 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tony M
Date: 2011-01-18 23:33
Just finished listening to this and it is good. There is so much stuff circulating on Shaw these days, and it all tells the same story, that people might get tired of the hagiography but the audio selection on here is good. If someone did an audiobook of the autobiography with musical accompaniment, now that would be something. Maybe something that looked at what happened to the clarinet in popular music after Goodman and Shaw, that would be good, yes, no?
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Author: William
Date: 2011-01-20 19:43
"what happened to the clarinet in popular music after Goodman and Shaw, that would be good, yes, no?"
That's easy--NOTHING (really new, that is). Generally, the clarinet gave into the saxophone and, eventually, wind instruments in general gave into the electric guitar and keyboard synths. There are certainly current clarinetists who are very good, but none enjoy the popularity that Goodman & Shaw realized, nor has the clarinet remained the mainstream pop musical icon that is once was.
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Author: Tony M
Date: 2011-01-20 20:59
The idea was that what might be interesting is something that looked at why this was the case. The fact that it was no longer a popular instrument is self-evident but what we are not clear about is why. Instruments fall in and out of favour and they do it for a range of reasons. I'm not confident that standard arguments are particularly satisfying. To say that clarinet gave way to the saxophone and then wind instruments gave way to electric guitar and keys is a brief description (I know it wasn't meant to be more) but it tells us little about why these things happened. For example, why did the saxophone remain an iconic instrument of rock and roll while, through the same period, the trumpet didn't?
The idea of a progression, instrument to instrument, might not be helpful. It is often said that the clarinet gave way to saxophone but they co-existed quite happily in the big bands. It might be that it was more to do with the disappearance of the band soloist and/or the alternating lead playing that thrived in small band combos started to seem old when bop came along and clarinet, as a jazz instrument, started to fade from the popular along with jazz itself. I don't know if this has any bearing on reality, although I clearly suspect it does, but it might be interesting to read about this stuff.
A great deal of attention has been given to the rise of the clarinet. I think Jack Brymer's book that links the historical development of the instrument with the progressive method of learning the instrument is a minor classic. But I was just thinking aloud about a book that might track an instrument's relative decline or, to be more kind, shifting fortunes.
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Author: russ
Date: 2011-01-22 04:23
One of the first methods I had was by arty shaw-what a hard work very concise and solid-for a kid of 16 it made you work♫
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The Clarinet Pages
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