 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-15 02:44
The workshop for 2014 has just been announced. I am fortunate to have this event in my home town (Port Townsend, WA), but participants come from as far as the E. coast. As far as I know it is unique in N. America for offering an intensive immersion in choro, a pre-samba Brazilian style that we all find highly addictive. Clarinet and flute are the predominant wind instruments. Anat Cohen is again on the faculty, a virtuoso who is inspiring and approachable.
http://centrum.org/centrum-choro-workshop/
John
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Author: ruben
Date: 2013-11-15 14:11
John:
I have noticed that a lot of choros were written for the C clarinet. Were they actually written with the sound of a C clarinet in mind or were Brazilian clarinetists expected to transpose? Also, are a lot of choros published and if so, by whom? There is a lot worth exploring in this music. After tangos and Klezmer, now comes the time for choros!
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-15 15:36
I am not aware of any Brazilian players using a C clarinet - certainly not the important figures of the past like Paolo Moura and Abel Ferreira, nor current soloists who have adapted to the music like Paquito d'Rivera and Anat Cohen. Pixinguinha, the most prolific choro composer, played flute as a young man but later played tenor sax exclusively. Soprano sax is also popular.
My sense is that choro is mostly not played from written music. This presents a major challenge to the mandolinists (for example) who are expected to handle the explicit harmony as well as the melody line. But the players all grow up with the music, and learn mostly by listening, I suspect.
Re: published music, I think it was very rare until the last 15 yrs. Now there are numerous collections available, including some with Bb transpositions and recorded accompaniments. Look under "choro mandolin" at http://www.elderly.com/
It's hard to know what's available from Brazilian publishers, but I'll bet the natives get a lot from http://samba-choro.com.br/ which has many thousands of transcriptions by contributors.
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Author: ruben
Date: 2013-11-15 18:20
Thank you, John, for this precise, exhaustive but not exhausting information. I got the idea that Choros of the past were written for the C clarinet because there are pieces by Villa-Lobos and some of his contemporaries for this instrument. Personally, I love playing the C clarinet and have a really good one, so I welcome any opportunity to play it. It has a character all its own.
rubengreenbergparisfrance@gmail.com
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Author: DougR
Date: 2013-11-16 06:57
Actually, there is a chore fake book out there, 80-some pages worth. How accurate it is I have no idea, but…a diligent internet searcher would be rewarded. Just sayin. (use 'filetype:pdf' as one of your search criteria.)
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-16 18:07
This is Ron Galen's Choro Fakebook. He made both C and Bb versions. It is quite accurate. Someone has scanned and posted them in pdf, so you'd be doing Ron justice by sending him $20 (or maybe it's $15). He may ship paper copies, I'm not sure. rongalen@gmail.com
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2013-11-17 11:49
if you want to learn how to play Choro you have to play Choro <www.choromusic.com> Nice playing examples with play along with play along tracks. As for Choro be written for C clarinet, I've seen lots of Choro in the key of A and E which can put them in B and F# on a Bb flat clarinet.
In the instance of Ernesto Nazareth he wrote predominantly for piano and people play them on what ever instrument they want to, they even change keys if they want. A fake book would be really great, if you know the tunes already but written music doesn't tell you "how" to play the music. I'm one of those people that believe you can't learn how to play any kind of music, Classical, Klezmer, Choro unless you listen to a ton of it, and luckily it's never been easier.
Tom Puwalski, former principal Clarinetist with U.S. Army Filed Band, author of a "Clarinetist's Guide to Klezmer" and Klezmer Basic Training, Owner of Clarinetgourmet.com.
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-17 16:46
It is true that the music is mostly on the sharp side of things. Since you brought this up, I went through one of the standard collections (Chediak's Choro Songbook Vol. 1) and jotted down the starting key signatures of all 97 tunes:
Ab 2
Eb 2
Bb 5
F 34
C 23
G 20
D 8
A 2
E 1
Of course all the tunes have key changes, but the distribution is about the same. From memory, I'd say that E and A occur more often inside a tune than at the start.
So it's not quite as bad as I had thought for the Bb player, but the punishing tempos make for lots of work in any case. I have wondered whether the keys in compositions over the years were influenced by the composers' main instrument, but looking through this book I found no obvious correlation. I do have the impression that wind player Pixinguinha's tunes provide breathing spots, and many of the mandolinist Jacob do Bandolim do not.
It is absolutely true that listening to native players is essential to learning choro. A charming introduction is the film The Sound of Rio: Brasileirinho, available at Netflix.
