 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: bassclarinet
Date: 2002-07-09 05:23
Hi List,
The question that I'm asking is, say a student wants to be an orchestral bass clarinet player, do they really need to be able to play clarinet as well or do such jobs exist that require bass only?
BassClarinetist
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Author: jez
Date: 2002-07-09 12:28
I don't think any orchestra has a player who solely plays bass. A lot of parts call for 2nd or 3rc cl. doubling bass.
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Author: javier garcia
Date: 2002-07-09 13:38
you must be proficient on both soprano and bass. Even on some symphonies, the bass clarinetist must play bass, soprano and piccolo (as in Mahler 1st symphonie)
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Author: Jean
Date: 2002-07-09 13:39
I have been a bass clarinetist in an orchestra for many years. You should also play soprano clarinet. That means you will need an A and a Bb clarinet. I usually end up playing very little as the bass clarinet is such a new instrument that you can plan on plating 19th and 20th century pieces. There aren't a lot of pieces (at least not in my experience) that require 3 soprano clarinets. I have found that I play more often on Pops concerts. However, as a bass clarinetist for most of my life (30 plus years) I would recomend you become proficient on the clarinet as well. There just isn't that much work for bass clarinetists. My best pal is a contra-bassoonist who has become a really terrific bassoonist for the same reason. And plan on sitting for many, many measures and then being hit with an exposed part on your bass. If you want bass calrinet work you could try the orchestra pit, but learn the sax too as you will be playing tenor or bari sax along with the bass clarinet on the 4th or 5th book.
Jean
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-07-09 14:04
And furthermore, if you want to play bass clarinet in orchestra you MUST learn to read bass clef with some proficiency. I've been playing bass clarinet in orchestras for about 30 years and there's never been enough strictly-bass-clarinet work to keep me fully employed. Definitely get real good on Bb/A clarinets, and saxophones too (I've gotten gigs playing alto sax and bass clarinet in Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", tenor sax and bass clarinet in Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" suites, to give a few examples).
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Author: DLE
Date: 2002-07-09 15:11
Yes Jean,
But unfortunately not all of us good players have enough MONEY to buy Bass, ContraBass, soprano, picollo e-flat clarinets, and a bari and a tenor sax as well...
Just thought i'd bring up the point of money, as this I find is the biggest problem with being a multi-clarinettist.
DLE.
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Author: Jean
Date: 2002-07-09 18:29
I would agree money is an issue...but I have also found if I am playing for a school or other organization there are ways to borrow instruments. By making friends with local band directors and colleges I have been able to secure an instrument for the short-term. I do not own anything bigger than my bass clarinet and alto sax. I do however own the "smaller" clarinets. and yes, they are expensive. But, what is a girl to do?
Jean
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-07-11 01:51
Can you "claim" the expense of the purchase of an instrument on your tax return as a business expense (assuming you play professionally on that instrument).
It seems to be murky waters when it relates to the Australian Tax Office - you speak to any "Jack-Ass" there and you'll get as many different answers as people you talk to.
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-07-11 14:02
diz,
In the U.S., as long as a musician is paying the requisite taxes on his music income (!), one can also deduct any associated costs, including instrument purchase (which is treated like capital equipment and has to be amortized over a certain number of years and depreciated), along with supplies such as reeds, automobile mileage to and from gigs, sheet music, tuxedo dry-cleaning. etc. I have no idea what the Australian laws are, however.
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Author: Bob Arney
Date: 2002-07-11 20:22
Dave, I thought one of the interesting questions/pitfalls asked by the IRS was if you are a Union Member. That sort of moves you from the "plunkers" into the "Pro" rankings. Then your deductions carry more weight and the dues are also deductable. Bob A
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-07-11 22:05
Bob A,
Assuming one isn't in the throes of an IRS audit (and consequently trying to justify one's tax return), I don't think AFM (musician's union) membership is in any way a prerequisite for being considered a paid musician. If you played and got paid for it, you should pay taxes on the income, and you are allowed to deduct for business expenses related to the making of that income, Union member or not. The IRS doesn't care how well you play or whether or not other musicians consider you to be a 'real' musician -- the only issue is, did you get paid? At least, that's been my experience.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2002-07-12 23:01
I've always been considered a bass clarinetist first and foremost, and I'd have to echo what was said above. You will find yourself much more "employable" if you can play bass AND clarinet AND sax (at least the alto, tenor and baritone) well enough than if you are a fabulous clarinet player.
