The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: John Jaffe
Date: 2001-04-02 16:06
Am researching Gaetano Labanchi. I am seeking biographical information and details of his professional history. He was active in Italy [Milan?] at the end of the nineteenth century.
He wrote a wonderful method book--Progressive Method Part II, revised and edited by Soccoroso Pirolo. It has an English and Italian text. Published by Carl Fischer, it is now out of print. Beautiful and extremely challenging etudes in all major and minor keys in high Bel Canto style.
Anyone with information on Labanchi, Pirolo, and, especially, where I can obtain a copy of the Progressive Method please contact me.
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2001-04-02 17:42
John Jaffe --
You should be able to find a copy of the Carl Fischer Labanchi Part II by contacting several of the older players in your area -- Chicago if I am not mistaken. Many of the technically oriented Italian clarinet players studied it and used it in their teaching. I still have my copy from the late 1950s, minus cover and a few front and back pages.
The original Labanchi method Part I and II was published in Italy, probably by Ricordi in Milan since that was the big Italian music publishing house. Labanchi Part I is really hard to find. Not your typical elementary method. It includes wide interval studies, octaves and 12ths, which even top professional players have trouble with.
There is a book called something like Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past by an author named Pamela Weston, possibly a British publication, which may have some information on Labanchi. Unfortunately, it is a good bet that most of the source material on Labanchi is in Italian and has never been translated into English.
Hard to believe that Labanchi could actually play those remote key studies in part II of his method, but the old Italian players claimed that not only did he play them fluently, but did so on a simple system clarinet played with the reed on top!
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Author: Douglas
Date: 2001-04-02 19:36
I heartily agree that the Labanchi method is an excellent one and should be made available again. My copy, published by Carl Fischer, copyright 1914, Part II notes that it is "revised and edited by Gustave Langer". I seem to recall that there was an article about Labanchi in THE CLARINET magazine. I believe you can do a search at www.clarinet.org, then finding the master index.
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Author: Ed
Date: 2001-04-03 02:37
A while back, I saw an ad for 35 Studies by Labanchi in a newly edited version by David Weber. The publisher is listed as
International Music Diffusion
24-26 Rue Etex 75018 Paris
I don't know if the Labanchi in any other version is available currently. Bio info from the Weston book states little detail other than Palermo 1829-1908, studied with his father then Cavallini, taught at Naples Conservatory. Inspired Verdi and other composers. Wrote a method and other works. Good Luck.
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Author: tlf42
Date: 2014-07-27 07:34
Attachment: Scan0001.jpg (772k)
The International Clarinet Association has a copy of the book in their library, which only members can access. Membership is $60 per year for adults and $30 per student. While this is a rather hefty fee, it is a sure way to explore the book for the 2 month lending period.
The ICA library is fed through the music library of the University of Maryland, and the book is listed as
Labanchi, Gaetano
Progressive Method for the Clarinet, Part II
NY: Carl Fischer c1961
cl
score (192p.)
Rev. & ed. Soccorso Pirolo
4240
I hope this helps anyone looking to study and explore the content of this method book.
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Author: david sherr
Date: 2014-11-06 03:30
Probably not much help, but Mr. Pirolo lived in Los Angeles and I met him once and had a friend who was his student. My friend died last month. Perhaps there are descendents, although the time I met him, on a Sunday in 1958, no one else was in the house, or so it seemed. He was very old at the time. I have no idea how he wound up in LA. I worked with Buddy Collette, who had been his student, and there were pictures of Buddy and Harry Carney, another student, on the walls. My teacher, Antonio Raimondi, knew him. He played Penzel Mueller clarinets and had a set of B-flat and A that he kept wrapped in the celophane sleeves that new clarinets came with in those days. He was nice; he coached me and my friend in a duet we were playing for my high school graduation and I enjoyed the experience.
Buddy wrote a little about him (he remembered his name as Pirola) in his book Jazz Generations (written with Steven Isoardi).
http://www.belairjazz.org
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-11-06 04:44
I also have a copy of the Labanchi method book II in the Pirolo Carl Fisher edition. I'd be happy to lend it to you for a few weeks. Contact me at
bobm20001@yahoo.com if you'd like.
David Hite reissued some of the material from this book in his own edition.
The Labanchi was a favorite of Gino Cioffi--all in bel canto style.
Post Edited (2014-11-06 04:55)
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Author: jason.traiger@gmail.com
Date: 2025-09-28 20:32
I have the Gaetano Labanchi Progressive Method for the Clarinet Revised and Edited by Gustave Langer English and Italian Text Part II (published by Carl Fischer, Inc.; Cooper Square New York, Boston 252 Tremont St.; Chicago 306 S. Wabash Ave.). Copyright 1914 by Carl Fischer, New York. The cost is given as $3.50. The exercizes in this "method" are very challenging indeed!