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2013-11-17 19:45
Here is a Choro that I recorded with the choro music tracks, a Bandolim tune which I really like. http://soundcloud.com/klezmertom/vibracoes-vibrations-bandolim These tracks are just a blast to play with. The instrumentation is tends to be very guitar mandolin stuff where as Nazareth music is originally written for piano and tends to sound like What Charlie Byrd called "Brazilian Scott Joplin'
Tom Puwalski
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Author: BobD
Date: 2013-11-18 12:21
Very nice Tom, as well as the remainder of your Soundcloud pieces....(nice photo of Blumberg too......!)
Bob Draznik
Post Edited (2013-11-18 12:22)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2013-11-18 12:36
Loved the performances! The melody of that Bandolim choro piece reminds me of something, almost certainly a number from a stage musical, but I can't quite place it. It's not the identical tune, but -- did Bandolim write it as a variation on an older tune? Maybe something from Kander & Ebb?
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: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-18 20:57
Beautifully played, Tom.
Jacob (given name Jacob Bittencourt) recorded this in 1967, so it might have been composed around that time. Vibracoes is renowned in the genre, often described by the great players as the most beautiful of all choro melodies.
The tune is often played very freely. This sublime performance is by the folks who are teaching at the workshop next spring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWXqlJ0Zydc
This is the classic instrumentation.
Post Edited (2013-11-18 21:01)
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2013-11-18 22:06
I think there is a very big similarity between Klezmer and choro when it comes to playing on clarinet. You have to be able to play the "INK" then learn the most appropriate means of ornamentation once you have that down it's about learning to improvise in the correct style. I find the music of Pixinguinha to be about the most challenge from a technical point of view. If you have a chance the Choro channel on pandora plays a lot of actual Pixinnguinha. He was a monster on flute. Here is one of the harder tunes of his that I recorded the www.choromusic.com tracks. http://soundcloud.com/klezmertom/a-vida-e-um-buraco
Tom Puwalski
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-19 04:56
Awesome tonguing! Choro does not so often require sustained tonguing, but you need it for forro music, which choro players also like. That's the music I use for tonguing practice, e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JYjkb11vJo
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-19 11:00
Yes, it´s very challenging because of the fast tonguing!
One of the most talented composers of choro (among other styles) is Pixinguinha. Anat Cohen often plays his "1 x 0".
I recently bought a couple of books with 24 of his choros (12 in each book). They are in the playalong format with music and CD. Each song has a version in Bb, Eb and C.
The distinctive feature of this books is that they are based on some anthological recordings made by Pixinguinha himself and Benedito Lacerda. The authors transcribed the parts for both the melody and the counterpoint.
Although the melody is played by the flute it can be replaced by the clarinet, when using the CD.
Here are a few examples from the original recordings made in 1946.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KnqP4rqe58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dIahUWMNBY
A few curious facts about Pixinguinha.
He originally played the flute but due to health issues had to switch to the tenor sax. So in those recordings he is playing the counterpoint on sax while Lacerda plays the flute.
Although most of the composition are said to be from Pixinguinha and Lacerda they are actually only from Pixinguinha.
He was facing serious finacial problems at the time. Lacerda helped by paying his mortgage and in exchange was put as co author of the songs.
Anyway the books are really fantastic.
Unfortunatelly the website that sells the books is all in Portuguese, which might be a problem for most.
Here is a bit more info about it (in English) in case you are interested.
http://davidganc.com/en/2010/03/24/choro-duetos-vol-1-pixinguinha-e-benedito-lacerda/
And to wrap it up here are another 2 interesting recordings:
Abel Silva, one of the greatest clarinet players of choro, playing his most
famous composition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WphI8IeaQ34
Here is Alexandre Ribeiro playing a comp, with choro influences, on a Brazilian made clarinet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0XgvYZbp-Y
---
Cassio
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2013-11-19 12:01
I've always liked that tune and I really like the way those guys play it. Vibracoes, is in the Bandolim play along from Choromusic.com. The Rhythm section tends to go right into the groove with this one
< http://soundcloud.com/klezmertom/vibracoes-vibrations-bandolim> But it's such a beautiful tune. When I work with my guitar player we usually go with a little more rubato in it. I was very fortunate to get to work with Charlie Byrd back in the mid 1980s when he turned me on to the music of Nazareth and Bandolim. This music is so much fun to play. I've been including a few on my klezmer concerts and every once in a while I've been known to play them on wind synth.
Tom Puwalski
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-19 16:31
Brazilian publishers have been inaccessible to North Americans, but are now rapidly finding distribution in the US. clarinetwing, the Pixinguinha book you describe is here: http://elderly.com/books/items/693-9.htm along with many others.
A significant development has been Almir Chediak's Choro Songbook series, in which every tune is transcribed in both parts. Vol. 1 is here:
http://elderly.com/books/items/675-5.htm (97 tunes)
Vols. 2 and 3 were held up in a copyright dispute, but are now also available. Chediak's work is said to be authoritative and very faithful to the originals. I don't know if there is any hope of Bb versions. I have entered a number of tunes with very complete or interesting countermelodies into a notation program, which gets me Bb has well as treble clef for the low part (I don't read bass clef). This makes for wonderful duets with bass clarinet.
