 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: IHL
Date: 2002-01-10 23:07
I can play the slide at the beggining of Rahpsody In Blue very well, except for the gap between chalumeau and clarion, specifically A to C, where it just sounds like a normal chramatic scale trying to sound like a glissando. Can anyone give any tips on how to get through this part of the slide more smoothly, for instance should I go in whole tones or semitones, etc
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Hiroshi
Date: 2002-01-11 03:37
Probably your register key elevaion is too big. Set it 0.6-1.2 mm.
This can be done easily by patching an electric tape.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: William
Date: 2002-01-11 15:55
Most "pros" that I know pretty much gliss or play a quick diatonic scale (jazz style) to Bb, go to B and continue a smooth gliss from there up to the C. If you play softely during the Bb to B switch, the effect is continuous to the audience. Does anyone know who was responsible for this gliss in the first place?? Was it Al Golladoro with Paul Whiteman's Orchestra??? I seem to remember reading once that it was first improvised and then, written in. Good Clarineting!!!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Larry Liberson
Date: 2002-01-11 16:28
No, it was Russ Gorman.
Apparently (as the story that I have heard repeatedly goes), Gorman was 'fooling around' with the opening solo (which is written out in the Grofe orchestration as a scale) while warming up (during preparations for the first performance of the Rhapsody in Blue) and it was then that he threw in the long glissando. Gershwin, who was present, heard it, loved it, and asked him to keep the gliss in.
And now we're all stuck with it!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-01-11 18:42
Sounds like some disagreement on the details of that story at:
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=34564&t=34422
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-01-11 19:01
I reread Wes Brown's version, and I see it doesn't disagree.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: GBK
Date: 2002-01-11 19:19
Larry is correct.
The opening glissando in the Rhapsody in Blue was not the idea of Grofe, but rather Gershwin's.
Eventhough Grofe orchestrated the work, Gershwin did make some indications as to how he wanted the work scored. But, rather than naming the instrument he wanted in a particular passage, Gershwin named the actual Whiteman musician.
The opening glissando was conceived with Ross Gorman's abilities in mind. Gershwin wanted an "ice breaker" (his words) to begin the piece.
At the premiere, the audience had already grown tired from the preceeding "experimental" works on this tedious program and began leaving early. The opening of the Rhapsody in Blue brought them back in...GBK
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-01-11 23:49
I have just listened to a Musical Heritage Society recording of the Rhapsody conducted by Maurice Peress and the New Palais Royale Orchestra. The notes say the recording orchestra was organized to recreate this very concert and relies on original manuscripts and a recording of June 10, 1924 for an exact reproduction of the solos, etc. If the performance is an exact reproduction of that early recording the gliss was pretty much erratically slopped up to about G and then a true gliss took over. So maybe Kantner was right about "whoever" being unable to play a good chromatic scale if the original clarinetist played for the recording in 1924.
So, IHL: Just stick with the "chram-atic" treatment and tell your conductor it is based on your research in early performance stylistic approaches.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: rmk
Date: 2002-01-12 01:32
I was told by Paul Lavalle, who attended that concert and was a clarinetist as well as a conductor, that Gorman had had quite a bit to drink before the concert. In an attempt to play the diatonic scale (as Gershwin notated it) he "smeared" the entire run. Gershwin (who was of course at the piano) loved the effect and the rest is history.
BTW, Mr. Lavalle told me that Gorman was able to do a smooth gliss from the low G right up to the C in the next measure.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-01-12 05:38
This stuff is priceless. I hope it is recorded somewhere for the musicologists.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
