 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-06-16 04:21
I was looking through some old music that was given to me to play around with. One was a couple of sheets of paper stapled together with various clarinet trio/quartet shorts. Just a short thing here or there that sounded great when put together. Just short pieces that lasted maybe a minute or two. Ranging from a christmas piece, to variations on the "London Bridge Falling Down" theme, and EVEN a small short theme from Peter and the Wolf (with the melody in the first clarinet, and two harmony lines in second and third).
Can anyone recommend some sort of variety/compilation trio or quartet book? (I'd like to stay away from duets because I think trios or quartetrs just offer SO much more depth).
The plan? To maybe find two people, go to NYC, set up in a subway or corner of some block and just toot around for a short while. Then maybe we'll grab some lunch (depending on how well we play it could range from a shared package of toasted nuts to maybe even a package EACH!!!!) And then maybe leave and go home.
In the meantime maybe we'll have brightened some tourist's day or just gotten someone interested THAT much more in music.
Any ideas on some compilation booklet? Just of short things? Maybe one that encompasses various genres (classical, kids music, christmas, whatever)
And if I can't find people to go with me (which has a high chance of happening), at least I'll have some fun stuff to noodle around with and maybe bring here or there if there are going to be other musicians around.
Thanks in advance.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: theclarinetist
Date: 2004-06-16 06:37
Tomasi - Trois Divertissments (spelling??)
This piece is amazing, pretty hard though. It would make great "subway music", I think.
DH
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Author: jo.clarinet
Date: 2004-06-16 20:22
Not a compilation in the sense you mentioned, Alexi, but I have an arrangement for clarinet trio of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite which is great fun to play and a good audience-pleaser. It's published by Barenreiter, BA 8158 
Joanna Brown
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Author: claaaaaarinet!!!!
Date: 2004-06-16 23:03
Kendor publishes a bunch of fun, easily recognizable quartets and trios for clarinets. You have to buy each piece separately, but they are cheap - about $5 apiece. Musician's Publications also prints some fun ones.
Rubank (distributed by Hal Leonard now) has a book called "Repertoire for Clarinet Choir" that is a collection of a bunch of tunes, albeit not tunes people in the subway would probably recognize. Maybe you could get a couple of more folks to join you? A bass?
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-06-17 02:29
I'm going to take the approach that I used with private students in the distant past, and suggest that you try something different.
Next time to the music store, ask to see their selection of "SSA" vocal pieces. These are three part vocal arrangements with piano accompaniment, which used to sell for about two to three dollars each. Written for high school level "swing choir" as competition performance pieces for the most part, they are generally medleys of two or three popular tunes, with a "lead" part that stays in the first soprano about sixty percent of the time, and shifts to the second soprano and alto part for the rest. When I have looked for these, I have found them in the hundreds at well stocked music emporia.
(I believe that there are also SSAA arrangements in the same vein, but I've never shopped what's there, so on that front you're on your own.)
What I have done is to find the ones that the piano part isn't as critical to the whole, and then put a soprano on the two soprano parts and a bass on the alto. With all three parts in the treble clef, the three Bb instruments "play well together" using the concert pitch music.
The music is "fun", recognizable to anyone who's listened to the radio in the last twenty years or so, and equally as challenging for all (not just the number one). Some of them are really "cute" in the way that the parts bounce back and forth between the three players.
Since you don't use the piano part, there's no problem with transposition (although you could have the piano part played at written pitch, and have the clarinet players transpose from C concert. You do have to be careful to avoid those tunes based upon long, drawn out vocal lines, as without the words they don't make the transition well. Playing a "Nora Jones hit" (oxymoron, perhaps, but there you go) as a clarinet part would lose a lot in the translation.
We did about twelve of these with a clarinet trio back in the early 1990's, all as mood music for a shopping mall reopening. At the start, the number two was pretty set against the whole idea. But she decided to go along as the three of us couldn't come up with "enough notes" to fill the alloted time, as well as to have a few backups.
Tooting along in our concert dress, the regular stuff (light classics and such) that we played was received well enough by the strolling crowds. But, when we launched into "My Boyfriend's Back And You're Gonna Get In Trouble", we "caught" the crowd and held them for the rest of our time in the central court stage area.
We ended up "reprogramming" as we went along. I have to do this a lot with my dance band and others, so it isn't new to me. But the other two classic type folks were a bit flustered. We dropped five of the "light classic" numbers in the remaining set list and subbed out rock and pop stuff in their place, and went out on a high note (so to speak).
The best thing about it all (other than the pay, which was well above scale) was the change of attitude on the part of number two. She went from dead against to extremely pro the approach, and (at last meeting) she now uses them as the "end of the lesson" fun for her private students as I used to do many years ago.
I would (when having two students back to back) spend the last five or ten minutes of each lesson playing these in trio form (previous student stays on five minutes late, next student arrives five minutes early, both normally taking the soprano part with me on the alto). Both the kids and the parents enjoy having something that is "real" music (i.e., commercially viable to normal people) under their belt. And, they're dirt cheap in the bargain.
Now, if it was only as easy to find 5444-2 arrangements of stuff like "Play That Funky Music White Boy" and "In Hollywood (Everybody Is A Star)"...
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Author: kenabbott
Date: 2004-06-17 07:25
Try Last Resort Music. They publish trios and quartets of classical warhorses that are arranged for different instrument combinations.
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Author: contragirl
Date: 2004-06-18 01:02
Alfred Uhl - Divertimento.
Isnt there some kind of Krepsch quartet book or something? I dunno how entertaining that is.
ICA collection has Gershwin Preludes for Eb, 2 Bbs and bass. It's cool
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Author: claclaws
Date: 2004-06-18 01:35
Good luck with your plan! It sounds wonderful.
I also believe in "the more instrument, the merrier" philosophy. Are you thinking of clarinets only or wind-string mix? The latter gives nice sounds too(when you play well, of course..)
Lucy Lee Jang
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-06-18 02:25
claclaws wrote:
> I also believe in "the more instrument, the merrier"
> philosophy. Are you thinking of clarinets only or wind-string
> mix? The latter gives nice sounds too(when you play well, of
> course..)
>
I'm interested in a "whatever I can get" mix. So we'll just see how it turns out. . . .
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: larryb
Date: 2004-06-18 15:11
Mozart Divertimenti (5+ originals, plus additional opera arrangements by Trio di Clarone).
Originally for 3 bassethorns, later for two clarinets & bassoon, now also available in an edition that allows you to play for 3 clarinets. Published by Breitkopf.
These play and earn well on the street - probably good for the subway too, but be mindful of NYC MTA regulations on performing/playing music in the system. See: Section 1050.6 of NYCRR Title 21.Chapter XXI - METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY SUBCHAPTER D - RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE CONDUCT AND SAFETY OF THE PUBLIC - Part 1050: Rules Governing the Conduct and Safety of the Public in the Use of the Facilities of New York City Transit Authority and Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority.
You can access the rules at: http://mta.info/nyct/rules/rules.htm
Good Luck.
Post Edited (2004-06-24 11:53)
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