 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: shmeon
Date: 2007-06-01 23:42
I'm a grad student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I'm interested in the teaching and legacy of Rosario Mazzeo. I'm looking forward to a long and relaxed summer of practice and study and I wanted to have a particular focus. After poking around in my collection of books and on the internet it dawned on me; why not take some time to learn more about Rosario Mazzeo and how he taught and played? Can anyone recommend recordings of Mazzeo? I already have his book "The Clarinet: Excellence and Artistry" on order. Did he publish any other materials? Thanks.
p.s. On other fronts: I'm currently trying to prepare for a regional orchestra audition here in the SF Bay Area. I just did a major audition less than 2 weeks ago that involved about 4-5 months of intense preparation. Now I am finding that I am unfocused in the practice room, and quite franky, want nothing to do with the clarinet for a while. Should I withdraw from the audition? It is a few days away and I'm really not prepared because I haven't had the drive or energy to practice. My deposit check would be cashed, but it is only $25. What do you recommend? Should I take the audition or withdraw?
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-06-02 00:58
NOW!
Record all of the audition material before sleep tonight.
Tomorrow, review the recording. Then decide.
Bob Phillips
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-02 00:59
Hi Shmeon- Re: Mazzeo, he was the inventor, 5 US patents, #s available, prob. in our Search archives also, on a method of producing a better "pinch", midstaff Bb, and other additions/improvements to our "standard" Boehm. The NMM [Vermillion S D] has a prototype of his "full-scale" modifications, prob. made by Selmer, who commercialized the "Mazzeo Model" for a number of years. I believe NMM also has much personal info as his legacy. Others will tell you of his professional career. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: bufclar
Date: 2007-06-02 01:15
Shmeon,
Which group are you auditioning for in the bay area? If it is one of the better groups like California Symphony, Oakland Symphony, Monterey Symphony, Marin or Santa Rosa, then those will be highly competitive and you will need to decide quickly if you really got the edge right now to compete. Other groups in the Bay area might not attract the top free lancers but the better groups usually do and you will need your A Game.
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Author: donald
Date: 2007-06-02 02:30
find a library that has The Clarinet and go back over the last 20 years- Mr Mazzeo wrote a regular column that was really interesting and informative, in addition to containing lots of tidbits about his life etc (i don't know what date he started writing this)
donald
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Author: ajhogan
Date: 2007-06-02 07:56
I live in Marin County, and studied with an old student of his. I would be happy to give you her contact info. You can email me off the board if you would like.
Austin
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2007-06-02 11:31
Two former students of Mr. Mazzeo who are (were) active performers on the Mazzeo system clarinet are Sherman Friedland and Margaret Thornhill. Both post here and both have obituraries for Mr. Mazzeo on this site. Both Mr. Friedland and Dr. Thornhill have their own web sites; both have recordings with some of Margaret Thornhill's (on a Mazzeo clarinet) available on her web site. Mr. Friedland has posted a number of observations about the teaching methods of Mr. Mazzeo on his web site.
Of interest, Sherman studied with Mazzeo near the peak of his career and just after Selmer Mazzeo clarinets became available while Margaret studied with him after his formal retirement from the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carmel, CA.
To the best of my knowledge, there are no commercial recordings of Mr. Mazzeo on his own Bb or A Mazzeo clarinets (although there are BSO recordings of him on "standard" Eb and bass clarinets); some private "live" recordings of his playing on the Mazzeo Bb clarinet exist.
George
Post Edited (2007-06-02 12:49)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-02 13:37
As donald suggested, I took a quickie look into the ICA's [International Clarinet Association] Master Index, where, listed under author's names, R M's Mazzeo Musings were published [quarterly] between about 1986 and 1994, Vol.'s XIII -XXI, and his first writing I found was VII #2 [3?] pg 45. There is likely more, his Selmer-made cls have been discussed several time, possibly the latest by Dr Debbi Reeves of NMM, where the bibliographies [if included] should give you much more ! It will take a bit of study of ICA's format, but it appears quite understandable. Happy Reading, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: sherman
Date: 2007-06-02 14:57
I both play Mazzeo Clarinets as well as regular and full-boehm clarinets. I studied with Rosario for 6 years at the New England Conservatory of Music and we became friends until he passed away.
He invited me to demonstrate his instrument at the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of the UK in the late 80s and he took me to hear Michael Collins play the Finzi Concerto in the Royal Albert Hall.
