Klarinet Archive - Posting 000259.txt from 2005/01

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Rhapsody in Blue Gliss
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 08:10:34 -0500


Tony Pay wrote,
>After all, an attractive aspect of what we could call the
>'half-glissando' might be held to be that the trill and the
>subsequent run don't particularly have a jazz flavour;
>but then half way up they magically turn into something
>-- the smear -- which *does* have a jazz flavour; added
>to which the sound produced during the upper register
>smear is different from the standard clarinet sound.

And then there are those of us who must ask, "smear of what?" The answer
does not necessarily taste like jazz.

>Of course, a large part of the transition effect of any
>half-glissando lies in how the transition from run to
>glissando is managed -- I take it that anyone who has
>played it, or practised it, recognises that this 'comes off'
>sometimes better than it does at other times.

Yes, when I try it, it comes off on the bottom of my shoe. Any time I
think I'm in danger of getting full of myself, all I have to do is haul out
the Gershwin and try to practice that glissando. Instant humility.
Despite having been shown by a master exactly how to play a smooth smear,
I've never made that passage sound like anything but a herky-jerky mess,
and have been forced to conclude that this technique defines my limit. One
of the many reasons I don't dare show my mug at an audition is that I know,
in the pit of my heart, that the conductor would flop that music down on
the stand and ask me to play that damn glissando.

Lelia Loban
Instead of writing a new constitution for Iraq, why not just give them
ours? It worked for more than 200 years, it was written by some really
smart guys, and we're not using it any more.

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