 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: PaulIsaac
Date: 2015-04-16 13:10
I'm providing the music (guitar and singing) for an ANZAC Day service at the local church, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings. At one stage in the service we will be playing the Last Post. We do not have a bugler so I have the option of playing an mp3 recording of a bugler playing the Last Post (provided for public use by the RSL website) or playing it on my clarinet. If I use a 2.5 regular Vandoren reed with my Selmer C85 120 mouthpiece I can get a very loud, bright and "colourful" sound which to me sounds as "trumpet-like" as a clarinet could be. The church is a lovely A-frame building and I've played the clarinet there before and the acoustics are wonderful. The sound of the clarinet fills the whole space.
But when all is said and done it still sounds like a clarinet playing the Last Post.
My questions: Does anyone think it's NOT OK to play the Last Post on a clarinet in a solemn service? Is it disrespectful or against protocol to do so? Am I over-thinking this? The parish priest reckons it'll be fine but I have this nagging feeling that I might be doing the wrong thing and perhaps setting myself up for ridicule by any returned servicemen.
Any thoughts please, perhaps from any Kiwis or Aussies (ex-servicemen?) who may have previous experience with ANZAC Day ceremonies where a bugler has not been available?
Personally I always prefer hearing live music over recordings but it's really the solemnity/tradition issue that's bugging me here.
Thanks.
Pauly.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2015-04-16 16:11
I play clarinet. My uncle who served in both the Italy and the Philippines during WWII could not get a bugler for his service. Though as you say clarinet can have a trumpet like sound, it is not a trumpet. I deferred to silence rather than be a poor mimic. The problem is that the BUGLE or TRUMPET is just as much a part of that moment as the notes themselves.
............Paul Aviles
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Author: PaulIsaac
Date: 2015-04-16 16:46
Paul Aviles wrote:
>The problem is that the BUGLE or TRUMPET is just as
> much a part of that moment as the notes themselves.
Paul Aviles, you've succinctly captured the essence of my dilemma in that final sentence and you are quite right. Thank you.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2015-04-16 17:33
Play it on the clarinet, doing your best to get the same effect as a bugle would have. Live music is always better than recorded, and you're already part of the ceremony. No one who doesn't play the bugle will notice, or care.
Ken Shaw
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2015-04-16 19:27
American military funerals traditionally include 'Taps', which apparently serves the same end-of-the-day purpose as the Last Post.
At least for a few years during the late 1990's, due to a shortage of buglers, American military funerals used a digital device that fit in the bell of a bugle to sound Taps while a non-playing person held the bugle to his lips.
If you play in an orchestra or band, could you get a good trumpet player to perform the Last Post?
I would think the sound of a military bugle call being played on a bugle is more important to the service than the means by which that sound was generated. You might ask some veterans who are used to attending such services for their opinion on this matter.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2015-04-16 19:44
I'm an ex-Brit Royal Air Force vet, long resident in Australia and now an Australian citizen. I've been associated with the Last Post in UK Remembrance Day and in Oz Anzac Day ceremonials. The use of a bugle or trumpet is as much a part of the tradition as the music itself, so I would suggest that if you can't find a brass player then either a recording or silence would be most appropriate. I can't speak for the U.S. but I'm certain that in Oz the use of a clarinet would most certainly be noticed.
Tony F.
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Author: Dibbs
Date: 2015-04-16 19:51
IMO clarinet wouldn't sound right. You might get away with it on soprano sax.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2015-04-16 20:18
As a veteran in the USA:
If one were to play taps at my funeral I would most certainly want a bugle, trumpet, or even a recording rather than an alternate instrument. Ken, it makes a difference, at least to many veterans who have served in foreign wars (as I and a number of my compatriots have).
My middle son played taps on trumpet at many a veteran's funeral.
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2015-04-16 20:40
Mark Charette wrote:
> As a veteran in the USA:
>
> If one were to play taps at my funeral I would most certainly
> want a bugle, trumpet, or even a recording rather than an
> alternate instrument. Ken, it makes a difference, at least to
> many veterans who have served in foreign wars (as I and a
> number of my compatriots have).
>
> My middle son played taps on trumpet at many a veteran's
> funeral.
Though I am not a veteran, I have several family members who are...and this sums up exactly how I feel about the subject. Hearing Taps or Last Post on anything but a trumpet or bugle is just wrong.
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Author: PaulIsaac
Date: 2015-04-17 14:11
Thanks so much for your thoughtful replies everyone.
I'll be telling the PP tomorrow that unless he can get a real bugler to do the job (not so easy on Anzac Day in Brisbane) we'll be listening to an mp3 recording.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2015-04-18 04:33
In one town we used to play the Last Post on a flugelhorn because the mellow tone echoed beautifully off the stone buildings. In more open settings we used a cavalry (long) bugle.
Tony F.
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Author: PaulIsaac
Date: 2015-04-19 02:55
Tony I was at a footy match yesterday and they had a bugler play the Last Post. Very moving. I realised then that the clarinet would have been a very poor imitation.
Flugelhorn is a beautiful sound indeed!
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Author: bensimmonds
Date: 2015-04-20 10:51
Sounds like you've come to a consensus on this, but I'm another vote for the recording. I'm sorry, it has to be a brass sound (flugel woud actually sound much more accurate than cornet or trumpet)
Fortunately I got roped in to play in the local brass band as a kid. So I will be using my Great-great Grandfather's WWI service bugle this year. I'd even be looking forwards to it if it wasn't for the 5am start.
"You do things that some people think are impossible, and that's what separates the men from the boys" ~ Artie Shaw
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Author: PaulIsaac
Date: 2015-04-20 14:01
Thanks bensimmonds. The "nays" far outweighed the "yays" so I'm not going to attempt it.
Wish I could blow a bugle though. That vintage family bugle of yours will sound terrific and very authentic!
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2015-04-21 16:30
If you can't get a bugler, see if you can find a trumpeter who can play Last Post on fluegelhorn if they don't have a bugle, as in my opinion that is the nearest sound to how a bugle should sound on this and most occasions - a softer, sombre sound which is more fitting.
Played straight (with no vibrato) and also musically starting the notes at the required volume instead of bulging the notes (which so many buglers tend to do) and rounding off the phrases nicely with a controlled diminuendo as opposed to cutting the notes off abruptly will make the moment special.
I play a Selmer 530 bugle which is basically a fluegelhorn but without the valve section and they have 'that' sound as opposed to the usual bugles with the double wrap that have tuning issues and tend to want to go flat up top.
I also have a couple of legitimate copies of a two part Last Post which is never heard anymore which is a shame. So if you can get two players to play both parts instead of both of them playing in unison (where you'll notice the mistakes more), then that will make for a memorable Last Post for such a poignant occasion.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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