The Clarinet BBoard

Re: Wedding Music

Author: Bob Bernardo  Date:   2018-06-20 06:48 I was just gonna suggest talking to the pastor. I was asked recently to play a funeral but all of the music they wanted was - putting it nicely "Hick," type of music, which I have no issues with. This is what the lady loved! However, it was a Catholic service. So I had to change on the fly after talking with the priest. Played Ava Maria, the second movement of the Mozart Concerto and the Wagner Clarinet Concerto, but I guess it's also called something else. No piano, you just link the piece together and add play the orchestra parts on the clarinet. It fits nicely. In fact I saw Stanley Drucker play the the ending of the Mozart 3 movement, which is really for the orchestra only. Yes I liked his version a lot! Heck at 85 years old I'm still learning from him. I do NOT think you need 30 minutes of playing before the start of the wedding. I think 15 minutes or less will be just fine. But you can get there early of course and get the feel of the accaustics. For example with no carpeting and I tend to favor harder reeds 4's and maybe 4 plus, for projection reasons. A small dead church with carpet I will use a 3 1/2 or maybe even a hard 3 reed, clipped, because I need to articulate well and a thicker tip on a soft reed is a must for me. The key here is projection. Your sound from p to f needs to be heard. You are experienced, playing for 45 plus years, so you know what I'm talking about and this is written for others mainly with a bit less experience. Not sure if I wrote about this. I did a tour not too long ago, 2 months ago, and I used Exclusive reeds at all of the halls except Orchestra Hall in Chicago. There I used the Classic reeds. The hall is so big I needed a freer sounding reed. The Classic reeds have a bit less wood in them, but designed by Marc Charpentier who was the designer of the Vandoren reeds for 40 years. So these reeds are pretty play like Vandoren reeds but the cane is better. If I were playing on Vandoren reeds I would most likely have used the thinner blue box 4 plus reed. Point taken is be flexible. At Severance the sound was just fine with the heavier Exclusive reeds. So before the wedding the Mozart is just about 30 minutes. Ava Maria is played a lot during weddings. Wagner is never played. The Wedding Song by Paul, from Peter, Paul, and Mary and short and easy. Played a lot in the 1990's. not too much now. You can also pick up a Bach piece or 2 that's been transposed to clarinet which are sometimes 15 minutes long. More ideas - Check out my buddies at the Clarinet Institute. A lot of the music is free. We get together a few times a year just to play. Some things they charge for music, but it's so little. You can get a ton of music for pennies. Music written for piano and clarinet. Either free or pretty much free. Also really nice recordings. Have a blast! It's a real honor. If this is your first time be careful of your nerves and go to the dress rehearsal and play there. Some of the nerve issues include a vibrato with your embouchure, cold fingers that don't move as fast as they should, and shaky legs. lol The answers are to play at the dress rehearsal and run hot water on your hands for 15 minutes. Run or walk fast for 20 minutes before you play so your body is warm. Dry mouth is common so have water next to you to drink and to wet the reeds. A huge tablespoon of pepper to warm you up! Kidding Hope I've covered everything. After 475 concerts nerves can still hit me. Question for the people here. Is it still called the Wagner Concerto? Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces Yamaha Artist 2015

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