Klarinet Archive - Posting 000216.txt from 2007/12

From: "Jenny Connors" <jenny@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Legato Finger Motion
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 13:47:54 -0500

Hi Ken,

Me! I'm working on it, and think about it all the time. (My teacher =
studied
some with Marcellus.) =20

I would like to add that it's not just the recording studio that one =
might
hear the popping (among other sounds, like the intake of breath or =
airyness
at the end of a diminuendo), it's in a pit, or any other place the =
clarinet
will be miked. For my teacher, his point is not so much that it is a =
better
"technique" but that it is less of a distraction for the listener. =
Granted,
most (laymen) listeners won't hear it, even when it's pointed out, but =
for
those of us who listen to clarinetists more on recordings that in a live
setting, it really does make a difference. Personally, I think it adds
musicality to what I'm playing (for whatever that's worth!).

~Jenny
Happy New Year!

-----Original Message-----
From: K S [mailto:krsmav@-----.com]=20
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 11:29 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Legato Finger Motion

A couple of months ago, I had an epiphany while studying the Gunlogson
treatise on Stanley Hasty
<http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-11132006-155903/unrestricted=
/EG
_Treatise.pdf>.
I was won over by Hasty's ideas on legato finger motion, which I had =
let
pass by when I read about them from Bonade, Marcellus and Portnoy.

At treatise pp. 124-127, Hasty describes how open holes on the clarinet =
make
a true legato possible, in a way that it's not possible on the oboe with
plateau keys. You close or open a hole slowly, without a "pop." You do
this by balancing muscle tension in your fingers. You feel as if your
finger motion continues down into the wood. When you raises a finger, =
it
feels as if it comes out of the wood and continues up, binding =
consecutive
notes together as if you were singing. You "squash" into it, as if your
fingers were "moving in heavy oil."

Hasty said that Ralph McLane did this "to the nth degree," making a =
legato
"like liquid." When I listen to Larry Guy's fabulous McLane and Bonade
excerpt CDs, I now hear their wonderful legato as well as their perfect
technique, tone and phrasing.

Contrast this with the otherwise amazing playing by Venancio =
Rius-Mart=ED in
his performance of the Lovreglio Fantasia da Concerto.
Go to <http://www.clarinetus.com/eng/index.htm> and click on Recordings =
and
then on the Lovreglio. I hear (and am bothered by) the constant clicks =
and
pops as his fingers slap down.

Listen again to Marcellus's Mozart Concerto. There's not a single =
finger
pop as he moves from note to note.

I also hear this in the performances by the great violinists.
Heifetz, Stern, Kreisler -- they all bind their legato from note to =
note.
In fact, they often slide from one note to the next with the same =
finger,
and when they put down a different finger, they make, not a smear, but a
liaison.

I now think that this is one of the differences between clarinet players =
I
like and don't like. I'm working on my scales in thirds all over again, =
to
make the intervals "liquid" as well as clean.
Who else has thought about this or is working on it?

Ken Shaw

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