Klarinet Archive - Posting 000017.txt from 2004/11

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Doubling
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 15:51:50 -0500

At 02:31 PM 11/1/2004 -0600, you wrote:
>As I recall, this thread started with someone's contention that there is
>a great controversy as to whether the saxophone and clarinet embouchures
>are identical. In my experience, there is actually no controversy here.
>The saxophone and clarinet embouchures are similar, but different in
>significant ways.

Actually, to be clear I said the following:

I have been thinking a lot about the constant debate as to whether the
saxophone embouchure is different than the clarinet embouchure. Of all the
very fine doublers I've met, some say the embouchure is different and some
say it is the same. It seems there are two schools of successful doublers
and it is hard for me to argue with either schools' results.

>Let me try, as some others have, to state my credentials to make a
>judgment in this matter. I have been a woodwind doubler for more than
>50 years. I started on the clarinet in 1949, and picked up the
>saxophone about a year later. My principal instrument through high
>school was oboe, and when I entered college I was a bassoon major, and a
>beginner on the bassoon. (That's another story.) I have also studied
>and performed extensively on the flute. I have a doctorate in woodwinds
>from Indiana University, and have played all the principal instruments
>of the woodwind family in professional situations. My principal
>clarinet teacher was Bernie Portnoy, and my attribute my knowledge of
>the saxophone to my teacher, Eugene Rousseau.

[...]

So I'll chalk you and Professor Rousseau up in the "good doubler"
"different embouchures" column.

-Adam

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