Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 2002/05

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] More About Articulation
Date: Sat, 4 May 2002 07:57:20 -0400

On Sat, 4 May 2002 05:20:50 -0600 (MDT), AnneLenoir@-----.net said:

> I recently tried to describe the physical process of producing good
> articulation as best as I could. It was in response to somebody who
> did not know the basics about articulation. Then somebody else, a very
> musically enlightened individual, wrote back and informed me that
> there was much more to articulation than the actual physical process
> of "tongueing", that it had to do also with phrasing and total musical
> concepts. I have been thinking about this for a few days, and I do
> agree with that person. However, learning to physically control and
> regulate the tongue and air is a huge undertaking. A person can have
> the most brilliant ideas about phrasing, and still sound terrible by
> producing "thwuts" and "chwuts". I have heard some of the best
> examples of this at ClarinetFests and Symposiums by Doctorial
> candidates in Clarinet Performance. Many clarinetists do not
> articulate correctly, and this issue does need to be addressed by
> total concentration of learning how to keep the flow of air moving
> while striking the reed with the tongue at the same time. Bad
> "tongueing" can ruin an otherwise good musical performance.

You're right, Annie. As what you write above indicates, you need to do
both things -- namely, to understand that 'articulation' serves the
music, and so comes in different varieties; but also to be able
technically to have tongue action independent of airflow so that you can
produce those different varieties.

A couple of years ago I posted here a longish article about various
aspects of articulation, that includes elements both of what you wrote
and what Forest (I think it was him) replied. It might not be your cup
of tea :-) but just skip the 'philosophical' bits if you want; most of
them are at the beginning . (It was written like that because I was
thinking of including it in a book, and so it's a bit pompous.)

http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/1999/09/000395.txt

Tony
--
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