Klarinet Archive - Posting 000095.txt from 2005/03

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] At Tony's request
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 04:16:37 -0500

Vann Joe seems to assume Tony P. is writing for beginners, or, at least,
early learners and is at fault on that basis. I don't think he was. However,
there seems to be a general problem with the "Cambridge Companion" in
working out just who it is aimed at. Several of the articles are also so
compressed and dense that they are difficult to take in - I am thinking
particularly of those by Georgina Dobree and Jo Rees-Davies - which is a pity.
Roger S.

In message <008a01c51f6d$e8ebc8f0$941f410c@-----.org writes:
> Tony has asked me both on this list and via private email to explain what I
> find deficient in his chapter in *The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet*.
> This stems from my having labeled it gobbledegoop. I asked him if he'd like
> me to send it to him privately, but no, he wanted it publicly posted here. I
> personally would have preferred to send it to him privately, but I'm sure he
> has his motivation for wanting it here. (I bet I know what it is.)
>
> His chapter is titled "The mechanics of playing the clarinet". Such a title
> makes a promise to the readers that what follows is a How-To encapsulated
> into a single chapter, and he does address the major elements: breath,
> embouchure, tone, articulation, intonation. While there is the occasional
> brilliant observation, the reader comes away scratching his head wondering,
> "What did he say?" (For excellent instructional material, though in book
> form, I can recommend Keith Stein's *The Art of Clarinet Playing* and David
> Pino's *The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing*, and as complementary material,
> Barry Green's *The Inner Game of Music*)
>
> The problems start with his first area of explanation, "Abdomen and
> diaphragm: support". He tells us "to play on top of" the opposition of
> abdominal muscles and diaphragm. I don't know what that means, and he goes
> on to say:
>
> "The unusual part of the experience of playing on top of the
> abdomen-diaphragm opposition, and the one that I want to bring out, is that
> when you play in this way you can make a crescendo, and perhaps even more
> clearly, a diminuendo, without anything else at all happening in your
> experience."
>
> Perhaps he is right, and perhaps this is the golden grail in my playing I've
> been looking for. But I don't know what he means, "playing on top of". On
> this topic David Pino talks about constant abdominal pressure, and variable
> air speed. That I can understand. But what does "playing on top of" mean?
> Without explanation it is gobbledegoop.
>
> The next section in the article, "Mouth and tongue - sound and nuance"
> contains this paragraph:
>
> "The shape of the inside of our mouth is not often thought of as having a
> strong effect on the sound of the clarinet. But though pressure waves inside
> the mouth are not audible in themselves, they clearly have some effect on
> how the reed behaves, just like the waves in the instrument, and therefore
> they indirectly make a contribution to the sound of the clarinet. Strong
> evidence in this direction is that in special circumstances we can
> completely change the 'normal' behavior of the clarinet: simply by altering
> the position of the tongue we can glissando down from the one-thumb plus
> register key 'c' through a sixth or more. Mouth shapes control intonation in
> other parts of the instrument too, provided the reed is sufficiently
> responsive."
>
> Unfortunately, he does not give a single suggestion as to what the shape of
> the inside of the mouth should be. He does NOT mention that many students
> find the syllable Aaah useful in the chalameux, and an EEEE in altissimo. He
> suggests no syllables at all. He writes but doesn't communicate, and from
> the title I thought this was a brief "how-to". (I wonder if anyone can
> glissando from C down to E by change of tongue position alone. Perhaps if
> Tony had written what change does it, it would have been helpful. As it
> stands, it is gobbledegoop.)
>
> In his embouchure section he writes:
> "There are many different types of basic embouchure because there are many
> different types of mouthpiece [sic, singular], and it is evident that the
> strength of the reed also makes a difference. I think it is most useful to
> imagine the embouchure as controlling the reed by touching it almost exactly
> over the point where it leaves the mouthpiece facing. As we play louder or
> softer, the length of the part of the reed that moves away from the
> mouthpiece tends to change. We must compensate with our embouchure if the
> pitch is not to be affected."
>
> Huh? Since this is a how-to, some direction as to this "compensation" is
> needed.
>
> In the intonation section, there is again a lack of useful instruction, no
> discussion of changes in pitch relative to volumn, or sharp in chalameaux or
> flat in altissimo or anything else.
>
> And so it goes: words, words, words, without any of the promised how-to. It
> is gobbledegoop. He makes promises of presenting instructional material, but
> doesn't following through in offering the instruction itself. Gobbledegoop.
>
>
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>

--
....compared with it at its best, English has reached the
Alexandrian stage of formalism and decay.
----- Raymond Chandler ("Notes on English and American style")

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