Klarinet Archive - Posting 000050.txt from 2004/11

From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Insturmentation, balance and purpose of the ensemble; was,
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 12:46:18 -0500

David,

What you describe is what I refer to as a "Brass Band with Woodwind Obbligato".

You raise an interesting question. How many clarinet players do we need to
balance one trumpet player? My answer would be it very much varies
depending on the orchestration. It does make writing a high quality Wind
Ensemble piece extraordinarily difficult. Thank goodness for Holst,
Grainger, and R.V. Williams.

-Adam

At 01:12 PM 11/3/2004 -0400, David Dow wrote:
>Dear Adam
>
>You have made some very excellent comments, and in general I am agreement.
>However, for one trumpet at FF you would probably agree one would need about
>3 or 4 strong clarinetists...
>
>As to my own experience I have recently left a wind ensemble mainly because
>the balances are so lop sided towards the brass that it is wrong
>musicially...
>
>For example...this group has 9 trumpets, 5 trombones,
>2 eupphoniums, 5 saxes, 2 tubas, and 5 percussion..
>7 clarinets, 2 flutes 1 oboe, 3 french horns...!!!
>
>To say in the least the balances are not great so I got outta that group
>quickly. ON top of this the group is aspriing to be pro level, but with
>such weird balances it is really not even a proper miliatary band.

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