Klarinet Archive - Posting 000175.txt from 2003/05

From: "Heinemann, Stephen" <sjh@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] What on earth is he talking about?
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 12:53:16 -0400

> He's been told that the clarinet can sort of throw its voice
> and sound as if it's far off as well as sound as if it's coming from
> somewhere else... I guess these both mean the same thing. Perhaps one
> could call this sotto voce? Does anyone know the term he's referring
> to? He couldn't recall the descriptive name. Of course when I was
> speaking to him I didn't remember sotto voce either. But that's
> unlikely to be it, since he would know this as a general musical term,
> not one specific to clarinets Help?
>=20
When it's done on French horn, it's marked "lontano," meaning "distant." =
Like ventriloquism, it's an imitation of an effect and not the effect =
itself. I've never seen it marked for clarinet but it doesn't seem =
unreasonable due to the extreme softness of which the clarinet is =
capable. But perhaps it shows up in horn music because the horn's sound =
is usually so directional and the lontano is much less so.

Steve Heinemann
Bradley University

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