 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: tenthchair
Date: 2008-04-16 07:04
Hello clarinet community bboard,
I am new member, and this is my first post.
I recently bought Kalman Bloch's The Orchestral Clarinet: A Study of Symphony Repertoire Volume III from a music bookstore online. The description of the book initally caught my attention because it has Wagner's and Richard Strauss's music.
I was disappointed when I got the book. The excerpts contain music that was just a direct cut and past from the original clarinet parts. Furthermore, his analysis of the excerpt does not include tempi markings, which I think is VERY important if you are to analyze a solo excerpt. I feel the majority of his comments for the excerpts are kind of useless. "Play in strict rhythm," "watch the conductor," "count carefully", "play with full sound," "don't sound flat"...etc Isn't it obvious that you should already know those things?
Lastly, the book does NOT contain information about copyright from the publishers. Dances of Galanta, copyrighted in 1939, is in this book without permission.
On the back of the book, there are endorsements praising this book by Leon Russsianoff, Michele Zukovsky, Peter Simenauer, Clark brody, Harold Wright, and Richard Lesser.
I don't know if Mr. Bloch is a live or not. If he is, I would love to email my suggestion to his book for a second edition. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody in this communty own this book. What do you think about it? I think it has a great collection of clarinet excerpts, but the analysis and presentation is very poor.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2008-04-16 10:59
I have a copy of his Book 1 and always thought it was a very helpful and useful book, with some nice hints and tips from a master player /teacher.
Post Edited (2008-04-16 10:59)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2008-04-16 12:01
tenthchair wrote:
> Dances of Galanta, copyrighted in 1939
It's 1934 ...GBK
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-04-16 13:11
Kalman is 92 and retired. So he's not going to be updating the book anytime soon.......
Dances of Galanta was also in the International Excerpts book. No idea what was done with the copyright.
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"I feel the majority of his comments for the excerpts are kind of useless. "Play in strict rhythm," "watch the conductor," "count carefully", "play with full sound," "don't sound flat"...etc Isn't it obvious that you should already know those things?"
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Maybe you do, maybe you don't. Go a little deeper with his comments and they might make more sense to you.
o yeah, forgot the disclaimer:
I work with Kalman and Michele his daughter for online music.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
Post Edited (2008-04-16 13:12)
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Author: GBK
Date: 2008-04-16 13:30
DavidBlumberg wrote:
> Dances of Galanta was also in the International Excerpts book.
It's also found in Peter Hadcock's book (with copyright annotation) and excerpts were available for download on the recent CSO audition page.
...GBK
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Author: J. J.
Date: 2008-04-16 16:17
There's a reason those volumes aren't very popular anymore.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2008-04-16 17:36
tenthchair -
Steve Girko told me that when he graduated from conservatory, he had mastered the instrument. He then studied with Stanley Drucker, who didn't talk at all about how to play the clarinet. The entire time was spent studying orchestral scores, getting to know how the clarinet parts fit into the ensemble. Drucker would point out problems of rhythm, tuning and balance that weren't obvious until you ran into them in orchestral playing, warning Steve of places where he had to pay close attention.
This is exactly what Kalmen Bloch did in his three volumes of excerpts. The instruction to "watch the conductor" doesn't mean that you need to do the basic, beginner's thing. It means "Conductors usually speed up here -- watch out!" "Don't sound flat" really means something like "every bassoonist goes sharp here, and you have to go along."
Harold Wright did the same thing in his Collected Chamber Music for Clarinet http://www.vcisinc.com/clarinetmusiccollections.htm, item C091, as did Daniel Bonade did in his markup of Rose studies and orchestral excerpts http://www.vcisinc.com/clarinetmusicexcerpts.htm, item C919.
It's certainly obvious what the notes are, but it's anything but obvious where the hidden problems are. That's why even the very best players need several years in mid-level orchestras before they move on to top positions.
For an example of the non-obvious things you need to know, read my posting on the solo in the Beethoven 8th. http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=20&i=768&t=768
The markings in the Bloch, Wright and Bonade books are nuggets of pure gold. That's why the famous players and teachers listed on the back of the Bloch volume say such good things about it. Bloch provides information that every professional player needs to know.
Ken Shaw
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2008-04-16 17:37
Kalman still sells a lot of them actually. Aren't a lot of distributors (Van Cott is where the poster got it I'd wager) but sales are good.
I know
Ken said the long version of what I posted and is dead on.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
Post Edited (2008-04-16 17:39)
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Author: tenthchair
Date: 2008-04-17 07:09
Thank you for the correction GBK. Dances of Galanta was copyrighted in 1934 by Universal Edition A.G, Vienna.
I am still wondering about the copyright issue. The excerpt book was published by Clarion Music Assn. in 1990. Doesn't a piece of copyright work (Dances of Galanta for example) need to be at least 75 years old in order for it to become public domain. It has only been 56 years during 1990. Could you tell me what you think about this?
Post Edited (2008-04-17 07:11)
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