 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2011-06-06 20:58
During the cadenza of Messenger's Solo de Concours, as many of you know, the initial phrase has a Clarion, right pinky E-flat, followed by Clarions B, C, and E-flat again.
Conventional wisdom would have the performer switching from right to left pinky Clarion C, or from Clarion right pinky B to left (but not both!), in anticipation of this second Clarion E-flat, but I was wondering if anyone would recommend, or has had success with, rather then doing the above mentioned "pinky swap," instead, sliding from the initial left pinky Clarion B to a left pinky Clarion C.
Thank you for your thoughts--my fellow clarinetists!
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Author: Grabnerwg
Date: 2011-06-06 21:52
I have always slid from the Eb to the B using the right hand pinky. Works fine with a little practice.
Of course, you can always buy a clarinet with the left hand Eb/Ab and avoid the problem altogether!
Walter Grabner
www.clarinetxpress.com
New and Used Buffet Clarinets
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-06-06 22:28
I haven't played that piece in a long time - it's been out of our local high school audition lists for at least a couple of cycles. I remember doing one slide or the other, just not certain without looking at it again whether right Eb to right B or left B to left C.
But, respectfully, the point really isn't whether anyone would recommend sliding over switching fingerings mid-note or whether anyone has had success with sliding. It really is a question of how *you* negotiate that combination most easily and smoothly. Unless you are a student having a difference of opinion with your teacher over it, it really doesn't matter to anyone else how you finger it as long as it sounds clean. Try it several times with each possibility and see which one you find most comfortable.
As long as the most comfortable choice isn't sloppy sounding, go with it.
Karl
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2011-06-12 16:22
Paul, Walt...I'm a bit confused...
Paul: I realize that asking you how to articulate in words how you slide from the E flat key to the right pinky B key is a little like asking da Vinci how he painted the Mona Lisa--and might best be answered with "practice, practice, practice," but, having tried this, do you have particulars in the technique you use that you can share?
Walt: the picture of your horn with the rollers between E flat and right pinky C is duly noted. (I think that's what you were trying to highlight).
I am though confused how--and maybe because I am missing the point of your photo) this would facilitate the movement from E flat to right pinky B, without hitting C first...or maybe the time on the C key is so fast that its immaterial????
Thanks gents..
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-06-12 16:43
I went back to my copy copy of this after I first responded. I never re-posted because my initial answer was that it didn't really matter how you choose to do it as long as your choice is both comfortable clean-sounding, so it didn't seem important to say how I do it.
But you seem concerned about the mechanics of a right-hand Eb-B slide. FWIW, and notwithstanding Walter's and (I think) Paul's use of a right-hand slide, I realized that I do it with a left-hand slide from B to C, which I personally find easier to control than the right-hand version. Since I'm essentially sliding downward from the B spatula to the C more or less under it, I don't have to avoid hitting anything else on the way. I did find that I even had this fingering penciled in on the part.
Karl
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Author: kdk
Date: 2011-06-12 22:01
Replaced by Cavallini Adagio & Tarantella, at least in District 11. The PMEA rotations have always, since I was a student in the 1960s, been Mozart Concerto (usually the Rondo but sometimes the Allegro), Weber Concertino and something else. The Messager was in the sequence for several cycles. They've plugged several other things into that third spot over the decades, but always the Mozart and Weber remain.
Karl
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Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2011-06-13 02:45
I agree Karl. If sliding is your chosen method, moving from B to C with the left pinky is the way to go.
Walt seemed to suggest he did it with his right pinky.
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