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Klarinet Archive - Posting 000058.txt from 2004/11
From: guiomarks@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] Insturmentation, balance and purpose of the ensemble;
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 15:53:58 -0500
A friend who watches the flute list recently forwarded part of a discussion they were having about the difficulty of blending piccolo and E-flat clarinet. I won't quote the whole thing, but one of the flutists was of the opinion that both piccolo and e-flat clarinet need to cut back on the volume, because the piccolo tends to go sharp when played forte, and the e-flat clarinet tends to play flat. I've never tried the e-flat, so I wouldn't know ... The writer of that post also thought that less volume was called for, since the combination could easily "cut through steel."
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam Michlin <amichlin@-----.com>
Sent: Nov 2, 2004 9:53 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Insturmentation, balance and purpose of the ensemble; was, Appealing to the superficial
Ed,
A very good point. It seems more common to double the clarinet parts than
the flute parts, but even by doubling the clarinet parts and the flute
parts I often find balance to be a major problem. This could be be
attributed towards poor listening skills on the part of the brass players
(never happens!).
I also think it stems from too much exposure to recordings of wind
ensembles and orchestras where everything can be balanced after the fact.
Piccolos and Eb Clarinets never stick out in recordings! Ahh.. a perfectly
sanitized sound. Perhaps under the heading of "be careful what you wish for".
I find the large clarinet section of the symphonic band to provide for much
more balance from a compositional point of view. I also find it less
flexible from a tonal color point of view. It is an interesting tradeoff.
-Adam
At 11:36 AM 11/2/2004 -0600, Lacy, Edwin wrote:
>At the University of Evansville, and in fact at most other universities
>having wind ensembles with which I am familiar, the one-on-a-part
>concept applies generally to all the sections of the wind ensemble
>except the clarinets. That means that there will be one player per part
>in most instances, except that there will be two or three clarinets per
>part, and probably one Eb soprano, two bass clarinets, and one or more
>contra-alto and/or contrabass clarinets. In other words, our wind
>ensemble director will have a minimum of 10 players in the clarinet
>section. Sometimes he also will have two flutes per part.
>
>With these exceptions to the general rule, I think it still qualifies as
>a wind ensemble rather than a band of symphonic proportions.
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