 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: Christine
Date: 2000-03-15 04:34
Does anybody know the first piece in the literature to employ the technique of flutter tonguing? Was it the Berg 4 pieces or is there something earlier on? Does anyone know how flutter tonguing was discovered/developed?
If a person has trouble rolling their Rs is there an alternate way to create the effect of flutter tonguing? Is there a way to practice rolling Rs or to develop the ablility to roll Rs or is it genetic? I've heard that it's genetic but I've been trying really hard and have slowly but surely been improving my Rs. Still can't do it with a clarinet mouthpiece in my mouth though!
I'd appreciate any comments.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Katherine Pincock
Date: 2000-03-15 11:45
I can't answer about when the technique was first used, but I can give you a bit of information about th technique itself. To some extent it's genetic; some people have an easier time than others. However, most people can learn to do it with practice, as you've discovered. If you're having trouble doing it with your clarinet, you may have too much tension in your tongue--your tongue has to be really loose and relaxed. Also, you might try doing it a different way: there are two ways to flutter, either at the front or at the back, and some people can't do it one way but can the other. To do it in the front, you relax your tongue and let the air flow bounce it quickly up and down--it sounds sort of like a cat purring when you've got it right. To do it in the back, it's a motion like gargling without anything in your mouth. Either method will sound right once you've learned to do it. Hope all this helps!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: John
Date: 2000-03-15 14:37
My theory is that the ability to flutter tongue is gender based (which makes the theory automatically wrong, of course). It has to do with women never being 6 year old boys and spending countless hours playing war. We boys perfected our flutter tonguing in order to imitate "machine guns" - ttttt ttt tttt tttttttttttt! For similar reasons, men can't lip read. We were never 6th grade girls, who perfected talking to friends on the other side of the classroom without making a sound. Well, you asked for comments.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jessica
Date: 2000-03-16 22:14
I've had to flutter tongue twice that I can remember, and one piece preceeded the Berg timewise. Pretty everyone in the orchestra has to flutter tongue in Strauss' Don Quixote - the variation about the sheep. It's a neat effect. The other time was when I played first clarinet on the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story - the fugue. There is a jazzy clarinet solo ending with a flutter-tongued altissimo G# which resolves to a high A. It took me all week to get that right (I was sitting first at Interlochen). Later I got a recording of the San Francisco symphony doing it under Ozawa. I don't know who the clarinet player was on the recording, but he wimped out and just played a G# to A trill instead. So I guess not everyone can flutter-tongue, including some first chairs in major orchestras!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: HTW
Date: 2000-03-16 22:53
I think it's really genetic. I know some people who can't do it at all, but I've been able to do it ever since I started playing the clarinet. But it's in varying degrees- some people can do it easily away from the clarinet, but don't have the strength naturally to do it on the clarinet. Others can easily, others can't do it at all. If you've got the principal down outside the clarinet you can probably do it on the clarinet with work.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
