Klarinet Archive - Posting 000147.txt from 2011/06

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Mouthpiece Facings and Breath Span
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:42:57 -0400

That may not be a very good subject heading, but it's the best I can come up
with immediately.

I've just been reading through the June 2011 issue of The Clarinet. In the
article introduced by Jean-Marie Paul which presents Guy Deplus's comments
on Messager's Solo de concours, Mr. Deplus suggests that in a particular
place "you can take a breath, if necessary; this was more common in the 20th
century when people were using closed mouthpieces."

This intrigues me. I suppose the best person to ask what he means by this
would be Mr. Deplus himself, but I don't know how to contact him directly
nor am I confident he'd answer me. But it raises a couple of questions for
me.

(1) What is he contrasting a 20th century practice of using closed
mouthpieces to? The piece was composed and first played in the late 19th,
but since he's writing (Mr. Paul implies that these comments were written
for this article) 11 years into the 21st century, could he be comparing then
to now?

(2) Which begs the question: how have general preferences in mouthpiece
facings changed from the late 19th century through the present among players
whose playing lineage is essentially French or at least based on French
mouthpiece designs.

(3) I would have thought a closer-tipped mouthpiece would allow a longer
time between breaths. But the way the comment is worded, it sounds as though
Deplus is saying the closer tips were what caused players more commonly to
breathe in this particular spot (and presumably other ones like it). I've
often noticed that in older (pre-1950s) recordings of standard works, both
solo and orchestral repertoire, that players seem to breathe more often than
more recent players. Is this, does anyone think, a function of mouthpiece
design (closer tips vs. more open tips?) or just a change in performance
style over the decades led by a few long-winded recording artists?

Karl

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