 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Anna
Date: 2005-01-19 20:30
Hi everyone,
I play clarinet in a community ensemble and became almost the defacto section leader this past fall when our more talented clarinet went off to college. Well our conductor invited him and several other former players/now-freshmen-in-college back to participate in the concert. This increased our section to 5, we already had 4.
My question is when you have an odd number of players should there be more firsts or seconds?
I probably should have asked the conductor this question but it came up so late that I didn't want to mess up anyone's practice on the part they already had. The ensemble is a mix of middle/high schoolers, adults, and mature adults all with other things to do.
Anna
(And God only knows why they asked me instead of the conductor in the first place.)
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Author: Dan1937
Date: 2005-01-19 20:49
More seconds, and even more thirds. Reasons: (1) the highest-pitched instruments sound louder than those which are lower, and (2) most likely the seconds and thirds are not as advanced and therefore do not play with as much confidence; therefore they sound softer. The larger groupings help to give them more confidence.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2005-01-20 06:05
Ideally (some may disagree) put your best 3 players on 1st, 2nd, 3rd. After that, 1sts <= 2nds <= 3rds. Lower parts often don't project as well, but are equally important.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Anna
Date: 2005-01-20 13:05
Thanks for the help. The answer is what I suspected but the reasons I hadn't thought of. We usually have only four players (at least the last year or so) and split them evenly on first and seconds. I've yet to see a piece with third clarinet parts but this past season we had some bass parts she (the conductor) wanted played and ended up with this question.
Alex, I like your suggestion, that way the less experienced players get a chance to play more advanced stuff (which is basically what happened to me, I prefer second parts but got put on firsts).
Thanks again,
Anna
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Author: William
Date: 2005-01-20 19:57
For music with 1st & 2nd clarinet, 2 on 1st and 3 on 2nd.
For music with 1st, 2nd & 3d clarinet, 1 on 1st, 2 on 2nd & 2 on 3d.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2005-01-20 20:09
First clarinets are highly overrated.....LOL
Bob Draznik
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-01-21 02:36
A resonable thing to do is to rotate the players in and out of the secondary parts. That way everyone gets to play what part they are most comfortable with and get an equal experience.
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Author: diz
Date: 2005-01-21 02:39
Ana said:
(and god only knows why they didn't ask the conductor...)
made me laugh
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
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Author: Firebird
Date: 2005-01-21 13:12
Depends on the balance of the band and the number of clarinettists. Bands here I know can afford 3: 6: 9 or 2: 4: 6 and 1 more on Eb.
If the band is small, like with only 3-4 trumpets and 2 tubas 3: 3: 3 should go fine.
Chan
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Author: Shadow
Date: 2005-01-23 04:19
We have 12 clarinets in our band, 1 or 2 on 1rst and any number on 2nd 3rd and sometimes 4th.
The balance in our band is horrible, we have about the right amount of peaple on the right insterments, but every other person can't play loud or soft. I.E. so bad that 8 flutes overpower 12 clarinets, two bass clarinets overpower 13 trumpits (seriously), and the one bari sax player can has and always will overpower everything from the Jazz band to airports.
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Author: chumbucket804
Date: 2005-01-24 03:00
we have 60 (including percussion) in our band.. 7 of which are clarinets.. so 1st: 2, 2nd: 2, and 3rd: 3.. seems to work pretty well for us.
eliz
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