Klarinet Archive - Posting 000258.txt from 2003/01

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] High pitch (was: [kl] Funny story of the day...)
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 10:52:56 -0500

I wrote,
>One reason I sound bad on E-flat itty-bitty clarinet is because
>I really don't enjoy high pitch. What many people hear as
>exciting brilliance, I hear as unpleasant shrillness.

Nancy Buckman wrote,
>>I like playing all the clarinets in the family, but I can't seem to
>>get past this feeling that the lower ones just aren't a challenge.
>>The parts, most often, aren't difficult and I find my mind
>>wandering.

That was certainly true of the alto clarinet parts I played in the junior
high school band, but sitting surrounded by the sound in the middle of the
band was an exciting enough experience even though I didn't have challenging
things to do; and nobody forced me to practice those parts exclusively.
Discovering I liked the instrument a lot more than the available music, I
started borrowing my mother's vocal scores early on. I preferred tenor
arias on alto clarinet. Today, as an amateur, since I don't have any gigs, I
hardly ever play music intended for the alto clarinet. Most of my alto
clarinet repertory (transposed as necessary) comes from music written for
other instruments, particularly for voice.

Allen J. Levin wrote,
>>>Get rid of the cat and your tolerance for high pitches
>>>might come back!

LOL! You understand that if I were to perceive any truth to that comment
(not that I do, mind you!--oh, no, of course not...), I would never dare to
say so in front of anybody with little gray furry pointed ears . . . very
alert little pointed ears that just swivelled in my direction....

But I think I do instinctively prefer low pitch, though not quite to the
degree of fanatacism expressed by . . . somebody with pointed ears. The
sound of a thundering big pedal rank on a pipe organ grabbed me and held my
attention even when I was a baby (says Mom); in pre-school, it bothered me
that I couldn't sing bass like my uncle (who wickedly told me that my voice
would get lower as I grew up--at age three, I believed every word, and kept
my hopes up for *years*!); and apparently when I got my first recorder soon
afterwards, I ungratefully complained because it wouldn't play lower notes.
The bass notes, along with the chance to play counterpoint, attracted me to
the piano. I've met a number of people who play tuba and other seismic winds
who tell me they naturally gravitated toward low-pitched sounds. Probably
some ancestor got scared by a cat and peed in the gene pool.

;-)
Lelia

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