Klarinet Archive - Posting 000211.txt from 2009/03

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fbjacobo@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Glissando vs. portamento (was: Rhapsody in Blue)
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:37:09 -0400

Michael,
Please give us some factual documentation about your assertions of
Klezmer influence on either Gershwin or Copland. As far as I know,
neither had anything to do with Klezmer (Nor, for that matter, did
Benny Goodman, who was fully assimilated, but probably had heard
Klezmer as a kid). Saying "probably" because "you'd like to think so"
is a cop out. That's how urban legends get started. As for
"Rhapsody's" gliss (colloquially called a 'smear' by jazz players),
Go to the archives for a superb post about it by Dan Leeson. Suffice
to say that you're wrong about that.

Fred Jacobowitz

CASE CLOSED Musical Instrument Case Repair Service
Kol Haruach Klezmer Band
Ebony and Ivory Duo

You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.
~Doug Floyd

On Mar 30, 2009, at 4:38 PM, Michael Nichols wrote:

> I think what it comes down to is that Gershwin originally wrote it at
> the piano for himself to play. (You can buy a recording of the piano
> roll version with Gershwin playing and listen yourself.) So it's a
> glissando. But the practice is to play it at least partly as a
> continuous glissando (a.k.a portamento) on the clarinet.
>
> Personally, I think the terms "rip" and "smear" are a lot
> clearer. :-)
>
> The joke (I think) was to play the opening solo klezmer style (which
> is why it sounds more like klezmer in the 1924 recording, with the
> laughing effect in the clarinet). Of course, Gershwin himself makes
> reference to klezmer in the piece itself by introducing a 3+3+2
> (bulgar) rhythm, which might have been the clarinetist's inspiration
> for the joke, for all I know.
>
> I think the end of the Copland Concerto is also a reference to klezmer
> (music both Benny Goodman and Aaron Copland probably grew up listening
> to), albeit in reverse. A lot of klezmer tunes end with an upward
> smear and two quick notes making an octave skip. Copland seems to end
> prematurely with an octave skip and then throws in the smear, which
> seems like another little musical in-joke to me. At least, I'd like
> to think it is.
>
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