Klarinet Archive - Posting 000208.txt from 2005/01

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] RE: Rhapsody in Blue Gliss
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 08:19:38 -0500

Of course the notation is by now meaningless, and I didn't mean to get into
the history either - only to point out that there's no reason why any part
of the run that's fingered must be chromatic.

Karl

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bryan Crumpler [mailto:crumpletox@-----.com]
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2005 7:36 AM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] RE: Rhapsody in Blue Gliss
>
>
> >From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
> >The notation in the part, after all, is for a diatonic scale all the way
> >up, not chromatic.
>
> The notation in the part can be ignored. According to what I've
> researched,
> the smear was used in the first performance after the clarinetist (whose
> name I forget) smeared it in a rehearsal... just as a joke. And Gershwin,
> who was conducting at the time, loved it and instructed that it be played
> that way in the premiere performance. The smear has been adopted by
> clarintists ever since. This history is exactly what I did NOT
> want to get
> into.
>
> My concern is that I can comfortably and effectively gliss the
> entire range
> of the horn (well, standard range from low E to 4th octave G) as was
> mentioned about Schifrin. It was something I figured out how to do a few
> years ago after working on the Copland.... But my current teacher claims
> glissing the entire opening passage of the Rhapsody is wrong - european
> classical thinking perhaps. So my main question is... is glissing
> the entire
> passage flat out unacceptable... or is there really a standard,
> "acceptable"
> way to do that opening passage. From the responses, I gather that what my
> teacher thinks is more a result from the fact that most clarinetists
> fingerfudge it up to a point where he/she *can* gliss comfortably
> up to the
> C. And I can understand how that has become somewhat of a standard due to
> the difficulty involved in smearing over the break, but either
> I'm blind or
> just stubborn in trying to understand why smearing the entire
> passage would
> be "unacceptable" per se.
>
> Bryan
>
> P.S.
> For those who might inquire, what I end up doing to achieve a
> smear across
> the break is loosening the embouchure, dropping the tongue, and fingering
> chromatically across the break. If your embouchure is loose enough, the
> notes won't sound articulated, but will rather run together. I do that up
> until the 4th line D and then fingersmear the rest of the way to
> the high C.
> And what you end up getting is a rather chromatic smear across the entire
> range.......... easier said than done ---- also better demonstrated than
> expained by email. But you get the idea.
>
> http://www.whosthatguy.com
>
>
>
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