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Re: Yamaha CSVR Bb and A

Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2016-11-19 20:56

It's hard for me to accept the fact that I'm getting to be an old guy, with old guy ways and old guy sound in my head. But, I have noticed that there is a new aesthetic when it comes to clarinet sound.

When I was a kid taking lessons with iggy Genusa I heard an absolutely wonderful sound. When I heard recordings of Wright, Marcellus, Bonade and McClane I heard a very similar sound. It was full, it had highs and had a very pronounced fundamental and upper partials that accounted for maybe 40% of the sound.

It seems to my ear that a lot of clarinetists are trying to get rid of any of the "highs" in their sounds. I think this is leading to a sound that is rather dull. I know everybody is on a "dark" kick. I also think this is leading to a very " non musical" way of performing on clarinet. The tonal model of what a clarinet is supposed to sound like has become the sound of a Korg tuner that generates pitches.

I'm a firm believer in using vibrato on clarinet, but to my ear you can really only use it "color" the sound. I haven't found that vibrato works like it does on oboe where you can actually move from one note to another with vibrato as a driving force, same with saxophones and flutes. On those instruments you can use vibrato as a major musical device.

On clarinet one device that works great for moving from one note to another is "tone intencity' changes. Being able to add and subtract overtones in the sound. If there is one thing that all the players that I grew up listening to growing up is the abilly to change the color of their sounds sometimes on the same note. To do that you have to be able to make a very full ringy sound. It's an intense sound maybe a sound that only occurs on 5-10% of the notes you make. That's probably the same percentage that I use that "sotto voce" timbre. The rest is moving between the two.

That's was the thing I noticed about the CSVR when I picked it up yesterday was the sound was "Full Spectrum" I could get lots of different sounds out of it, and the middle of the spectrum was in a comfortable place. Bob B maybe you're right double lippers are always looking for something different. I've been trying to verbalize just what that is, but I thnk in my own case it's "unconstricted"sound that has maximum vibrations in it. It's a sound that's Bright and Dark at the same time. It's like one of the supreme court judges once said about pornagraphy. "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it"

Tom Puwalski, former Principal clarinetist and soloist with the U.S. Army Field Band and author of the Clarinetist's Guide to Klezmer, and Klezmer Boot Camp and D'Addario performing artist.

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Yamaha CSVR Bb and A new

Bob Bernardo

2016-10-28 13:09