Klarinet Archive - Posting 000485.txt from 2001/10

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Yes Virginia, there is a "softer, gentler" side to the Eb
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 10:33:15 -0400

Virginia Anderson says (in another of her well thought out and articulate posts):

Regarding the Eb clarinet and reeds)

<< The softness I find useful for playing the instrument as a serious instrument rather than as a comic or satanic figure. That is, I've used
stronger reeds for orchestra work: stuff like Mahler (keck!) and the Mexican band stuff in El Salon Mexico, in which the instrument is meant to display
its rather quirky natural acoustic properties (so that although you can make it play in tune, it doesn't quite centre in tune). So there's one sort of playing which I'd return to if I went back to orchestral repertoire.

But I want something different from the Eb for solo and ensemble work. It can make a lovely high shimmering noise, like a high violin, with the flexibility that softer reeds bring.>>

Virgina, I find your post requires me to stop and think for a moment. (Which is good, I think).

My own Eb clarinet experience is almost exclusively that of preparing myself to play Strauss, Mahler, Stravinsky, Ravel, Berlioz, Copland (love that part in El Salon Mexico) etc. in the Symphonic setting. This has colored my thinking to the point that option number 1 above, this is the ONLY response to the instrument. (Therefore my earlier appeal NOT to go to a softer reed, which will not allow some of the strident and, as you say, grotesque, effects of the Eb clarinet.

Being far more comfortable with the bass clarinet, because of my rather large hands and an affinity for the lower registers, I have never taken the time to explore the "softer" side of the Eb. Maybe I'll get that chance someday.

Thank for for your post. You jogged some thought processes which were far too rigid.

Walter
www.clarinetxpress.com

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