Klarinet Archive - Posting 000095.txt from 2008/04

From: Margaret Thornhill <clarinetstudio@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: Carinetudes
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:42:40 -0400


>
> Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:51:55 +0000 (GMT)
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: aitkenlh@-----.net
> Subject: Clarinetudes
> Message-id: <e7ceb1c31aac7.4805318b@-----.net>
>
> I'd like all of you to know of my work, by the above name, available from
> www.CalabreseBrothersMusic.com There are pieces for from 1 to 4 clarinets
> and 1 to 2 clarinets with piano (sometimes optional). Level of difficulty is
> moderate to moderately high.
>
> Hugh Aitken 201 337 7853
>

Hugh sent me his Clarinetudes recently, and they are brilliant and fun.

This is the ideal workbook for introducing 20th century music to a
fairly advanced high school, adult amateur or young college student,
building skills in reading, rhythm and intonation along the way. For
people who've been studying mostly Rose etudes, this could be the
passport to a new world.

Not as long--not as much material to master, but more complex problems
to solve than traditional etudes--they are perfect material for lessons
or for a couple clarinetists eager to have some fun together.(Plus, they
are idiomatic to the instrument and sound good.)

The etudes are quite short melodic studies of freely chromatic or atonal
melodic material. What Hugh doesn't say here is that many of the etudes
are linked: much--but not all--of the melodic material from a set of
short solo studies is then presented again in duet form, the duets in
trios, then quartets,then the solo material again with piano accompaniment.

As Maureen Hurd says in the preface:
"After mastering these etudes, the clarinetist will be able to negotiate
passages containing large intervals, no time signature, asymmetrical
meters, asymmetrical divisions of beats, metric modulations, and
changing time signatures"

I've started using these with my students and will be ordering more. The
volume is $20 and spiral bound. There's nothing else like this out there.

Margaret Thornhill

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