 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: GBK
Date: 2012-11-05 18:46
Clark Brody, principal clarinet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1951 until 1978, died on Saturday, November 3. He was 98.
At the invitation of Music Director Rafael Kubelik, Brody joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1951 as principal clarinet where he continued in that position under Music Directors Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, and Sir George Solti performing as a frequent soloist with the Orchestra.
Brody was actively engaged in chamber music; he twice performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. with the Juilliard and Budapest string quartets.
Clark Brody was born into a musical family in Michigan, and he earned degrees from Michigan State University and the Eastman School of Music. He moved to New York City in 1937 and was principal clarinet of the CBS Symphony Orchestra from 1941 to 1950, often performing as soloist, and served during World War II in the Air Force band and concert orchestra.
In addition to his performance activities, Brody coached the clarinet section of Civic Orchestra of Chicago, taught privately, and was a member of the faculty of Northwestern University. He was also an active member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association.
Brody’s principal teachers were Daniel Bonade and Rufus Arey.
Obituary and further details to follow...
...GBK
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-11-05 19:57
See him and hear him on utube , CSO in 1962 with Milstein playing the Mendelsohn violin cxoncerto. Brody at 4.41 minutes .
richard smith
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Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2012-11-06 02:33
Clark Brody was quite possibly the most quietly celebrated (and perhaps under-appreciated) of all major orchestra principal clarinettists performing during the 20th century.
He was in the right place at the right time if one considers the perfect marriage between conductor and American orchestra - Reiner/Chicago, Szell/Cleveland, Bernstein/NY, Stokowski/Philadelphia, Koussevitsky/Boston, etc.
The wind section in which he performed was one of, if not the most virtuosic of any section in orchestral history - all preserved in examples provided below in the full clips. (Listen to the complete clips and see if you don't share the same sentiment.)
His musical talent spoke for itself. He was a guiding light for many of us in our student days as well as later on in our professional lives.
Those of us who knew him first as young students were in awe of this formidable musician and only later did that appreciation grow the more that we knew about the challenges of orchestral playing through our own experience.
I've spoken with a few of my fellow musicians today who knew him as I did. All knew his personality and temperament first hand and laughed when the phrase "He was a tall, cool glass of water" was mentioned as the most apt description of this marvelous, tall man and equally "tall" musician. No one EVER saw or heard him be other than cool in the best possible implication of the word.
One HAD to be of cool temperament to play for a tyrant like Fritz Reiner and be humble even when complimented personally by him in public ("My hat is off to you." after a live national radio broadcasted performance of the Galanta Dances) - something almost completely unheard of in those days.
Here are some examples of his artistry in both staccato and technical as well as legato and lyrical passages - all exemplary in every way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmDSYrccLk0&feature=relmfu
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade (starting 4:26) Staccato of consistent, supreme clarity, shape, depth, and quality of sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9W9VSKA2E&NR=1&feature=endscreen
Bartok Hungarian Sketches (1:08 to end)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2HdrzFxvyE&NR=1&feature=endscreen
Bartok Hungarian Sketches (Beginning)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-1AqXl53to&feature=relmfu
Respighi - Pines of the Janiculum from The Pines of Rome (up to where the phonograph version of the nightingale starts). Supreme control in sostenuto and sublime legato in cantabile - and with such apparent ease! I don't know of a finer example of this movement on record.
Clark was a dear friend and colleague - a fine, "tall" example to us all.
Gregory Smith
Post Edited (2012-11-06 02:51)
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2012-11-06 09:57
Beautiful playing. Sad that being from the other side of the pond, I hadn't heard of him until now. I am interested to know what clarinets he played on?
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-11-06 10:09
As many of the "Mid-West" school of playing (and typical of Bonade/American school) he was a devout Buffet player.
A great man, a great teacher, a great clarinet player.
We'll miss you.
.....................Paul Aviles
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-11-06 13:48
Dear Greg Smith,
Thank you for posting the snippets to all these wonderful recordings !!!!
I've gone my whole life without ever hearing ANY OF THEM !!!!
