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Re: staccato after slur

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2022-07-25 01:13

I think illustrating the "end of a note" (at the end of a phrase for example) is best illustrated WITHOUT the clarinet. Take a really deep breath and HOLD it, with your mouth open and not stopping with the tongue. What you have there is a completely open airway (from bottom of lungs all the way out) with the "potential energy" of diaphragm and abdominal muscles fully flexed (like a drawn bow of a bow and arrow). Now, execute a series of really short releases of air....it will sound like "huh..huh..huh," and you will really feel the stop in your mid section like a bump.

Those endings or bumps are how you stop a note (at the end of a phrase or in isolation).

I totally agree with Karl on the note beginnings....it depends

In most cases (standard musical context) you want the definition of a tongued beginning to a note. Of course that start is really two actions of the tongue done in quick succession. The first is to place (NOT HIT) the tip of the tongue upon the reed. This prevents the reed from vibrating as you introduce the air column. The second action of the tongue is the release of the tip of the reed. This allows a sudden burst of vibrations which is what gives you the initial transient (like the plucking of a violin or guitar string).

As for the "air attack," we hear this ALL THE TIME when singers sing a word that begins with a vowel. We shouldn't look for reasons to limit our sonic vocabulary.

I recall a Karl Leister masterclass where he wanted students to begin a certain loud note in Brahm's first Sonata with just the air (meas. 25 for those of you scoring at home). The standard training we get here made it all but impossible for those US students to execute; Leister kept repeating, "no tongue, no tongue." And I think the example many of us would agree with, is the end of the second mvt. of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony. The two note descending figure that is the "cuckoo," needs to sound like "WHO-who," and not "TU-tu."

................Paul Aviles

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