Klarinet Archive - Posting 000182.txt from 2011/06

From: "Vann Turner" <vjoet@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpiece Facings and Breath Span / Manasse's Brahms
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:10:03 -0400

> There will be a number of
> people on this list old enough to have direct experience of the
> tendency over time for more open mouthpieces to become the norm.
> One has only to look at manufactures spec. charts to see this. It is of
> sufficient interest for the journal of the Clarinet and Saxophone
> Society of Great Britain to have included two articles recently on
> the subject with relation to clarinet mouthpieces.

Doesn't this beg the question whether or not the mouthpiece manufacturers
were responding to the desire of clarinetists to play on softer reeds to
allow for a greater flexibility in tone colors -- versus -- manufacturers
created more open mouthpieces, so clarinetists adopted softer reeds.

However that is answered, I fail to see how investigating facing and
frequency of breath merits elaborate experimentation. Unto what end?

Has anyone heard the harmonia mundi CD, Brahms: Sonatas op 120, nos 1 & 2,
Jon Manasse, clarinet, and Jon Nakmatsu, piano. Wow! To my ears, it sets a
new standard. Such a dialog, such expressive playing. Awesome. Reminds me
when I first heard Joshua Bell with the Cleveland orchestra under Askenazy
play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. It was as if I were truly hearing it for
the first time. That is my reaction to the Manasse playing: as if I had
never really heard it until he rendered it. Sensitive rubato, flexible tone
color. Awesome.

Best wishes!
Vann Joe Turner

_______________________________________________
Klarinet mailing list
Klarinet@-----.com
To do darn near anything to your subscription, go to:
http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com