Of course I spent many a night in the upper balcony at Orchestra Hall back in the 70's and thought I'd heard it all................what a fool.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2012-11-06 17:10
"I am interested to know what clarinets he played on?"
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On these and most all recordings:
Cls. - Buffet/Kaspar and then Buffet/Brannen.
Mthpcs. - Kaspar Chicago and then Kaspar Cicero.
Lig. - Bonade inverted.
Reeds - Vandoren or Morre German Cut, 12.5 tip width, 2 1/2 strength.
Gregory Smith
On edit: Pines solo played on an 18,XXX series pre R13 Buffet/Kaspar A clarinet that he had played for many years in the CBS and Chicago orchestras. A short time later CB bought a new Buffet and sold the 18,XXX series to Bill Brannen for Bill's use at that time.
Post Edited (2012-11-06 20:56)
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2012-11-06 20:33
Thank you for all the wonderful clips/videos/tracks and the information. I will definitely be seeking out more examples of his superlative playing. May he rest in peace but hopefully have his clarinets waiting for him where-ever he has gone to ;-)
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Author: hinotehud ★2017
Date: 2012-11-06 22:55
For those of you who attended Michigan State University: Brody Hall was named after his father who was a major contributor to MSU.
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Author: clarinetguy ★2017
Date: 2012-11-07 02:52
Keith, thank you for this information. During my years at MSU I lived in the Brody complex for a few years. I knew about Clark Brody the clarinet player and I once heard this story about Brody Hall, but I had no idea it was true. By the way, have you seen Brody Hall recently? It was completely renovated recently, and it really looks nice, very different from the way it looked back in the 70s. MSU people used to brag that it had the largest non-military cafeteria in the world, although I don't know if this is still true.
Greg, thank you for the link about the Brody family. I knew nothing about them, but it's quite interesting.
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Author: mb190d
Date: 2012-11-07 19:32
Greg, these are gorgeous recordings. The sound and the orchestra are sublime.
Mr. Brody has the Bonade legacy in his playing--soft fingers for perfect legato, a big open sound, especially in the lower register, unbelievable staccato, high notes flowing effortlessly.
Did he play double-lip?
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Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2012-11-07 22:57
He played single lip.
It never came up in the lessons that I had with him and never heard him mention the subject in the 35 years I knew him.
He was not the type of personality that would necessarily get into the many details about equipment or embouchure except to say what Bonade found successful with his students - to use the lips like purse strings and draw them in around the mouthpiece. That was it. Simple and to the point.
He was one smart man so it wasn't as if he hadn't thoroughly thought out those kind of things. When prompted, he certainly could and would oblige.
He just wanted to keep to the fundamentals and talk about the music rather than to get down into the weeds and talk too extensively about the "craft" of playing.
Brody was more interested in putting into context how what we were working on was important through musical stories about what Reiner or Kertez or Szell did or said that applied at that moment - a very pragmatic approach from his perspective but one that was certain to excite one's imagination.
His use of metaphor was very effective when describing legato fingers (which was at the top of many reasons I went to him) using simple images. A good example was "Squeezing/releasing the clarinet as if it were a piece of foam rubber" when talking about how to apply the fingers without slapping them into place. The Pines of Rome solos posted above are good examples of a beautiful legato on the clarinet if there ever were one.
Bonade wrote a whole article about how to play legato for one early clarinet publication - much of which CB drew from directly - Bonade's own "The Clarinetist's Compendium". It's still available online and covers the deceptively simple-sounding fundamentals quite effectively.
At Northwestern, when Marcellus, Brody, and Larry Combs were all teaching there at the same time ('76 - '78), everybody picked up their copy of the compendium from a whole stack of them in Marcellus' studio. It was required reading.
(I got a good chuckle when arriving in Evanston as a freshman and about ready to enter Marcellus' studio. Clark and Larry had just come on board faculty at Marcellus' request. At the very first masterclass with all clarinettists including faculty attending, Marcellus came out and started the class with a proud pronouncement: "Well, ladies and gentleman - welcome to the clarinet capital of the world".)