His particular innovation has remained in my utilization for a special reason: that of an impairment in my left wrist. Using his instrument for the Bb whenever my hand acts up has been a great boon to me. I was Principal of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and played a set of his clarinets which he gave me and which I still have. I last played my Mazzeo for a concert on last July 2nd, La Quatour pour La Fin du Temps, by Olivier Messaien and the Martinu Clarinet Sonatina.
I have an entry on my website which might be of interest to you as it concerns the materials Mazzzeo used for teaching. There is a search window on the site, and by placing his name in the window, it will bring up all of the articles I have written concerning an old and missed mentor and friend.
Sherman Friedland
Post Edited (2007-06-02 15:01)
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Author: Max S-D
Date: 2007-06-02 20:58
My teacher here at UC Santa Cruz (also teaches at Stanford, I think), Mark Brandenburg, studied with Mazzeo in Carmel (I believe), after graduating from Julliard. When Mazzeo passed away, he left a lot of (all of?) his sheet music collection to UC Santa Cruz. I've worked out of his copy of the Kroepsch excercises for most of this last year. I also play a "Mazzeo Model" low-C Selmer bass clarinet, although the Mazzeo mechanisms have mostly all been disabled. Now I spend probably an hour a week putting pieces of post-it notes underneath them so they don't rattle! I'm going to have the instrument this summer, so I might see if the school would be opposed to me getting those mechanisms replaced, just out of curiosity.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-02 21:27
Gosh, Max S-D, I had never heard of the Mazzeo improvements being applied to the bass cl, however it does seem very logical since he played bass etc for Boston Symp. for some time. I, and I'm sure other bass players, would be much interested in pics [if possible] and your description of which keys were changed and how they play. I'll read again his patents, this time to look for bass references, as plateau keying has its additional complexities. TKS, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: donald
Date: 2007-06-02 21:51
Mr Mazzeo included in his teaching materials a Sonatina for Cl and Piano by NZ composer Douglas Lilburn. I performed this work a number of times in the USA, including at Clarinetfest 2003, and my experience was that no one had heard it (or heard of it).
I had always wanted to ask him how he came to know of this composition but never got to meet the man.
donald
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Author: Cosmicjello
Date: 2007-06-03 00:55
I had the privilege to study with Felix "Phil" Viscuglia, who studied with Mazzeo at New England, then took his spot in the BSO. He's happily retired in Goodsprings/Jean NV and I'm sure he and Sherman have many stories they could tell.
His contact information is readily available through the internet
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Author: musiciandave
Date: 2007-06-03 01:01
I met Rosario in Belguim back in 1993 and was talking to him about Philadelphia players. He was trying to think of a student that he taught back in the early 60's and couldn't come out with the name - that is until he looked at his wife and said "what was that guy's name?"
she knew
I was pretty impressed that his wife remembered the students name (local player) after all those years.
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Author: sherman
Date: 2007-06-03 11:12
Donald:
I know that Rosario had some work done on his clarinets by a repairperson in New Zealand. Rosario had a VW Bus that he drove for a while and I went with him to Logan Airport to pick up the horns. The reason I remember it is because he just drove across the runway as if he owned it. I was both frightened and somehow elated. As I recall the work had something to do with jewels in the keys. I must be quite thick because Inever asked anything further. But he could of had conversance with a composer (s) in NZ as well.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-03 13:00
Thank you, Sherman, Could we say "jewels for a Jewel" ? All [well. nearly all {to paraphrase ?Pinafore}] musicians are "characters" when compared to "common folk", a right of passage, perhaps?? I'm sure a jeweled bass cl would just play better !! My older Selmer {only to Eb} dates back to "Mazzeo times" and while it has 3 of the Full Boehm improvements, I haven't [as yet] found other significant diffs, so will be interested in other responses here, and look forward to reading the "Mazzeo Musings" in the 80-90's ICA journals, when found ! Great discussions. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: ghuba
Date: 2007-06-03 16:10
According to an earlier post on this Board by Dr. Allen Siegel, a documentary about Ansel Adams aired by PBS in 2004 contains footage of Mr. Mazzeo who embraced photography as a hobby and then "second career" and who was a neighbor and friend of Mr. Adams. While the documentary was about photography and Mr. Adams, Mr. Mazzeo apparently was interviewed. I have been looking for a copy of this DVD for a while. I have finally found it in stock at the giant Internet book+CD+video store. There appear to be several versions of the video including what must be the original version from 2002 and another version from 2004.