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Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2013-11-19 17:17
There appears to be some knowledgable people on this thread and maybe someone can answer this question for me. Why is it that almost every Choro recording that hear does not use a Bass, upright or electric? Tom
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-19 17:35
Tom,
I'm new here in this forum.
I've just visited your page in the soundcloud and I'm listening to your recordings. Fantastic! I'm sending the link to some friends. Thanks for posting those recordings!
There seems to be some great klezmer recordings there too! I'm looking forward to listening to those as well.
John,
No, unfortunately this is not the book I'm talking about. This is from another publisher, choromusic. Although they have some good play along books for other composers this one for Pixinguinha is not the best. For one the songs are not his most well known ones. While the other book has all his famous and great choros.
The one I'm talking about is from Irmaos Vitale. Here is a link with text in English about the book, with images and all:
Choro Duetos
The books themselves have the text in both English and Portuguese but what good is that if they are not available to everyone in an international website?
It has a link to buy the book but it sends you to the publisher's website in Portuguese, which is a bit lame.
As for Almir Chediak's Choro Songbook series, yes they are great. He has a big list of songbooks to his name. Like you mentioned though they are not meant for Bb instruments.
Cassio
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-19 18:03
Tom,
I'm certainly not one of the "knowledgable people" around here but I'll venture an answer.
There are loads of different formations for a choro ensemble. Old recordings with bass are not rare at all.
Click on the link below for an image of Pixinguinha with a bass player by his side.
Pixinguinha and bass player
Most of the time though it is the 7 string acoustic guitar that is used for this purpose.
The cavaquinho (a sort of ukalele) and the tenor sax also are used to play the chords, while the mandolin and the flute/clarinet are used for the melody.
It seems to me that "portable" easy to transport band instruments are favored over the heavier instruments.
Cassio
Post Edited (2013-11-19 18:05)
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Author: Siq
Date: 2013-11-20 14:03
Hi everyone,
this is my first post here. I'm a Brazilian computer engineering student who's passionate about choro. When I was younger, 13 to 16 years old, I had clarinet lessons and I still enjoy playing it.
Now that I'm 20, I can't seem to find time to practice(university takes 100% of my time), so I'm not very skillful and my technique is weak.
Even so, I decided to post on this thread to introduce myself and to show a little video I found on youtube. I play on saturdays with friends in a place lots of foregins like to visit. Some guy recorded it and put it on youtube.
As I've already said, it lacks me technique and, beside that, I was kinda nervous due to the lots of people watching, so you can notice some major inconsistency in rhythm. Well, I hope it's watchable. Thank you :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrtHexeL7RM
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Author: John Morton
Date: 2013-11-20 16:39
Tom, the Choro Duetos book is almost exactly what I would wish for, the first I've seen with Bb counterpoint lines. It will probably turn up in the US, since there are many other Vitale publications here.
Only 12 tunes, unfortunately, and I have no use for the CD's (it's mostly on YouTube) and the C and Eb sections. My next wish would be for the countermelodies in the Chediak books to be put in treble clef, and I'll handle the transposition. That's close to 300 tunes.
Oh well, as the man says, "you can't have everything, where would you put it?"
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-20 17:43
John,
There are 2 Choro Duetos books. 24 tunes in total. A great selection.
And yes the transcribed counterpoint lines is what sets these books apart. Specially because these lines are played by Pixinguinha himself.
I´ve sent David an email asking about purchasing the books in the US. Maybe he knows of an option. Will post once I get and answer.
Cassio
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-20 18:13
Another very special publication is Tocando com Jacob (Playing with Jacob).
It includes 24 tunes taken from 2 LPs recorded in 1961(Chorinhos e Chroes) and 1962(Primas e Bordoes) by Jacob do Bandolim and his band.
The book includes 2 CDs and the sheet music in both C and Bb.
What is really special about this publications is that the musicians in the play along are from the original recordings done in 1961 and 1962! These original recordings have been found recently and in very good conditions.
It shows that Jacob recorded the base with his band´s musicians first and then his melodies on top.
By the way in these recordings Jacob´s band does include a bass player.
It is a fantastic experience because you are transported in time and can play with Jacob´s band!
--
Cassio
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Author: clarinetwing
Date: 2013-11-20 23:38
John,
I just got word from David, one of the authors of the book.
I've sent you more information via email.
Good luck!
Cassio
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Author: BobD
Date: 2013-11-22 15:28
Really enjoyed this exchange. I'm not a choro player but would offer my opinion that the music in the movies Black Orpheus and Central Station is very enjoyable.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Siq
Date: 2013-11-22 22:07
btw, I have both Duetos and Tocando com Jacob.
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