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Re: Ligatures

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2022-09-29 02:51

Fedele plays notes with the mouthpiece turned so the reed is against his upper lip. He doesn't say that for the first decades of the clarinet as a new invention, most players probably played that way. The clarinet was developed from the chalumeau in the 1690s and at least till the early 1800's the old reed up embouchure was the standard. Virtuoso players like Heinrich and Carl Baermann did not establish the reed down position (that we take for granted as mainstream and normative) until well into the 19th century. What is most remarkable to modern ears is that Fedele, having practiced some of the Montanaro exercises, makes the reed up position sound sure and natural--not wild and uncontrolled as some would expect. He's teaching a "don't pinch" lesson, not a history lesson but I heard recently from some French clarinetists that players like Philippe Cuper believe the Paris Conservatory professor Prosper Mimart (who premiered the Debussy Rhapsody) was still playing with the reed against the upper lip as late as 1911. Mimart's old recording of Schubert's Shepherd on the Rock is sometimes discussed as proof that some early French players used vibrato. But it is even more remarkable if Mimart is playing throughout with the reed up. Even as a brief exercise, experimenting with this position can build sensitivity to what the lip is doing and how much or how little pressure is needed throughout to musically render the phrases. This little unintended glimpse into clarinet history opens up the possibility that some reed-up players, like Cavallini, for example, might have had more, not less lip flexibility than most reed-down players.

Post Edited (2022-09-29 02:54)

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Ligatures new

alanporter

2022-09-24 05:47