Klarinet Archive - Posting 000306.txt from 2004/09

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Heckelphone
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 14:28:38 -0400

In at least three different works in which I participated, a
Heckelphone was employed. They are Strauss' Salome, Elektra, and
Alpine Symphony, though I am not 100% sure of Salome. My friend,
the late Josef Marx of New York, played Heckelphone all over the
east coast. It is an instrument with a weird sound and, in the
case of Elektra, its use is always a precursor of death and
destruction to come. Elektra's brother, Orestes, who has come to
kill his stepfather and murder his mother, is introduced by the
Heckelphone. In Salome (I think), at the moment that John the
Baptist is decapitated and his head lifted on a silver platter
onto the stage from a cistern (lots of funny stories about that
one), I think the Heckelphone is used. In the Alpine symphony, I
really can't say because I fell asleep right after we started
playing it, and did not wake up for three days.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

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