Klarinet Archive - Posting 000268.txt from 2003/03

From: Kenneth Wolman <kenneth.wolman@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The amateur's dilemma
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 14:53:16 -0500

>
>There are always community bands, I guess, but that would be like being back
>in high school. I could MAYBE get to where I could compete for a community
>orchestra seat, but those are usually held by young professions, and they
>usually need the job. Hum... Maybe I'll try to resuscitate some of the
>other lapsed musicians I know and start a chamber music club.
>
>Any other ideas? What do all of you other amateurs on the list do for
>performance and ensemble playing?
>
>-Deidre

I'd be laughing but it's not all that funny. For awhile in the late 90s
when I was playing hard I thought about a local community orchestra, not
for the Bb so much as for the bass clarinet. Then I got out of practice on
everything. Maybe I can get it back again. According to UPS's tracking
facility, the ETA for the Noblet is Monday. But I didn't mention (this
time around) owning the bass, because I never had any thought of selling
it. It's an old one-joint Selmer/Bundy (both marks are on the body) and a
veteran of the Port Chester, NY High School Marching Band--the stencil is
still visible on the case. There's something about a bass clarinet...I
don't know...

Besides...in the back of my head...I kept thinking about a "market niche"
for the bass clarinet if things got or get bad enough. Work up 10 pieces,
haul the horn into the subway, and fo to various well-trafficked stations
like Columbus Circle and Times Square, then play it. It's crazy but these
are crazy times. I've seen a lot of sax players in the subway: they range
from appalling to guys who sound like Sonny Rollins (yeah, it's a
competitive business, all right). I've seen clarinetists with gifts
extending from guys who couldn't have made my school district orchestra in
Junior High School (hell, even *I* made it:-) up to a wonderful old man on
the 47th Street subway platform playing klezmer on an Albert system
instrument. I've seen flutists (or is that flautists?) and every so often
a violinist or even a Chinese guy on p'ipa. Not to mention the 1000+ Jimi
Hendrix imitators. But I've never seen anyone play a double-reed or a bass
clarinet. Maybe you can't hear an oboe over the subway noise. Bassoons
and bass clarinets?--hard to schlepp around. Still...it would be a unique
thing to play and a way to keep in practice and get paid for it
(maybe). And a plastic horn like an old Bundy would not be subject to the
ills of climate and humidity that would afflict a better instrument. Those
might wreck the player but the instrument would be like The Red Shoes and
dance on and on:-).

Ken

----------------------------
Kenneth
Wolman http://www.kenwolman.com
http://kenwolman.blogspot.com/
"If you think you're in control, try giving orders to your cat."--Anonymous

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