 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: sherman
Date: 2006-06-01 14:48
Very recently there was a reference to a poem concerning this work. The entry got no responses, so I decided to check out the poem and found it to be unfortunate and incorrect.
This pice is the most striking work of the previous century iwhich includes our clarinet. It was composed under the most trying circumstances, the composer being interned in a Concentration Camp while composing and also playing the first performance...for the 5,000 inmates of the Camp.
Bad instruments, playin in a used Czech Army uniform, yet, " I felt I was the only person in the entire audience", so said Olivier Messiaen, the composer, a spiritual composer basing an incredible number of works including clarinet upon bird calls.
Few will attempt the work because it features unusual difficulties and at 48 minutes is long for a single work on a program and perhaps too short for the only work on a program.
I have played it a dozen times, several with players who played it with Messiaen , and incidentally will be playing it again at Festival Alexandria in Canada on July 2nd.
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Author: redwine
Date: 2006-06-01 16:18
Hello Sherman,
I do hope to hear you perform this work. Of course, I'll be preparing for the 4th of July concert on the 2nd, so will be unable to attend. Will you record it? I'd love to hear the recording, if so.
I was just hired to play a piece by Hans Gal. It was written while Mr. Gal was in a concentration camp also and this will be the first performance outside of the concentration camp. It will be performed in Washington, D.C.--maybe at the Holocaust Museum sometime this fall. If anyone is interested, I'll keep you informed about the date of the performance. I certainly am looking forward to performing the piece and about being part of history and am so honored to have been asked to play the piece!
I hope to play the Messiaen one day as well, but the opportunity has not presented itself. I should visit you for a lesson on the work!
I hope you are well.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: Merlin
Date: 2006-06-01 16:53
Quote:
I was just hired to play a piece by Hans Gal. It was written while Mr. Gal was in a concentration camp also and this will be the first performance outside of the concentration camp. It will be performed in Washington, D.C.--maybe at the Holocaust Museum sometime this fall. If anyone is interested, I'll keep you informed about the date of the performance. I certainly am looking forward to performing the piece and about being part of history and am so honored to have been asked to play the piece!
Which piece, Ben? Is it the Gal trio? If so, have you heard Steve Fox play it with the Riverdale Ensemble?
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Author: redwine
Date: 2006-06-01 17:18
Hello Merlin,
Same composer, different piece. This one has never been performed outside of the concentration camp in which Mr. Gal wrote it. Evidently it is being copied right now, as the originals are in a museum in Germany. The Holocaust Museum in D.C. found the work and is dealing with bringing the copies to the U.S. I'm very excited about this opportunity!
I have heard Steve's recording of the Gal trio. The entire album is very nice, with great playing by Steve.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: sherman
Date: 2006-06-01 17:44
What a great find this was: a new piece by Hans Gal, never before performed. Now, how do I get a copy? and What is the instrumentation?
Speaking of and to Benjamin Redwine, let me reiterate what I have told many clarinetists: The mouthpiece that Ben makes I have found to be excellent in quality and more importantly ,comfort.
I found out from Ben that mouthpieces can indeed be copied. I had come across a Gennusa Mouthpiece in a trade and after time, found it to be what I like. After writing to him, he let me know that indeed the mouthpiece could be copied. He copied mine and it is the mouthpiece of my choice. Not only that, I have the original as well, and they are extremely close.
Mouthpieces are as personal as vibrato for a violinist, or an nstrument for that matter.
Post Edited (2006-06-01 17:46)
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-06-01 18:04
Messiaen was never in a "concentration camp". He was in a perfectly normal prisoner of war camp, for a fairly brief period at the start of WW2. His account of the first performance of the quartet is thought by some to be inaccurate.
None of that, of course, detracts from the quality of the work.
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I am fascinated by the assertion that Hans Gal was also held in a concentration camp. The website http://www.hansgal.com, which I believe to be fairly authoritative, states that he came to Britain in 1938 and was subsequently interned as an enemy alien. So were many other refugees, including members of the Amadeus Quartet. Britain has much to answer for over this, no doubt, but it is absurd to describe this as a concentration camp.
If you can provide evidence that Gal was ever imprisoned by Nazi Germany/Austria, then I stand corrected, of course.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: bawa
Date: 2006-06-01 19:20
David,
Thanks for your clarification; although it is not a good record for any country to have, yet we should make the difference between one type of camp and the other (especially for the sake of the people who actually suffered in a concentration camp).
Mr. Friedland, you had a beautifully detailed essay on this work (among others) in your "corner", which prompted me to go out immediately and acquire a recording.
On the accuracy of the Quarter myth, wasn't there a book recently about Messian composing this?
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-06-01 19:54
The book is "For the end of Time":
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=138497&t=138478
Also mentioned in:
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=138201&t=137906
And in defence of the British authorities who imprisoned Gal, it was for less than six months, at a time when Britain was in imminent danger of invasion. The authorities could not instantly vet every recently-arrived refugee from Germany to ensure he was not a spy or fifth-columnist, so they locked them up. Compared to the US behaviour towards Japanese-Americans, most of them American-born, it was a small matter indeed.
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: sherman
Date: 2006-06-01 20:29
Many thanks for the comment on my essay which was, as is the performance of the work,inspired by The Quartet . Of interest is the fact that the essays and analyses were part of submissions to the original Clarinet Corner, which was began at the suggestion of Marc Charette. Two hundred and 90 submissions later we are still going strong.
http://clarinet.cc
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Author: redwine
Date: 2006-06-02 10:28
Hello,
I'm no WWII scholar, so I apologize if I've misstated any facts. I'm only passing on what has been told to me by the person hiring me to give the US premier of this work. If I hear any better information, I'll pass it on. I guess I took the information at face value because the project is being organized by the US Holocaust museum. I'll check out the website, thanks Mr. Peacham.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: David Peacham
Date: 2006-06-02 12:15
Is the piece perchance this: http://www.hansgal.com/works/whatalife.html
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If there are so many people on this board unwilling or unable to have a civil and balanced discussion about important issues, then I shan't bother to post here any more.
To the great relief of many of you, no doubt.
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Author: beejay
Date: 2006-06-03 23:59
There is a detailed piece on Messiaen in the current edition of the Musical Times.
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Author: redwine
Date: 2006-06-05 20:16
Hello,
I haven't learned the title of the piece yet. I doubt that the piece Mr. Peacham mentions is it, because this was recently found, according to my information, and never performed outside the horrible camp (whatever you wish to call it) in which it was written.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: Brenda Siewert
Date: 2006-06-06 15:06
Ben, do you mean the Holocost Museum in the USA or Yad Vashem in Jerusalem?
What a fantastic find! We must preserve these pieces. They are a reminder in sound of the passion of the human heart in anguish; rising from the ashes to generations yet unborn and never to be silenced.
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Author: redwine
Date: 2006-06-06 16:12
Hello,
The museum in Washington, D.C.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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