Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 2008/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Difficult orchestra repertory for Bb
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:49:01 -0400

Thanks for the helpful suggestions about difficult orchestra repertory
published before 1916, for Bb clarinet. The suggestion about the Berlioz
"Symphonie Fantastique" is excellent and I'm using that piece in the story
already, but maybe I'd better explain that, for this particular scene, I
need to put together a concert program in which the first clarinet player
uses *only* the clarinet in Bb. Maybe the easiest way to explain is to
quote from the rough draft. This passage is a quotation from the 1916 pages
of a fictional principal clarinet player's personal diary. "Henredon" is
Charles Henredon, the fictional manufacturer of this musician's clarinet in
Bb:

"...and we chatted a bit while he replaced the pad. I thanked Monsieur
Henredon again for doing this work on such short notice and then asked him,
when will he make me a set of clarinets in C and Eb and especially in A, to
go with my clarinet in Bb? I explained to him that I would prefer to play
his instruments exclusively, and that if I do so and show them to my
colleagues, then his business may increase as he deserves. But now I must
leave my Henredon clarinet at home most weeks.

"He asked me why. 'Because," I said, "your keywork feels unique and your
mouthpiece feels different from anyone else's, too, and requires me to make
special reeds for it. If I try to switch quickly between your clarinet and
another brand, I risk making mistakes. So much of my repertory does require
me to play clarinet in A or to change instruments that I'm unable to use
your Bb clarinet as often as I'd like, even though it's my favorite
instrument.'

"For example, as I explained to him, next weekend we play the 'Symphonie
Fantastique' of Berlioz. That means I must play clarinet in Bb for the
first movement, change to clarinet in A for the second movement, then back
to Bb clarinet for the third movement, then clarinet in C for the March to
the Scaffold, and finally clarinet in Eb for the Witches' Sabbath! Four
clarinets in one exceedingly demanding composition! Naturally I'll make my
life a little easier by taking only my well-matched set of Buffets. I'll
leave my Henredon at home, where nobody will admire it.'

"He shrugged and mumbled and equivocated as usual. He looks as if he needs
the money (those appalling trousers!) and yet I never can wheedle a
commitment out of this exasperating fellow and I do so want that matching
clarinet in A! How maddening that I offer to pay him substantial sums of
money to do his best work and yet he earns nothing from me but these
piddling sums for grease and reed cane and re-cementing a pad!"

Gary Truesdail wrote,
>>It sounds as if you are trying to find a way/reason to fire a player.>>

Nope. As they talk, the exasperating M. Henredon's replacing a loose, torn
register key pad, barely in time for the diary-writer to use this clarinet
successfully in a 1916 orchestra concert where the music requires only the
Bb clarinet. So, as you can see, I've written myself into a bit of a
corner, because that's not an easy concert to program. But that's only the
beginning of the story.

Thanks again, and I still need some suggestions....
Lelia Loban

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