Klarinet Archive - Posting 000116.txt from 2002/11

From: CGBeale@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Lower Lip Not Folded Over Teeth (was Sharp Teeth)
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 13:26:11 -0500

Ken Shaw wrote: I'd really like to read the Weigand dissertation.

The Weigand treatise on Marcellus is available only through interlibrary loan
from the Florida State University library. They have one circulating copy
which you can locate at the FSU library web site. The library would not loan
it to me through my local public library, and I only got it through my
brother-in-law who is on the faculty of a major university and who requested
it through his library. When I discovered it is not available through
University Microfilms I called John Weigand. He told me he didn't even have
a printed copy of the treatise and that he did not make it available through
UMI because at the time he wrote the treatise Marcellus did not want the
document widely circulated. You can contact John at West Virginia
University. His e-mail address and telephone number are available at the
www.wvu.edu web site.

William Semple wrote: John Colbert...studied with Harold Wright...Colbert was
a double-lipper, but I certainly do not recall his curling his lip over his
teeth, top or bottom.

I know nothing about how John Colbert played, but I can tell you a little
about Harold Wright's use of the double lip embouchure. Many years ago, when
I was studying with Harold he suggested that I consider trying the double lip
embouchure. He described how he formed his embouchure. I distinctly
remember him saying that he covered (folded over) the edge of his upper teeth
with only a very small amount of his upper lip and that he covered the edge
of his lower teeth with considerably more of his lower lip. In 1969 Harold
gave a talk on the double lip embouchure at the International Clarinet Clinic
in Denver. This morning I've reread portions of a transcript of that talk
which confirms my memory.

Ken Shaw wrote: Robert Marcellus was a special case, too. He was diabetic,
which produces many health problems.

I suspect Marcellus had already formed his embouchure by the time he
discovered he had diabetes in 1949/1950. He began studying with Bonade in
1944 and by 1950 had already played in the National Symphony and the Air
Force Band.

Ken Shaw wrote: I once worked for a couple months on strengthening my (double
lip) embouchure so I could support the mouthpiece with my lower lip outside
my teeth....I took it to Kalmen Opperman for a lesson. He listened for 5
seconds and told me to stop. He said the tone produced by an "outside the
lips" embouchure lacked center and resonance and was too unstable to be
reliable.

In my earlier message, I deliberately cited Portnoy and Marcellus as examples
of clarinetists who used an embouchure where they did not fold the lower lip
over their lower teeth. I personally don't think either produced a tone that
lacked center and resonance.

In the November - December 1988 issue of The Clarinet Marcellus said:

"During my Cleveland career I had tried the double lip embouchure during the
course of two or three seasons, not continuously, but for periods of several
months at a time. I finally realized that it was possible to obtain the
salutary effects of both embouchures -- the shape of sound and freedom of
wind that one gets with a double lip, plus the larger sound, I feel, one can
obtain with a single lip -- by placing the teeth on the mouthpiece, but by
using the muscles of the upper lip in a manner similar to their use in the
double embouchure."

Ever since reading that quote I've wondered if Marcellus continued not to
fold his lower lip over his lower teeth while folding his upper lip over his
upper teeth when he experimented with the double lip embouchure. Maybe Greg
Smith or another Marcellus student has the answer to that question.

Clarence Beale

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