Klarinet Archive - Posting 000772.txt from 2001/06

From: "Jim Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] RE: Composing Problems.
Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 01:03:32 -0400

I remember a similar transcription. I don't remember the name of the piece
or the composer, and I don't know if that's out of old age -- this was in
the mid-fifties when I was in high school -- or just mental trauma from the
piece.

As you play through, the first three pages were fine. A bit tough in
places, but playable. Flip over, and page four and five were a constant run
of 16th notes, up to the last two bars on the page. There was no break. No
indications for any way to work around it. Those two pages ran almost seven
minutes. I have certainly never been able to play for seven minues w/o
breathing.

I was section leader. We had an emergency section meeting. Four firsts,
six seconds, eight thirds. (All three parts had this "noodling" with two
basic lines running through the three parts. We first discovered which of
the thirds couldn't play all of the 16ths, anyway, and changed their parts
so they played every other note as 8th notes. The rest of us marked one
beat spots, leaving out four 16ths, so that no two individuals took a breath
at the same spot. The line was never broken and none of us turned blue. <g>

Interestingly, the band director (who was a clarinet player) didn't realize
the parts were like that when he handed it out. All he had was a condensed
score. He "appreciated our initiative" in solving the problem -- without
resorting to learning the violin in a short period. <g>

Jim Hobby

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
>I came across a band clarinet part which a student brought in to her lesson
>on Monday. It was composed by an English writer who writes primarily for
>brass bands. He has become very, very successful thru`out the whole world.
>Whether it was this same person who then transcribed it for wind band I`m
>not sure, but the part is astonishingly impossible to play. 100`s of very
>fast continuous 16`s running line after line without room to breath.
<snip>

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