George
Post Edited (2007-06-03 18:42)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-06-03 18:59
A man of many talents, for sure. Considering the bass clarinet "improvement" info, I checked over the 5 US patents from 1959 thru the 60's 2,867,146 [parent appl.] , 3,204,512, 3,035,473, 3,150,553, 3,379,086. and discovered that I had missed one, 3,387,528 which deals with the low, long keys and, I believe, a Left L F alternative touch for the low Eb which may be what was referred to above. So I'll read it carefully and report findings. WOW, Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: James Langdell
Date: 2007-06-03 19:03
I studied with Mazzeo in the early 1970s when I was a student at UC Santa Cruz and for several years afterwards. I continue to play on a Bb/A pair of Selmer Mazzeo clarinets. I live near San Francisco, and would be happy to share memories of his teaching.
You might also contact Daniel Deitch, a maker of historial woodwind instruments with a shop on Clement Street in San Francisco. He did some custom fabrication of instrument parts. He has a wooden block where he started to prototype a wooden bass clarinet bell, at Rosario's request.
Contact information is at http://www.danieldeitch.com
As others have mentioned, Mazzeo's sheet music collection is at the UC Santa Cruz library. His collection of historic clarinets is at the National Music Museum in South Dakota. The instruments are described here:
http://www.usd.edu/smm/Mazzeocollection.html
--James Langdell (my last name at earthlink dot net)
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Author: shmeon
Date: 2007-06-04 02:51
James,
I know Daniel Deitch well. He has worked on all my clarinets from the beginning. The next time I'm in his shop I'll make sure to ask him. Thanks.
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Author: sherman
Date: 2007-06-04 03:21
RM was also an avid member of the Audobon Society and an ardent bird-watcher and photographer. During the earlier day in Boston, he could be found everywhere with several 35mm cameras around his neck,and binoculars. At that time, he wore his hair in the Einstein style. He is also remembered quite fondly by many of the members of the Symphony Hall staff for actually going out on that long sloping roof and rescuing a wounded pigeon.
When he began to make plans for retirement he shared all of the polaroid photos he had taken of the land at Carmel. At that point he had become friendly with the photographer Ansel Adams, who actually has been trained as a concert pianist, I suppose a source for their friendship. They were both members of the F64 club. F64 being about the smallest opening of the lens on those large 5X7 camers they used, which must have been quite a change from the 35mm and the occasional Hasselblad he sported about.
I used to visit him in his office in Symphony Hall and I would be ushered in by his secretary Peggy Burke. On the way up I would stop and listen to the orchestra rehearse for as long as I could. Once, she came down and physically dragged me away. When we got out of earshot, she told me that if someone had caught me listening, the entire orchestra would have had to have been paid. Koussevitsky was quite a difficult person at rehearsals and so the orchestra passed the rule in order to protect the players who would have been embarrassed during one of his tirades, had a friend also overheard what had transpired.
I have seen the film of the Ansel Adams interview, and had looked forward to seeing it, but had been disappointed bcsause there so little of Rosie in it.
Sherman Friedland
Post Edited (2007-06-04 03:24)
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Author: Max S-D
Date: 2007-06-04 05:33
"Gosh, Max S-D, I had never heard of the Mazzeo improvements being applied to the bass cl, however it does seem very logical since he played bass etc for Boston Symp. for some time. I, and I'm sure other bass players, would be much interested in pics [if possible] and your description of which keys were changed and how they play."
I haven't got a lot of experience with Low C bass clarinets, but I'll try and describe what seems to match the descriptions on this page: http://www.usd.edu/smm/Mazzeoclarinets.html
My teacher told me that the main "Mazzeo" feature of the instrument was the fact that it went down to Low C, which was a relatively new development at the time (I don't really know when this was, this is just what he's told me). It also once had the Mazzeo Bb mechanism (finger throat A, hold down any keys in the right hand, you get a Bb), but that has since been disabled, and now is a uselss rattling piece of metal.
It has the left hand Ab/Eb lever, I don't know if that's pretty standard on bass clarinets or not. It obviously has the plateau key for the left hand, as do all basses!
I didn't realize that Daniel Deitch worked so closely with Mazzeo. He's the only repairman I've ever been completely comfortable taking my clarinets to, and I've actually taken this instrument to him before. I'll have to ask more questions next time I see him (probably in about two or three weeks).
I can try to put up some pictures if anybody wants them.
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Author: donald
Date: 2007-06-04 06:32
Sherman
thanks for your annecdote re Mazzeo/NZ connection. This reminds me that a jeweler called Dave Smith- who also did instrument repairs for many years (including pinning a crack on my old Buffet S1 in 1984) once told me that he had installed "jewels" in the pivots of a clarinet for someone! I'll phone him and ask if it was for Mr Mazzeo! (he would have shared this story with me at least 15 years ago before i went to the USA)
donald
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