The best way that I could tell you about Brody's approach to music and life in general would be to relate an answer he gave me to a question I asked a couple of weeks before I took my first full time professional position in an orchestra.
Before I left Northwestern - my car out in the parking lot already pointed in the direction of N. California - I asked him what the most important thing was that he could tell me about playing well in a symphony orchestra.
He simply replied "Always keep thinking".
As it turns out, how so very right he was.
Gregory Smith
Post Edited (2012-11-07 23:16)
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Author: Gregory Smith ★2017
Date: 2012-11-08 17:42
Submitted on behalf of former bboard contributor David Hattner:
------------
I remember meeting with Mr. Brody so many times at Northwestern, at his house and at various Japanese Restaurants over the years. I wasn't fortunate enough to hear him play in the Chicago Symphony, but he once borrowed a colleague's clarinet and played without any preliminary fuss the solo from Don Juan. It was effortless and the image of this huge man playing the clarinet so delicately has always stayed with me. I remember seeing him just resting the clarinet on his knee after playing and thinking how natural he looked holding it.
I remember many of the stories he told, and how he would often bring his giant hand to rest on top of his head as he reached the climax of his better stories. Great musicians recalled, crazy stories, the inevitable but rare disasters that accompany a life giving concerts were all part of the mix. Fortunately, many of these were captured on video.
Mr. Brody was dedicated to his craft. Equipped with a Masters Degree from the Eastman School and one of the best steady gigs in NYC, he decided to take further study privately with Daniel Bonade. He became a textbook example of Bonade's playing principles; the finger motion, the air, the embouchure, the sound and the articulation all as Mr. Bonade taught and wrote. When you see the clips of Mr. Brody playing, you see the finger legato and the more efficient non-legato motion, but you don't really need video to know what he is doing. Physically, Mr. Brody's playing was without fuss.
The list of recordings worth hearing is long, and is supplemented by the huge number of live recordings circulating in the world. Mr. Brody was noted for his ability to sight-read nearly anything and to absorb huge amounts of repertoire quickly. That's nearly the definition of what was required to survive back in the radio era, and it served him well his entire career.
He was always well liked and respected by his colleagues and students, and never had a bad word to say about anyone. If there were disappointments along the way, they were never spoken. He lived simply and comfortably in the same Evanston house for decades. He always had an encouraging word for the students and playing in his orchestral repertoire class was a treat. Stupid mistakes in standard repertoire usually resulted in the same hand-on-head gesture rather than a harsh rebuke. It spoke volumes to those engaged enough to take it seriously.
When I compiled a CD of 30+ tracks of great playing moments from his career, Mr. Brody's response was: "I didn't realize I ever played like that." Typical modesty from a great man who considered effortless, beautiful playing just part of doing his job.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-11-10 14:17
Thank you for all of this information, and special thanks to GBK and Gregory Smith for the links. I've not been nearly aware enough of Mr. Brody, even though I now realize I've enjoyed his playing on a large number of recordings over the years. R.I.P.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: mb190d
Date: 2012-11-17 20:44
I'm far from a pro, but I studied with a great player and student of Bonade.
You never put your finger on a key. You placed your finger on a key, gently.
That's why Clark Brody's "Pines" solo is so great. There's no mechanics, just the legato you would expect from a violin or cello.
Those great pros who put, rather than place, their fingers I call "poppers". I can hear them whack down their fingers. They should listen to the generation who learned about true legato.
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Author: William
Date: 2012-11-19 14:49
I never had the opportunity to study with Bonade, however my freshman clarinet teacher, William Dominic, installed the legato style fingering into my technical "bag" long ago and it has never left me--it's just second nature to me. At the time, I hated playing all those ultra-slow Rose studies, but Mr Dominc knew what was best and I have been forever grateful. Just listen to the Brody examples and you should be convinced that legato fingering techinique is a basic skill that EVERY student clarinetist should master. Clark Brody was a master and I am grateful that his legacy will live on through recordings of his performances.
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