Klarinet Archive - Posting 000461.txt from 2003/06

From: "Resurgere Jones" <resurgereweb@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] High Clarinet, Low Clarinet ?
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 15:07:40 -0400

It might be helpful here to distinguish between those who make their living
playing and those, like me, who play seriously and usually get paid to do
it, but who don't make their living at it. There's a lot of us out there,
and in that latter category don't forget all the music educators out there
who "do music" full-time but aren't touring artists or full-time with an
orchestra. These make up many of my peers in the situations I play in.

If you're in that elite first category, you probably own or have access to
any clarinet you need to play a job, and should be expected to be capable of
playing it. However, even in this world it's expected that some are better
than others on certain horns. Seems like I've heard that the usual practice
is that the principal stays on Bb/A and rarely if ever switches off, the
second is usually on Bb/A and often gets the Eb parts, and the third player
is the one who's first to go on bass and will go on Bb/A as needed. However,
I'm sure the practices are all over the map, and a full-time professional
could answer that question better than I.

In the kind of jobs I play, first of all they have a budget as to how many
players they can hire (usually a tight budget) and the more instruments you
can play, the better your chances of getting hired for that gig are. Usually
it's something like "I've got a job coming up where I need this, this and
this, do you have all those?" and if the answer's "yes" you're definitely
in, and if not the contractor may say "Okay, I can get the other guy to do
it or cover it with cues, go ahead and play the parts you have" or he may
keep calling until he has his book covered perfectly.

In my opinion, if you play well enough to work these kinds of jobs you
should not be embarrassed about not owning every instrument under the sun.
There are just too many of them and they cost too much money, at least until
you start getting a steady stream of jobs. For example, in 3-4 years of
playing a lot of these kinds of jobs, I've never been asked about Eb
clarinet. Eb comes up more in subscription-series type orchestras, be they
community or full-time professional. I'm kind of in "waiting for someone to
die" mode vis-a-vis my local orchestra, and until I need one, I'm not buying
an Eefer. On the other hand, I recently told my contractor that I bought a
bass clarinet and was working on learning it, and he was very happy about
that and told me that he had jobs from time to time that needed it. I didn't
buy a bass clarinet until I started to see some jobs coming in.

To directly address your last question, yes -- good players should park
their egos and divide up parts based on who can do the best job on them, who
has more experience on a given horn, or sometimes just to divide the load.
Sometimes egos get in the way, but that's the way it should be. I think for
those who have come up through school bands and orchestras, there is
sometimes a stigma associated with playing lower parts, but of course they
are all equally important.

>From: Elgenubi@-----.com
>Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: [kl] High Clarinet, Low Clarinet ?
>Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 22:50:07 EDT
>
>In the professional world, does everyone play bass clarinet and/or Eb
>clarinet when required?
>
>I asked this question a few weeks ago and I believe no one answered except
>for Resergere, I think, who commented that people certainly have
>preferences. I
>thought to ask again....
>
>Below is the text of my original note which included slightly more
>background:
>
><Dan Leeson, in discussing other things, made this reference: "For those
>unfamiliar with the history involved, horn players of the 18 and 19th
>centuries
>normally specialized in low horn or high horn parts."
>
>This reminded me that recently a young horn player in my band referred to
>high horn and low horn players that she knew. In the clarinet world we
>certainly
>have people who may prefer to play bass or prefer to play Eb soprano. When
>you are a professional, are you expected to be equally proficient on these
>high
>and low clarinets? When there is a need for doubling on one of these other
>clarinets, do good players negotiate with each other to decide who gets
>which
>part?>
>
>Wayne Thompson
>
>
>
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