Klarinet Archive - Posting 000535.txt from 2000/12

From: "Don Yungkurth" <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Brymer - "From Where I Sit"
Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 23:11:09 -0500

A few weeks ago I stated, in response to a question from Tony Pay, that the
first reference I was aware of to lowering the pitch of a clarinet with
string or rope, was in a book by Jack Brymer. I've since borrowed Brymer's
book, "From Where I Sit", and must report that I cannot find the expected
reference in this book.

I still associate the anecdote with Brymer, but cannot prove it.

Brymer does report an interesting pitch adjustment story in which, at the
age of 12, he modified an old high pitch "A" clarinet into a servicable low
pitch Bb instrument by removing 3/16th of an inch from the top joint on a
lathe at school and then adjusting the then sharp throat tones by filling
the sides of the tone holes with Plasticene, so that they became flatter, if
fuzzier. He then used this as his Bb instrument for 10 years!

In 1937 he traded this instrument and a few others, plus 19 pounds sterling,
for a pair of Boosey and Hawkes '1010' clarinets, which he used until 1963!
The full price for the pair would have been 40 pounds at that time.

Another story in this book has been referred to on this list a number of
times - that of Richard Muhlfeld playing with vibrato and using both the A
and Bb instruments in the Brahms quintet. Here is what Brymer said:

***********************************************

". . . . the music was good, too, and so were the stories of old Pierre Tas.
One of these was extremely revealing, for he had played several times as a
deputy with the Joachim Quartet, the players who had presented to the world
all the finest chamber works of Brahms and had done so in the presence of
the composer himself. The fascination for me in his description of these
occasions was his opinion of the great clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, the
player who inspired Brahms to write all his latest and finest works. 'He had
a fiery technique, but used both A and B flat clarinets in the middle
section of the quintet.' This was remarkable enough, but 'he had a rich,
full sound and a very expressive vibrato'. This took my breath away, because
although I had been playing with a vocalized vibrato ever since I could
remember, this was, at the time, regarded as rather forward-looking to say
the least."

Don Yungkurth (clarinet@-----.net)

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