Klarinet Archive - Posting 000759.txt from 2002/07

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Conservative Clarinet Ranges: How do these look?
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 03:23:14 -0400

Hello again, Klarinet List.

Based on the Conservative Suggestions of you
guys, and the Bass Clarinet List, how do these
Written Ranges look? Are these playable by
MOST players (as in College-Level Students)
and NOT just Super-Virtuosi? (I am using the
Scoring that Professor Joze Kotar says their
Clarinet Sextet uses.)

1 E-Flat Sopranino Clarinet:
Small E (below Middle C)
to F3 (3 ledger lines above the Treble Clef).

2 or B-Flat Soprano Clarinets:
Small E (below Middle C)
to F3 (3 ledger lines above the Treble Clef).

1 or E-Flat Alto Clarinet:
Small E (below Middle C)
to C3 (2 ledger lines above the Treble Clef).

1 B-Flat Bass Clarinet:
Small E (below Middle C)
to D3 (2 ledger lines above the Treble Clef).

1 B-Flat Contra Bass Clarinet:
Small E (below Middle C)
to C3 (2 ledger lines above the Treble Clef).

My music is hard enough to play, due to the
Chromaticism and Counterpoint. (A few of you
have some of my Scores or CD's, and can con-
firm this.)

Therefore I'd rather avoid Extreme Ranges. In
most of my Chamber Works I have complex
Canons, and often have an entire Movement that
is either a Fugue, Double or Triple Fugue. (I am
planning a Triple Fugue for the Fourth Movement
of the new Sonata for [Bb] Clarinet and Piano,
which Professor Kotar has already scheduled for
performance in Ljubljana Slovenia in October
2002.)

Stravinsky needed to prove a point with Ex-
treme Ranges for the sake of New Orchestration
Standards and Unique Timbres, but I don't need
to do that. Instead I drive people crazy with un-
expected Chromaticism and Complex Counter-
point. Once they actually hear my works, they
say it makes sense. (I sometimes make a Syn-
thesizer Recording from my Finale Scores, so
that people can hear them, before Live Musicians
try to play them. If they already like Hindemith,
Prokofieff and those guys, then they usually like
my music, but they just need to get familiar with
hearing my works.)

They just aren't used to playing the kinds of
harmonies found in many Mid-20th Century
Masters like Hindemith, Bartok, William Schuman,
Persichetti, etc., as much as I think they should be.
Most people don't have Terminal Music Theory
Geek Syndrome as severely as I do.

(I fail to see the interest in playing Diatonic
Major Scale Music, since it stopped being Inno-
vative 400 years ago, according to every History
Book that I know. At this rate, I can think of a
few Billion People who will never win their Buck-
Toothed, Coke-Bottle-Thick-Glasses, Pencil-
Necked Geek Awards, because they're too busy
having a Real Life. See what they're missing?!?!)

Hearing and Playing my kind of Chromaticism
is 2 very different things! Therefore I want to be
sure that when I finally get the time to write a
Clarinet Sextet, the Ranges will not be an addi-
tional problem.

The more I hear of Bass Clarinet playing, the
more I love the timbre, as much as I do the Soprano
Clarinets. I expect that I will really enjoy getting to
work with Alto and Contra Bass Clarinets for the
first time, but it likely won't be until Spring 2003.
(It works best for me to research and solve these
kinds of problems, a few months ahead of the
actual writing, so that it can go quickly then.)

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

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