 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: diz
Date: 2003-08-04 03:19
As a viola player and clarinetist ... double stops are a matter of playing two notes simultaneously (hence double - two and stop - finger on the fingerboard) ... triple and quadruple are also perfectly possible. Any good book on orchestration will deal with them in its string section. Clarinets can, in fact, play two notes at once ... sometimes erroneously referred to as "extended technique" they do, however, sound awful in my opinion. Horns do it much better, however (as do the other brass).
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
Post Edited (2003-08-04 03:20)
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Author: Micaela
Date: 2003-08-04 03:39
They're something invented to make my violin playing hours more miserable. I had a nightmare about a Kreutzer double-stop etude once. I think it was number 35.
Note that orchestra music very rarely uses double stops- they are divided just as a clarinet part would be. Sometimes a composer uses a quadruple stop for effect in an orchestra, though (I think there are some of these in the overture to Der Freischutz and maybe the first movement of Beethoven's ninth). You can't actually play all four strings at once- you play the lower two (if you push hard you can briefly catch three, if you hold all three you will screech) and then the upper two. Double (and triple and quadruple) stops are most commonly found in chamber and solo music. If you listen to a few of the slow movements of Bach's solo violin works, you'll hear about every double stop technique imaginable.
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Author: moose6589
Date: 2003-08-04 06:37
Err wow you can play two notes at once on the clarinet? How is that physically possible?
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2003-08-04 12:35
i just asked cause i needed to know it for my music history exam. actually, i can play 2 notes at once on clarinet too. for example play the G and D that have the same fingering. it doesn't sound too good though.
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Author: javier garcia m
Date: 2003-08-04 14:04
Brass instruments can do this (two notes at once), one note is played normally, the other is "singed" by the player with the throat as a "mmmmm" note.
The second note must be in the natural frequence of the horn position, for instance, if you are playing an open C (without valves) you can "sing" the upper G. The instrument will reproduce this note (in fact, when you play brass, the instrument reproduces the note you are doing with your lips).
The effect is incredible, I've heard a french hornist do it.
I've tried on the clarinet, very difficult. First, we don't have as many harmonics as brass instruments, so our possibilities are very few. You can try to play normally, for instance, medium B and "sing" with your throat low E (or Medium C and low F, etc).
Women can do this inversely, play low E and "sing" medium B, and so on.
But I think, this is only for fun, difficult to include on a piece of music.
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Author: Eileen
Date: 2003-08-04 16:41
I'm not sure but I think that sawing on the fiddle type thing you hear in bluegrass/folk music is double stops. They are used sometimes on the guitar as well. On the guitar they sound chimey. An example is the riff used in R.E.M.'s "Don't Go Back to Rockville." I like it on guitar but generally do not care for the sound of double stops on the violin in classical music. Just my personal preference.
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Author: big fat lyre112
Date: 2003-08-05 18:56
It is possible to do this on the clari. My wind ensemble at my school went to last yr's National Concert Band Festival which included the top 16 bands in the nation. During that time we had master classes and the one I attended had some profesional clarinet player...forget her name...but she showed us all the 'odd' techniques on a clarinet and one of them was double stopping...
I think the fingering was playing a high E ((3 ledger lines above the staff)) w/out the register key ((if I remember right...who knows))
It sounded awful and would cause anyone to wanna shoot themselves...
I think she told us it played 3 notes at the same time instead of two...w/e...
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Author: Rick Williams
Date: 2003-08-05 21:20
I went through a short period of fascination regarding multiphonics/polyphonics/extended technique, whatever you want to call it and when it was all done and over with I personally felt its a wonderful way to make a nice instrument sound pretty nasty. Sorta like a soprano whopee cushion being slowly run over by a steam roller. I think when the two mice that resided in my office walls came out with a little sign that said "Please kill us now!", made for the deciding factor.
That said though, playing a clarinet in ways the designers didn't intend does make for some interesting discoveries. If you want to hear vibrato, try playing under a low ceiling fan. Cupping the mouthpiece and barrel with your hand as a mute makes for a pretty good fox hunt horn imitation or playing a clarinet without the MP like a brass instrument makes some interesting sounds.
Best
Rick
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