Klarinet Archive - Posting 000241.txt from 2009/02

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Brahms quintet
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:06:14 -0500

At 4:56 PM -0600 2/10/09, Michael Nichols wrote:
>On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.org> wrote:
>
>> Given the difficulties of
>> moving a mouthpiece by itself, and the obvious problems of playing a setup
>> that has been sitting unused for 20 minutes, this is the more likely
>> scenario. [Another problem besides the reed sitting unused for 20 minutes is
>> that the temperature of the air column in the tube will have reverted to
>> whatever room temperature is by that point in time, which will make the
>> pitch flatter as well.]
>
>Alright Jonathan...you've convinced me. If I ever have an occasion to
>perform this piece, I'm playing the whole thing on the A, because the
>one thing we I think can be pretty confident about with regard to
>Brahms is that he wanted his music played in tune (even going so far
>as asking Clara Schumann to retune her piano to Muhlfeld's clarinet).
>
>And I can't tolerate bad tuning, either.
>

Me too. Actually, I played it this summer with the Muir Quartet, and
the hall was kind of cool space (not normally used for concerts), so
I decided to play it all on A to avoid the intonation problems that
would have occurred with a switch to B-flat.

--
Jonathan Cohler
Artistic & General Director
International Woodwind Festival
http://iwwf.org/
cohler@-----.org

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