 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: ~jerry
Date: 2001-08-04 16:36
I think I know the *direct* answer to this question but..........
Is there a diference in the music written for sax and that for clarinet...................in other words if you play sax music on the clarinet will it sound too out of character? (answer is undoubtably no, I would guess....otherwise we would see clarinet/saxaphone on the heading of a sheet of music).
However, how close are they and what must one change to get the sax music to play on the clarinet.................generally speaking?..............or would it be simpler to transpose piano music to the clarinet?
~ jerry
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Fred
Date: 2001-08-04 17:27
Well, Jerry . . . what you have are two instruments that usually have very different roles in the ensemble. Clarinets and flutes, though they are in different keys, play similar music. The saxa . . . oops . . . sax-O-fone (sic smile) follows lower brass more closely. What that means to me is that when I started playing tenor sax music on clarinet, it was both awkward and unfulfilling. It was full of rhythm licks that I wasn't used to instead of all the fast stuff. Plus, style of playing was critical in tenor sax (a bit sassy) where our clarinet music is much "straighter". Now I'm more used to it and find it actually harder to please myself musically on tenor music than on clarinet parts. But the swing/jazz sound is coming (they never taught us that in school or lessons!!) If you do play tenor music, you need to develop an attitude, and from your posts . . . I think you'd do just fine! Have Fun!
Tenor sax is also pitched in Bb . . . no transposition needed.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: connie
Date: 2001-08-04 17:27
To transpose from alto (Eb) sax to clarinet, bring it down a fifth : C (sax) becomes F (clar). To transpose piano music for clarinet, take it up a whole step : C (piano) becomes D (clar). I think of it in terms of keys, with clarinet playing in two more sharps (or two fewer flats) than piano, or any C instrument for that matter; and one sharp fewer (or one flat more) than alto sax.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-08-04 17:44
Have you noticed that the lower registers of AltoSax/Bb clarinet AND Baritone Sax/Bass Clarinet finger [nearly] the same, by pretending to be playing the other!! The difference between Eb and Bb is accommodated by note naming. HOWEVER, due to the octave vs 12th harmonic overblowing of sax vs clar this doesnt work higher up where actual transposition is required!! Interesting? Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim
Date: 2001-08-05 05:05
Jerry,
The short answer (if there is one) is that some music readily lends itself to play by instruments other than for which it was written, other music does not. This may be due to the tonal characterists of the piece, or simply due to our becoming accustomed to the sound. A few weeks ago I heard the piccolo counter melody from the trio of Stars and Stripes done first by a trumpet, and then a tuba! Both were interesting, but neither has the "right" sound!
Experiment! YOU are the artist! That tuba player played that solo in front of a thousand people that evening! (And that group is touring.)
You don't need to transpose if you are playing alone or with other B flat instruments. Also, if you play with an electronic instrument, (keyboard, digital piano, electronic organ etc.) that instrument can automatically transpose to you!
Try some vocal music, standards, pop, light rock etc. The clarinet sounds great on some of that stuff. (Phrase like a singer would.)
Jim
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Pegel
Date: 2001-08-05 14:23
I have the feeling that someone invented the saxophone as a desperate attempt to make a clarinet that overblowed in octaves.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: connie
Date: 2001-08-05 16:44
Then there's the description of a saxophone as "demon spawn of a clarinet and an oboe."
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-08-05 19:38
Reading the above made me wonder "Why did Sax invent the saxophone", of course this could be asked about all insts. So, looking in what books I have, Baines in "Woodwind ---" gives the best run-down on saxes, saying that a bigger-voiced reed inst was needed for military bands, and Sax was a great innovator, prob. useing a single reed on an opheliclide [whatever that is, I've prob. seen one!] and found out about the acoustics of a conical tube, patenting the sax in 1846. Wish I had that degree of curiousity!! Just a thot. Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Richard
Date: 2001-08-05 23:20
www.classicsax.com can answer questions about the origin of saxophone and why AS invented it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rene
Date: 2001-08-06 08:36
Isn't that obvious?
A sax is louder (big open bore and key holes) and more flexible than a clarinet (larger reed). In fact, I am yet to hear a sax player, who could play a single note completely in tune, and all over the dynamic range. I would call this flexibility one of the main advantages of saxes in Jazz music. It is a great instrument in Jazz with a distinctive touch of a human voice singing Jazz like.
The clarinet cannot really provide this, but has other features like its larger range, a great fluency, its excact pitch from tonal start to end and through the dynamic range, and the whispering, intense sound it can make.
I would think it is a much better equipped instrument for classical orchestral music.
Just my 2 cents.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Mike B.
Date: 2001-08-06 17:11
The saxophone is no harder or easier to play in tune than the clarinet. Modern jazz music requires that the players play in tune, regardless of what instrument is used. The assumption that jazz players don't have to play in tune is complete B.S. Regards,
Mike B.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rene
Date: 2001-08-07 08:02
Mike, a misunderstanding.
When I hear a sax player holding a note, I can hear smaller or larger departs from the pitch, and a lot of flexibility in the sound (changing sound quality, virbrato and the like). Of course, a sax player is not supposed to play flat (or sharp) all the time (or all through a longer note). This would be indeed B.S. (On the other hand, some do
I never hear the same flexibility at professional carinet players. You might be able to generate the sax tone as evenly as a clarinet tone, but then it would no longer be a sax tone, I guess.
Rene
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Rene
Date: 2001-08-07 12:30
My bad conciousness drove me to the CD rack and re-listen to some good sax jazz players.
Well, while I hear the Klaus Doldinginger, I can clearly hear that deviations from pitch I was mentioning, which he makes so artfully, and which give the music the special style. Also this enormous flexibility in the sound itself!
However, I also found in the local CD shop a modern soprano sax player (name slipped me), who playes the instrument very evenly, not even using vibrato. Sounded clarinetish to me! The only difference was the louder and rougher sound of the instrument itself. Very nice to listen to, by the way.
So, maybe I got to agree that one can play sax straight and cool. And, one can play the clarinet flexibly on the other hand. Am I blamed? Maybe not, because the majority does it just the other way around.
Rene
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2001-08-07 13:56
Rene- Great commentary, One of my favorite pieces of music is the L'Arlesienne Suites, Bizet, has character a bit like Carmen music, in which I have played the alto sax parts. My recordings of it at times sound like sweet French horn, no "schmerandos" tho. Other French music ot that time make fine use of "highly-classical" saxes, Ravel's Bolero in particular , those players often lip-slur as much as the trombones!! Sure adds character and interest, I try to do it in "contemporary" church music [religious jazz]. Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Pegel
Date: 2001-08-07 14:43
I find that the ends of the spectrum with the common saxophone (That is, soprano and bari) are very stable in pitch. Altos seem to have most of the trouble with pitch variation. Tenors are in between somewhat. But I'm not the most fluent at saxophone, so, take my two cents for what it's worth.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
