Klarinet Archive - Posting 000268.txt from 2003/07

From: "Thiel, Mark" <mark.thiel@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Respiro and the bass clarinet
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 09:41:41 -0400

Yes, I really couldn't pin down the tessitura of the solos. I guess those
of us that don't have perfect pitch should always carry a pitch reference.
No need to be obsessive about it -- a strobotuner is not really necessary; a
single tuning fork thrust among the pens in one's pocket protector should
suffice. If I had been properly equipped I could have whacked the tuning
fork against the seat in front of me, hummed a few reference notes and
figured out exactly what notes Mr. Surman was playing. -- And I still
wouldn't be as annoying as some people who go to movie theaters.

It was partly his tone that suggested contra to me and perhaps made it seem
lower than it actually was. Hard to describe, I guess I might say that it
was a predominately beating-reed sort of sound, but that's a pretty stupid
description because a beating reed is how you make sound on _any_ clarinet.

When _Respiro_ hits the video stores I'll be trying to play along on my bass
clarinet (annoying only my wife instead of a whole theater).

Mark Thiel

Anna wrote:
>As for the solos' having been bass or contra, I wasn't sure; the low
>notes sounded so very low, but the high notes sounded quite
>appropriate to the bass clarinet's range, and I couldn't hear any
>splicing of two instruments. My husband has a much better ear than I
>do and said the solos were mostly in C and G minor, both of which lie
>quite nicely on a low-C bass. So we decided that it must have been a
>bass and not a contra. If anyone has information to the contrary, I am
>glad to hear it.

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