Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2002/09

From: "Daniluk, Bill" <bdaniluk@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] FW: [kl] Too Loud
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 09:17:21 -0400

When I read this message, I recalled a passage from Berlioz on the Tuba
Mirum from his Requiem - I'm not sure if this is the one, but it was
something like:

"My performers were divided in a number of groups at some distance =
from
each other. This is necessary for the four orchestras of brass =
instruments
which I have used in the Tuba mirum, and which must each be placed at =
one
corner of the large mass of singers and players. At the point where =
they
make their entry, at the start of the Tuba mirum which follows the Dies =
irae
without a break, the tempo broadens to half its previous speed. All the
brass instruments enter in the new tempo, first all together, then in
dialogue with each other in successive entries each a third higher than =
the
previous one. It is therefore of the utmost importance to indicate =
clearly
the four beats of the bar at the moment when they come in. Without =
that,
this awesome musical cataclysm, so carefully prepared, where =
exceptional and
tremendous means are used in proportions and combinations never =
attempted
before or since, this picture of the Last Judgement, which will, I =
hope,
live on as a great landmark in our art - all this is in danger of =
resulting
in an enormous and dreadful cacophony...."

@-----. All rights of =
reproduction
reserved

This may be a special case, but I find it hard to believe that modern
orchestral practice is any louder than this (1836, if my dates are =
correct).
Bill Daniluk

-----Original Message-----
From: MVinquist@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] Too Loud

...

The article is over the top, but I think it makes a good point. I quit=20
playing in bands because everyone was blasting. Greg Smith has said he =
wears

earplugs in Chicago. I now play more recorder than clarinet, because =
the=20
music is human-scale.=20

W.
No one would argue that Mahler should be small-scale, but I wonder what =

Mahler expected to hear...etc

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