 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2000-04-21 03:01
Reading Keil's post, I thought:"A clarinetist can acquire techniques of the highest level if he/she with considerable talent trys practice hard enough, maybe 8 hours a day. But his/her tonality would not change basically. An orchestra with special characteristics of tonality would not hire a clarinetist of totally different tonality."
For example, Anthony Gigliotty would be good for Philadelphia(quite European) but would not be in harmony with Pitzberg(quite German). Karl Leister was good for Berlin Philhamonic but he would be out of the place in Paris Concervatoir. Only three orchestras, to my feeling, Los Angels, New York, and Boston are international, to say it worse characterless. Sorry to say, as to Cleveland, I wonder what they are trying to do after the passaway of George Szell. But even ex-Berliner Phil people deplore the decrease of its original tonal characteristics by the name of internationlization. The worst cases are Japanese orchestras changing conductors again and again except German style Osaka Phil, whose long position keeping(may be 50 years)conductor is an old man called Asahina,an enthusiastic Brookner fan.(By Greg Smith I was informed many Osaka phil clarinetists use his mouthpieces. I understand this since French Vandorens cannot give such darker tones.)
So, is a clarinetist's tonality a big element of acquiring a clarinet position? If so, he/she should know what orcestra he/she thinks in harmony with and choose the appropriate teacher to reach this goal not by the grading the fames of music schools.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: steve
Date: 2000-04-21 15:58
hmmmm...the recent appointment of a clarinetist to solo chair in the berliner phil who plays boehm system was a radical departure....but are national schools still that discernable?
I'm not sure I agree with your statement of a clarinetist's unchangeable basic personal "tonality"...I lived in cleveland as a kid and listened to Mr marcellus every week from ca 1959 until he retired. Although everything he played was obviously him playing, he had the ability to vary his tonality to fit into any musical context demanded by Mr Szell and the music being performed....everything from a "dark" germanic tone in Wagner (a call and response in the rheinjourney with mr zetzer on bs cl was neat!!!!), to the "french light" but full performance tone he gave in the 1re rhapsodie, to a darker but creamy Viennese sounding tone in a Mahler 3 performance I heard (solo at end of 1st movement)...when he played in the Kurt Weil threepenny opera arrangement, he played with a hard broad tone with vibrato like a jazzer...I attended a kid's concert with my school once, and Mr Johnson was playing solo that afternoon...they did parts of Scheherezade (sp), and Mr Johnson was able to imitate Mr Marcellus' tone almost exactly!!!
IMHO, the lesson here is that consumate professionals can get any sound out of any instrument they want, but differently built horns (oehler system clarinets, large bore rotary valve trumpets) will have certain inherent differences in their sound, requiring different techniques to get the desired sound...
possibly the most extreme example of this is when I heard a piece in cleveland by a british composer named Davies that was called something like "orkney wedding and sunrise"...besides having a bagpipe part, much of it was based on traditional scottish music...a cadenza by solo violin was called for in a traditional scotts style. Mr Majeske, the concertmaster at the time, let his fiddle slip from his shoulder to his chest, choked up on the bow, bowed closer to the fingerboard in short strokes, and played some of the most beautiful raspy trad scotts fiddle playing i'd ever heard....go figure
regards, steve
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
