Klarinet Archive - Posting 000109.txt from 2004/02

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet quartets
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 13:06:50 -0500

This story is in two parts, one having to do with clarinet quartets, and
the second having to do with what happened at two sessions for clarinet
quartets.

We used to play string quartets on clarinets, but always in the written
key, which, of course, was never the key intended by the composer. For
example, we would do a string quartet written in C major, which we did
in that written key but because of the transpositional nature of the
mix, we were really in the wrong sounding key. But the music was
difficult enough (try the Beethoven Grosse Fugue is you want to have
heartburn), so we did not transpose. See a note, play a note was our
motto. Not all string quartets work for clarinet quartet, but a lot of
them do. Sometimes we did piano quintets and there we had to transpose.

Now for the story. Our quartet consisted of New York players and one of
them was Charlie Neidich's father who was a very good clarinet player
and the finest C transposer I ever saw. He could even play the
Beethoven quartets transposing them but nobody could keep up with him.
I played the viola parts on basset horn, Jack Kreiselman played bass and
I forget who the other clarinet player was. We always sat in a square
with a big hole in the middle because that is where the infanct Charlie
Neidich used to sit when we played at his father's house. It was on
Riverside Drive in Manhattan as I remember.

So we would start the Mozart Quartet with a Dissonance, and in 30
seconds, this little infant crawled into the middle of the square, stuck
his thumb in his mouth, and sat there unmoving. And when we stopped
playing to go over a passasge, he would start to cry and wouldn't stop
until we started playing again.

The best think about Charlie was that he like my basset horn because he
could see himself in the bell. But he also like Kreiselman's b.c.
because it had a bigger bell, but Jack never shined it so mine was
better for viewing. Knowing how Charlie turned out, we should have asked
him to play with us, but only second clarinet. He was only an infant,
of course.

The other story is that one night, during a practice session (though not
at Neidich's place), the second clarinet player's wife went into labor.
And she let out a squawk of pain. We stopped, and her husband asked,
"What happened?"

She said that she had just had a contraction. So he said, "let me know
when you get the next one," and we went back to the Waterson quartet
(which we could never play -- that damn stupid piece). Finally she
said, "They are about 15 minutes apart."

An her husband said, "We have time finish the piece," and we did and
only then did she go to the hospital The next day he called everyone to
tell them that she had a boy, but added "We could have done another
couple of quartets."

True stories. Want more? Three pizzas.
--
Dan Leeson
leeson0@-----.net

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