical musicians can cope just as easily as the pop musicians
themselves, because pop music is played without a jazz swing. Pop music
does, in fact, have a straight classical rhythmical impulse, which, when a
drum and bass backing is superimposed, disguises the classical element.
On the question of clarinets in pop, - they are hardly ever used. They used
to be, in the swing era of the `30`s & `40`s on the Sinatra and Nat Cole
records. The clarinettists` would be expected to also play saxophone. You
would expect a normal pop "orchestra" to consist of - say - flute, oboe
perhaps, sax, horns, trumpets, trombones, rhythm and strings/and or
synthesiser. In U.K. we have a pop programme late on Saturday T.V. which
uses the traditional big band line up of 5 saxes, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones,
piano guitar, bass and drums for the live pop artistes. (That makes a change
from computerised backings - ugh!) All young musicians - all "lifting the
roof off" - great sound for blues.
You can buy me a virtual beer now.
Best,
Tony W.

From: <StephanieDavis99@-----.com>
Subject: [kl] The clarinet & modern music

> I've seen Brahms, Mozart and Stravinsky's works discussed here. Perhaps
it's
> because I'm new to the Klarinet, but I've not seen any opinions of
> contemporary works discussed here and I'm very interested to hear such
> opinions. For instance, I'm a huge fan of the Moody Blues, a longtime
rock
> group who uses a full orchestra to great effect in their recordings and
> shows.
>
> Another question along the same lines: my brother is an opera singer
whose
> beautiful voice has also done some rock singing. He says it's extremely
> difficult for an opera-trained singer to adapt to rock. I wouldn't have
> imagined such a problem, but it made me wonder if classically-minded
> clarinettists have the same obstacles to overcome. For instance, would
you
> be comfortable playing in Daniel Barenboim's orchestra one day, and then
do a
> session recording for the Moody Blues the next day?
>
> Stephanie Davis

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