Klarinet Archive - Posting 000564.txt from 2000/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Stand or Sit?
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 12:51:04 -0500

On Mon, 11 Dec 2000 09:43:41 -0800 (PST), Bilwright@-----.net said:

> Donna Higgins wrote:
>
> > [my instructor] believes that playing while sitting down constricts
> > one's breathing, and so one should play standing up whenever it's
> > possible to do so.

OK, I'm prepared to have a look at this belief. If I stand up, and then
sit down (but sitting 'up', if you see what I mean), then the upper part
of my body, if I'm not very stout, isn't affected. (If I am very stout,
then my belly might rest a bit on my upper thighs -- so that's a
possible difference.)

But apart from that, all the bits and pieces that go towards blowing are
unaltered, as far as I can see. Your thighs are just at right angles to
your torso in stead of in line with your torso. No?

One might have a preference, psychological or otherwise, or a physical
condition that made one or the other more comfortable, of course. Or
you might want to rest the instrument on your knee, say -- some very
eminent players have done that.

> The obvious question is, Why do chamber ensembles (and classical
> orchestras and some bands) sit in the first place?

It's a good question. I've played the Kegelstatt Trio, and the
Bartok Contrasts, and pieces like that, standing up, which works
well. A string quartet looks musico-dramatically better sitting down, I
think, though a larger group, like the Mendelssohn Octet, does seem to
be alright. Quite often you can get more players into a smaller space
if you stand, so if you can do both, you're better off. I sometimes ask
students who prefer to sit, to stand instead, just to get them a bit
more used to it, on the grounds that you're better off if you're
flexible. I wouldn't do that, of course, if there was a very good
reason why they preferred to sit.

> I can just see one member of the clarinet section telling the
> conductor, "Maestro, I _play_ better this way."

We had a very good horn player in a chamber orchestra I played in, who
had a chronic back problem. Finally, after going through agonies, he
decided he was going to sort it out. He had Alexander lessons, and in
fact trained to be an Alexander teacher. He also changed his playing
position quite radically. And indeed, the problem went away.

Now, when he was sitting down, his new playing position wasn't a
difficulty -- he had his stand quite high, but that was fine. But then
we played a piece called 'Secret Theatre' by Birtwistle, which requires
several wind players, including the horn, to change their positions and
play standing up on a special raised platform at a particular point in
the musical argument.

So then, since he's quite tall, plus his new position, which involved
the horn being much higher, the horn stand was about two feet higher
than everyone else's. So the conductor said, but that looks completely
ridiculous. And it did. But the horn player said......

"Maestro, I _play_ better this way."

...or, at least, that was the *substance* of what he said.

There was a great argument, and in the end he put the stand on the
platform, and stood *behind* the platform. That looked ridiculous too,
though possibly marginally less ridiculous. But he refused to budge,
and relations between him and that particular conductor remain strained.

I said to the conductor afterwards, well, David, it takes all
sorts to make a world.

"NO IT DOESN'T!!!"

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

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