 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-12-11 03:53
Played my 1:54 of our holiday concert (John Gibson's flute/clarinet arrangement of the Brahms' Hungarian Dance #3 --plus a bit of #'s 1 & 10 before the formal program started).
The program, we suffered with several clunky piano accompaniments that really highlighted the shortcomings of that instrument. Some of the arrangements were poor, but one really, really repetitive accompaniment just pounded over and over the same un-artistic phrase. The pianist couldn't change her attacks, and the sound level could only hold, fade or stop.
A couple of years ago, I witnessed an amazing performance by a U Idaho prof on a decrepit piano in a tiny public building in Hope, Idaho (that's just north and east of Beyond Hope, ID). It was a great performance because he played several of the lovely Chopin and Beethoven pieces that my wife used to play when we were newly wed.
At intermission, I told him of my envy over not being able to fill in my own harmonies by playing more than one note at the same time. His response was to tell me how much he envied my/our ability to crescendo, make real slurs and all those other things that our clarinets enable for expressive playing.
My envy may be shifting to the silver tones of our local, natural soprano. I've a new tonal concept for my upper clarion! Maybe I can make one of THOSE at a time.
Bob Phillips
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Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2006-12-11 14:21
Always glad to hear of my arrangements being played.
I think I have driven through Beyond Hope, ID. Is that somewhere near Hopelessly Hopeful, ID?
Thanks! John Gibson
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-12-11 16:10
John, G:
I'll have to look up Hopelessly Hopeful, I think its an RV park near Lake Pend O'rielle.
We played your Hungarian Dances #s 1, 3, 10. We made a simplification to a quick part on the flute line to avoid pinky finger tangles (I didn't know that even happened on flute!) and made some cuts in #1, which we didn't play up to tempo.
In all modesty, your #1 with our "tempo moderato" sounds MUCH better than my benchmark record does at "presto."
Our audiences for this Xmas/Holiday performance told us that they liked the feeling of joy of the arrangements.
Thanks.
Disclaimer, I'm a consumer of John's work at JB Linear music; my only compensation is helpful discussion and great stuff for small ensembles. I've enjoyed working with his duos for clarinet/bassoon and clarinet/flute. His voicings and counterpoints are really, really cool.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-12-11 16:19
Fivesilentmiles:
And, the string player's manipulations are all out in public view where they can be seen, coached and critiqued.
We hide ours -and have to guess, experiment and invent all sorts of weird explanations and descriptions to make the darn thing work.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Phat Cat
Date: 2006-12-12 03:48
Bob:
You may not want to hear this. As a decent but not superb clarinetist when younger, one of my great regrets was not being able to play a Bach fugue. In mid life, I showed up on the doorstep of a local suburban NY piano teacher (no slouch, a Ph.D. from Indiana) and surprised him by answering his standard question as to my goal by saying "To play a Bach four part fugue."
So we started with the tried and true traditional beginners books. Once I could read and play bass clef with my left hand, I started sneaking Bach Two Part inventions on the side. (I never tired of playing even the simplest, although I can’t listen to them for long ) Once we went through most of them, I started sneaking the Three part Inventions. From there we went to preludes from the Well Temeperd Klavier and eventually a three part fugue. Finally, I was able to play the first fugue, in four parts. I stopped lessons afer a few
As limited as my keyboard experience was, I can say unequivocally that it was worth the effort. Each level of complexity was more gratifying. Feeling the parts of fugues in my fingers was incomparably more involving than hearing them. I can't imagine what it must be like to play a Beethoven concerto.
One curious note. Every piece I ever studied on the piano was memorized without any effort as I practiced. It was just in the fingers. Memorizing in the clarinet never was that easy.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-12-12 16:11
Thanks for those insights.
My wife was a pianist, but quit when she decided to move her practice time to things she found more valuable to her. We had an upright Steinway grand, and she could attack and articulate notes on that thing with a great deal of expressiveness. As a mechanical engineer, its amazing to me that that simple toggle mechanism used to strike the strings can be treated with any subtley at all.
In my heart, I still wish I could look at a system of staffs, full of notes, and "hear" what it will sound like --and to recognize the harmonic structure: those are the notes of the chord progression, those are passing tones, ...
Bob Phillips
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Author: Koo Young Chung
Date: 2006-12-12 23:37
Piano sound is percussive and not attractive by itself. That's why you need to play many notes at the same time and fast etc.And once you hit them ,there is no control at all.They are fading at certain fixed rate.Each single sound is crude but as a whole it sounds nice like a pointillistic painting.
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Author: Phat Cat
Date: 2006-12-13 03:56
"Piano sound is percussive and not attractive by itself"
Why stop there? Let's dis all the instruments.
Clarinet sound is reedy an not attractive by itself
Violon sound is screechy and not attractiveby itself
Trumpet sound is blaring and not attractiveby itself
Oboe sound is honking and not attractiveby itself.
Flute sound is hollow and not attractiveby itself.
....
Sorry, I'm a little wound up after listening to Satie's rousing percussion piece Trois Gymnopedies.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2006-12-13 14:45
Sorry, Phat, but you're wrong about the sound of my clarinet.
Lynnette Rands, (soprano voice) of course sounds glorious enough to lure sailors to the rocky reef, where they'll swim over and lie at her feet.
Bob Phillips
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