I also have a Selmer Series 9 Bb clarinet (# S9577) gven to me by Gino Cioffi around 1963 and use it to this day.
Jason Traiger
Post Edited (2025-09-28 20:34)
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Author: jason.traiger@gmail.com
Date: 2025-09-28 20:51
Here is the information I found for Gaetano Labanchi:
"Clarinettist, teacher, and composer (Palermo, 1829 - Naples, 1 August 1908). A pupil of his father Agostino, he gave his first concert at the age of 12. He then moved to Naples, where he was principal clarinet in the orchestras of the Teatro San Carlo, the Cappella Reale, and the Bellini Philharmonic Society (1873-1880), and principal clarinet and vice-musician of the Neapolitan Civic Concerto, where he remained for approximately 35 years. At the same time, he taught at the Real Albergo dei Poveri (from 1886), at the “Principe di Napoli” Institute for the Blind (around 1892), and from 1885 until his death, appointed “for clear fame,” at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory of Music. In 1864, he took part in the 1st Italian Music Congress in Naples. In Naples he often performed as a soloist and on several occasions with the flautist Donato Lovreglio and the bassoonist Luigi Caccavajo. In 1871 he took part as first clarinet in the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida at the Cairo Opera House (Egypt). Subsequently, he composed a Fantasia for clarinet and piano based on this opera, which he performed for the first time in the presence of Verdi himself, who personally esteemed him. As a clarinetist, he was concerned with increasing the volume of the sound by modifying the gap between the reed and the opening of the mouthpiece. His Metodo Progressivo (1886) was awarded a gold medal at the Palermo Exhibition (1892) and at the Paris Exhibition (1900). According to Pace, “he was a true Neapolitan glory as a performer and as a teacher.” As a teacher, in fact, he had a vast array of excellent students, among whom we remember: Antonio Decimo, Antonio Germanio Jermanni, Alfredo Gaetano, Francesco Lombardi, Salvatore Minichini, Raffaele Pancaro, Enrico Scoma, Giuseppe Siniscalchi, Oreste Vessella, Gennaro Volpe.
Compositions: Capriccio for clarinet and band (Portici, Pucci, nd); Concerto on motifs from the opera Un ballo in Maschera by G. Verdi (in collaboration with Paolo Savoia) for clarinet and piano (Milan, Ricordi, 1865); Concerto on Norma for clarinet and piano (unpublished; 1876); Divertitevi: Mazurca for clarinet and band (Portici, Pucci, nd); Original Duet for clarinet and harpsichord (Naples, Calì; I-Nc); Concerto Fantasy for clarinet and band (Portici, Pucci, nd); Fantasy on the opera Linda di Chamonisse [sic] for clarinet and band (ms in US-CPpa); Original Fantasy for clarinet and piano (1884; ms in I-Rsc); Fantasy on themes from Donizetti's La Favorita for clarinet and piano (unpublished); Fantasy on the Opera Aida for clarinet and piano (Milan, Ricordi, 1883; I-Nc); Grand Duet on the Favorita for oboe and clarinet with piano accompaniment (ms in I-Nc); Grand Fantasy on the Opera Lucrezia Borgia for clarinet and piano (unpublished; 1862); Grand Concerto Terzetto for piccolo, E-flat quartet and B-flat clarinet with band accompaniment (Naples, Prisco, nd; I-Nc); Laghetto and Tempo di Minuetto for clarinet and piano (Naples, Calì, nd; I-Nc); Progressive Method for clarinet (Naples, Cali,1886; I-Nc); Notturno-Fantasia for clarinet and piano (ms in US-CPpa); Honors to Mercadante: Concerto Duet on motifs from the Opera Orazi e Curiazi for clarinet and bassoon with piano accompaniment (ms in I-Nc); Scherzo for E-flat clarinet and band (Naples, Prisco, nd); Serenata for clarinet and piano (1895; ms in I-Nc); La Siciliana: Fantasy for clarinet and band (ms in US-PTu)."
"Bibliography: Adriano Amore, The Clarinet in Italy: History, Organology, Literature, and Virtuosi, Frasso Telesino, 2021, pp. 103-104, 116, 119-120, 130-132, 155, 166, 175, 179, 183, 197, 230-231, 238, 292, 297, 304."
Jason Traiger
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2025-09-29 05:13
I have a copy of his Ten Duets (part 3). Southern Music Co. Quite good.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book-- Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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