Klarinet Archive - Posting 000482.txt from 2003/04

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: bass clarinet notation, C clarinet weirdness
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:36:58 -0400

Hey guys and gals,

The recent postings on bass clarinet notation and C clarinets have a common
unspoken underlying thread--the great value of being able to transpose.
When I find a bass clef bass clarinet part, like the Sorcerer's Apprentice I
recently played, with the names of the notes written over each note, I have
to think, "what mental midget played this before me". Reading clefs and
transposing parts (for example, C to A, D to Eb, C to Bb or A to Bb
clarinets) are the same art and should be natural to you if you play a
woodwind that has any transposing relatives--and all woodwind players except
bassoonists fall into this category.

My logic is simple. One may unexpectedly be asked to play a part for an
instrument not immediately available. Ubder these circumstnace, one can
display a skill, or look inept. If I am handed an oboe d'amore part, I can
play it on oboe, or English horn, or for that matter on any clarinet, at
sight (assuming the technique is not too involved). And for that matter,
any horn or trumpet player can transpose orchestral parts, and a trombonist
ought to read alto, tenor or bass clef--and a bassoonist, tenor clef.

As a high school student I never understood why we had to be tied down to
the music--singers aren't, one can sing "America" starting on any tone at
all. Shouldn't a clarinettist have the same flexibility as a mere singer?
So I taught myself to read up a step, playing oboe parts at the correct
sounded pitch on Bb clarinet. Then A parts on Bb clarinet. Then alto
saxophone. From there, everything is easy. The hardest transposition, I
found and still find, is a major third down (ie, reading bassett horn parts
on an A clarinet).

Then in college my oboe teacher insisted I play my lessons on consecutive
weeks in different keys--to become flexibile without losing musicality. A C
major etude would go to B, or to Db; an A minor etude, to G# or Bb minor.
The idea was to learn the musical concept on the first key, then extend it
across to a more awkward key without losing the musicality.

Anyone can learn this Art. Sart with a simple melodious piece--say either
of the great Mozart adagios. Play it as it lies. Play it a step higher, by
reading each note individually--Write Nothing Out. Play it a step lower.
Play it a third higher or lower. Play it a fourth higher, or lower. Play
it in every key, one after another.

Then take every piece in your orchestra file, pick up the wrong clarinet,
and play the parts, quite Slowly and Correctly, at the actual sounded
pitch. It gets easy after two or three minutes. Once you can do this, once
the mind will accept that the notation is only a guide and that it is
intervals and sound that are important, any transposition will be practical.
And C clarinet parts, D clarinet parts, bass clef bass clarinet in A, all
will be easy. And you will astonish your colleagues.

One time, at a dress rehearsal with a nasty conductor in an orchestra I had
not played with previously, my oboe popped a pad as we began to rehearse the
Rossini overture to Otello--which opens with a Big Oboe Solo. I gave my
oboe to the second player and asked her to do a quick fix, and played the
Big Solo on my English horn. The conductor loved it, and the first
clarinettist was audibly astonished, and I was as good as gold with that
group for the reast of the season.

Isn't it better to learn a skill than to have to rely on copying a part out?

Robert Howe

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