Often, I have found myself falling into pit orchestra work as the only guy who can show up and do a good job on the mix in the book. As bass clarinet playing is vital to most traditional Broadway shows, I can figure on two or three well paying jobs a year playing Book 4 or 5, simply because they know that I'll cover it all without any grief.
On an orchestral basis, you're either going to have to double or to sit a lot while someone else comes in and covers the Kiji part, or the sax parts in Gershwin. I displaced a couple of guys who were doing the Rhapsody In Blue for years, simply because they could get both a tenor and a bass clarinet player for the price of one fill in.
While I don't like the jump to Eb, it's one that you occasionally have to make, even in pit orchestra work. I've played Eb and bass on two musicals (along with regular clarinet); Company (very exposed color part in Poor Baby, along with a bitchin' bari sax part in Tick Tock) and Camelot (comic part during joust sequences). Here in Houston, where even community and private high school theater work pays pretty well, they want one person to do it all.
Reading bass clef is high on the priority list (but not absolutely necessary for most players...virtually all of the normal bass clef parts are in the German "big romantic" stuff by Strauss and Wagner, the sort of thing that most non-first tier orchestras are not likely to play simply because of instrumentation limitations.
As vital as bass clef transposition is the transposition from A bass clarinet to Bb. One would think that this too would be limited to Wagner, but then one would be dead wrong. A piece called (I think) Jubilee by one Chadwick, apparently written in the early part of the 20th Century, had one of the movements set for bass clarinet in A, with the music written in the bass clef. At the time that this was composed, I doubt that there had been an A bass clarinet built outside of Germany in sixty years. None the less, that's how he wrote it.
(Little bits of stupidity like this are responsible for the low Eb key on the "standard" bass clarinets of the good old days. In the 1800's, the horn's range only went to low Eb, but then some clever Hans decided that it was easier to carry one bass clarinet in Bb with a couple of extra inches, than to schlepp around two in a matched pair. Selmer again makes the bass in A (on which the bass clarinet solos from On The Trail are a joy to play), but most of us will settle for tranposition and a new car instead.)
I also once sight read something by Dvorak (I think) for a concert where their bass clarinetist got the "blue flu" (the Candide Overture was on the program, and she couldn't hack the solo). Everything went fine on the Mittleeurope piece in question until I turned over the one sided page and was confronted with about fifteen bars for bass clarinet in A. Luckily, it was a slow moving part rather than something florid. Memo to self followed: always look at both pages before you start playing...
And, I can't echo the keeping track of expenses enough. If you've got a house mortgage, most likely you will recoup a lot of money this way.
I track EVERYTHING. This means keeping track of not only the cleaning, but the mileage to drop it off and pick it up, the pencils and erasers for pit work, the paper and tape for copying big band charts, and so forth. This is one area where a personal digital assistant will pay for itself in a hurry.
The instrument expense deduction comes under Section 179 of the tax code. Any of the tax programs for computer will do the hard work on this for you, and it's a sizeable chunk of a deduction that you'll get in the bargain.
Also, make it a point to track charity work separately from work for pay, as the charity work is deductable under the charity section of the long form. It's also a better deal tax wise, since you have to exceed two floors to claim work related stuff, and only one to claim charity stuff.
T. Stibal
And, learn how to play sax (and, shudder, flute). You'll thank me/us for the advice in the long run.
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Author: forest@woodwind.org
Date: 2002-07-15 03:13
You must play clarinet well.
You will be taking most of your clarinet lessons in college on the smaller clarinets.
I play bass clarinet in the Dallas Opera orchesta only when needed. I play the 2nd clarinet chair when bass is not needed.
Most of the freelance work I do is on the smaller clarinets....or doubling jobs.
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Author: Julie
Date: 2002-07-16 17:47
Wow... lot of stuff I didn't know...
must find a bass clarinet now...
and no one mentioned alto!!!
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