Klarinet Archive - Posting 000544.txt from 2001/10

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] "successful faking"
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 06:57:53 -0400

Stan Geidel says,

> A few comments... first off, professionals work their tails off to play
all
> those tough passages, and yes, this may be done with great difficulty,
but
> the real pros actually play all that stuff, and take great pride in doing
> so. That's part of being a professional - snip> Stan Geidel

Yes, I agree.
In my original post, I was emphasising that for the plain Boehm system, we
clarinettists have to cope,
due to 'inadequate' (not bad) design with 'false', (not alternate)
fingerings.
The Gordon Jacob Sextet has 8 bars of B to C# trill. There just <isn`t> a
fingering of any sort for this trill, outside of the full boehm, due to
insufficient keywork (on the normal boehm) to make this trill work
'perfectly'. So we 'invent' one, one which works for our own clarinet and
context. I left my right hand middle finger down for the whole trill, I
didn`t utter a word, and no one noticed that in reality the C# was
hopelessly flat. But it all worked fine. I.e. "the quickness of the trill
deceived the ear".

Similarly, the opening of Daphnis & Chloe`s forty nine 32nd`s is very
difficult, (1st clarinet) but made perfect by the addition of left hand
pinky permanently placed on left hand Db (clarinet register). It makes
G,F,and Eb quite poor notes, but at speed no one notices. It is a 'fake'
fingering, not an alternate one. I think we all understand this difference -
alternate fingerings must have good intonation - that`s why we use them.

Please note that I`m not suggesting that bluffing, i.e. inadequate technique
will suffice in these difficult passages. I think one or two have
misunderstood what my theme is, due to seeing later posts first. I hope this
clarifies.

Richard Bush`s eloquent phrase, "Having a bag of tricks does not necessarily
make one a faker" sums it up.

Best,

Tony W.

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