 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2012-08-23 20:57
I have been mulling this over lately as it is the one part of my playing I think is the strongest and most distinctive.
I have returned to regular clarinet playing after a long gap and have been thinking about whether I should change my clarion.
I am both delighted and bemused to see how accessible viewing a huge variety of players and styles is for us today.
In the early 80s when a performing career may have been an option for me, it was difficult even to get access to decent classical recordings on vinyl. I used to have to make bi-monthly journey's to a city 30 miles away on the bus to get these. I also had to do a similar journey weekly to get to my clarinet teacher.
Life events got in the way and I don't regret my chosen path for a second but the experience I grew up with was the English School and Gervase de Peyer was about the most exotic player we got to hear back then.
Hence it made me think, having seen what is possible now.... who would I hold in high esteem and who would I most want to emulate?
I consider my clarion to be flute -like ( I am also a flautist). If the clarinet fairy had waved her/his wand I would have chosen to be Jack Brymer or Michael Collins as there is a very slight hint of them in my make-up.
I think Robert Plane is amazing but his style is so unlike mine and I can't even begin to imagine taking on that style as I would not have a clue of even knowing where to begin.
US players who I find incredible now and would have had no knowledge of back then begin with Marcellus. He is marvellous but I think he has a clarion
which sounds like a very beautiful mouth organ/accordian. I can sort of get a hint of this on a soft reed and I have played around with this sort of sound but it just does not feel right for me. I do very much like Charles Niedlich and when I think about it, his clarion sounds very flute like to me.
My question is, If you had a choice and you could 'steal' the ideal clarion who would you steal it from?
Post Edited (2012-08-23 20:57)
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-08-23 21:08
For me it's all or nothing: I wouldn't separate the clarion from the other registers (though it is true that a great many players do). The most important aspect of sound concept, for me, is unity and consistency of timbre from the top to the bottom of the instrument. That's been accomplished by several great players, and I tend to like the variety and individuality of all of them. Artie Shaw, Pete Fountain, Karl Leister, Eddie Daniels, Reginald Kell all come to mind as players with unique, distinct, unified, and personal sound concepts. To choose their clarion would be to choose their entire concept....
Better to be yourself. Find your voice, which will be influenced by others, but unique. Then be consistent with it throughout the range of the horn...and you'll find that the more you seek to find that voice, the more the instrument itself will participate in yielding it--then you'll be playing with the horn, rather than against it.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2012-08-23 21:22
Jack Brymer and Michael Collins are both inspiring examples to consider emulating, but surely they are at opposite extremes in terms of their conception of sound?
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Author: Paula S
Date: 2012-08-23 21:40
Be careful Peter, I might steal yours in the night when you are asleep ![[happy]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smiley12.gif)
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2012-08-23 22:17
Please don't ;-)
In all seriousness it's important to have a concept in your own head and to try and develope that. Of course listening to others from all periods as great and useful. I'm happy with the way I sound because Ive worked on my concept.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-08-23 22:55
Gigliotti, at a workshop in San Antonio, admonished us to strive for all notes to be equally beautiful.
richard smith
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Author: Buster
Date: 2012-08-23 23:06
Paula,
Clearly, listening to others may help guide you... but ultimately you do have to decide for yourself what is your own personal concept (even though it will differ depending on the composition at hand...)
If I had to steal the clarion from any performer, well, I couldn't tell you who I would choose. (Disregarding my past leanings.) Separating any register of the clarinet from the surrounding registers is a smidge misguided outside of a laboratory setting.
e.g. Emulating Marcellus' clarion register would not function if the other registers lean towards the realm of Jack Brymer. ....Unless any composition calls for such disparity... (I could think of a few cases)
I'm often quite unhappy with the way I sound because I formed my concept some years back. My concrete concept became quite too "set in stone" and I've been fighting for a bit of time to step outside of that realm when any said piece of music does demand otherwise....
I thus ASK you to steal my clarion!!! It could free me up to expand my concept beyond the narrow path born and weened from my years in the orchestra.
Peter,
Though I've not heard your performances, I might gleefully borrow your clarion for experimental means if it only affords me an opportunity to explore the entire scope of what I currently "possess."
I don't know that I can say precisely where my concept resides... I do hope it is mutable at any rate.
-Jason
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2012-08-24 01:26
Interesting.
I think there is something truly haunting about Karl Leister's (and other fine Germanic players) clarion when listening to his blend with other woodwinds. On the other hand, for me, this style is also somewhat staid and inflexible. I wish I could just fall in love with one style and stick with it, but the variety (from all the other artists out there) is just too enticing.
..................Paul Aviles
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Author: Buster
Date: 2012-08-24 10:38
So "German" is both an ideal and simultaneously too inflexible..... quite a haunting and enticing platform Paul!!!
I wish I could fall in love with my style and not worry if it fits into an already defined arena.
Meh.......
-Jason
Post Edited (2012-08-24 18:01)
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2012-08-25 16:59
There's nothing wrong with Jason's clarion that few stiff drinks and large bore wouldn't solve. That's why I stole it last Friday night..it's currently marinating with Artie Shaw's altissimo, Pete Fountain's clarion, Irving Fazola's chalumeau, a bottle of Yukon Jack, and a sprinkle of Perrier water from the secret reed cellar of Louis Cahuzac, in an undisclosed location near Ashtabula, Ohio.
You'll get it back when it's ready, 1066....
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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