Klarinet Archive - Posting 000729.txt from 2002/07

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Conservative Ranges, "Popular" vs. "Classical", Lobotomy
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:28:47 -0400

Hello, Klarinet List, Kelly Abraham and
Jeremy A. Schiffer,

> I would suggest keeping the alto clarinet at
> a written second ledger line C NATURAL
> or below, the bass clarinets to a written third
> ledger line E and below, the Bb soprano
> clarinets can go up to a written fourth ledger
> line G, and the Eb soprano to the F
> NATURAL above the third ledger line.

YEEEEE-esssssss!!!!!! I just LOVE getting
real answers to questions, and Kelly Abraham's
Ranges are a HUGE Help!!!! THANK YOU!!!

> Bear, if you don't want to make the piece
> limited in it's playability to ONLY the
> highest level musicians,

Some of you may or may not know that I am
deliberately writing a series of works that feature
each major orchestral instrument as: an Unaccom-
panied piece; Duos, Quartets and other Chamber
Ensembles of that instrument; Accompanied So-
natas; Konzertst@-----. In just
the last 8 years I have already produced several
such works, and am getting performances in 19
countries around the world in just 3 years of
being on these Instrument Lists.

I call this my "Cycle of Works", and I am
already working on this Cycle for the Clarinet,
for Joze Kotar, who is the Clarinet Professor
at the Music Academy in Ljubljana Slovenia.
He already has 3 completed works of mine,
that involve the Clarinet, and stacks of pages of
works in progress. But he just left for a month
of music camps and vacation, so he won't be in
E-Mail Contact until the End of August 2002.

Trust me. I have ALL kinds of people telling
me that my works, for ANY Instrument are TOO
Hard to play! This is partly because they use the
Same Kinds of harmonies that we've all been
hearing for at least 60 years in Bartok, Shostako-
vich, Prokofieff, Hindemith, etc., but people just
are used to playing Highly Chromatic Music that
is NOT in a Key Signature. (I usually change
Mode and "Key" every several beats apart.)

Plus my works are just as hard as the music of
those composers, BUT my works are still Unfam-
iliar. Once people get used to hearing them, I think
it will loosen up, but like most composers, that will
probably be long after I am dead.

Ergo, unless I am writing for a Virtuoso who
will Record the work SOON, I avoid Extreme
Ranges, since the music is hard enough, anyway.
(For example, I wrote my "Flitter Critters", [com-
ical duets for Flute and Alto Flute, which imitate
birds, bugs, bats, etc.], for a husband-wife Vir-
tuoso Flute Duo, who did a GREAT recording
of it! There I wrote High Ranges on both instru-
ments, but they were ranges Given to me by
them!)=20

Besides, how many living composers do you
know that routinely write Complex Fugues, even
Double and Triple Fugues? I've already sketched
a Triple Fugue for the 4th Movement of the new
"Sonata No. 1 for (Bb) Clarinet and Piano", which
Professor Kotar has already scheduled for perfor-
mance in October 2002, even though I've only
written into the middle of the 2nd Movement. But
during the next week I have to finish my 4th work
with a Double Fugue in it, for rehearsals and per-
formance in Early September. Deadlines, deadlines!

> your dichotomy of "Art" or "Popular" music
> is way too simplistic.

It isn't "MY" dichotomy. I think you will find
that Most Universities use this as THEIR Official
Definition, since it has been used in "Music Con-
servatories", since the Middle Ages.

> "Pop" music is that which is _written_ to appeal
> to a mass audience, often sacrificing originality
> and creativity in the process.

Yes, but the term "Pop" Music comes from the
term "Popular" Music, which comes from the Latin
word "Populus". I certainly didn't coin it. It pre-
dates your term by centuries.

Whether any of us like it or not, this IS how
most of Academia has Defined "Popular" Music
for centuries. The Public is free to define it any-
way they want, but to the Nerds, the Intellect of
the Work defines it as to being "Popular" or
"Art" Music.=20

> Even within the "Western Art Music" (or
> classical) tradition, there has been "popular"
> music, and more "scholarly" music.

I couldn't agree more! You cite Strau=DF Waltzes,
Steve Reich and John Cage. Personally I find all
3 of these to be seriously lacking in Inspiration
and Mature Compositional Skills, but then I'm an
expert. I'm not supposed to be easily satisfied.
And I also have a right to my right to choose what
I like. (These guys BORE me.)

(The irony is that I LOOK like a "trucker", who
"just stepped out of a beer commercial" according
to most of my friends. To look at me, [baseball cap,
beard, T-shirt and jeans], it is not obvious that I
Think like the most Boring of Nerds, but avoid all
drugs, alcohol and sugar, due to severe diabetes.)

Both my friends who Are, and Are Not, Music
Theory Geeks, never know what to make of some-
one, who looks like me, but goes to concerts of
Minimalist or Country/Western Music, and says,
"Could you please play those 3 Chords a few
Million more Times?!? I'm just too Dumb to get
them the first Billion Times that you played them!"

Sorry, but I may look like a Redneck, but I like
Contrapuntal Music. I know little of any Rock
Music for the last 30 years. But I do know that a
few groups, like Led Zeppelin, used a FEW spots
of Bi-Tonal and Bi-Modal Harmony in the Instru-
mental interludes of some of their longer songs.
(And that is ALL that I know about Led Zeppelin.)
That's nice, but the target audience of Rock Music
is Teenagers. All Rock Music simply seems too
juvenile for me. It's childish, so it bores me! (This
is the most Mature way I know how to say it. So,
THERE!!! Nyeh!!!)=20

> Is Jerry Kirkbride still at the U of A?

Yes, he is still the Clarinet Professor at the
University of Arizona in Tucson.

> Or is Kotar a composition professor?

No. Joze Kotar is a Clarinet Professor at the
Music Academy in Ljubljana Slovenia. He plays
in several ensembles, Woodwind Quintets and
Trios, Orchestras, and Clarinet Groups. At least
one of his groups is a Clarinet Sextet with this
scoring:=20

1 E-Flat Sopranino Clarinet,
2 or B-Flat Soprano Clarinets,
1 or E-Flat Alto Clarinet,
1 B-Flat Bass Clarinet,
1 B-Flat Contra Bass Clarinet.

But with all that I'm writing now, I won't have
time to get to actual writing until Spring 2003.
But I DO like to research things in advance,
think about them for a few months, and THEN
the writing goes Quickly! Therefore knowing
his Sextet's Scoring NOW, and Kelly Abraham's
Ranges is a HUGE Help, towards ideas for com-
posing then! Thanks a bunch! It sounds like it
could be fun!=20

. . . . Now if only someone would send me that
long overdue Lobotomy! (*pout!* *sniff!*)

Bear Woodson =20
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
=20

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