 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ted Donaldson
Date: 2002-08-01 18:17
The other day, I was watching some cartoons with my 3 and 5 year old cousins, and to my surprise, I heard the Bass Clarinet in like 90% of the shows that we watched. I wonder why they picked bass? The notes are usually in the lower register, but there are some high parts too. I am talking about the background music...
Random thoughts,
Ted
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Author: David Spiegelthal
Date: 2002-08-01 20:48
Ted,
Your observation is a good one --- the bass clarinet was very popular in cartoon and movie music back in the days of real studio orchestras. If I were to be reincarnated, I think I'd like to be a Hollywood studio bass clarinetist during the '30s or '40s......
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Author: Todd W.
Date: 2002-08-01 21:33
Ted --
My guess is that the composers of the background music think that the audience will perceive the bass clarinet sound (especially the lower notes) as funny (as in peculiar as well as ha-ha), thereby reinforcing the cartoon mood. Funny, perhaps because most of the music we regularly listen to is more in the normal human voice range. Also, a lot of the cartoon characters are small, with small, high voices; so the low, "large" sound of the bass clarinet again makes a funny contrast.
Maybe.
Todd W.
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Author: Patrick
Date: 2002-08-02 05:58
Todd,
Actually, you may have been hearing the contrabass or contra alto clarinet on many cartoon soundtracks. The contras are quite often used in studio and pit orchestras, where their passages frequently foretell or accompany dark, scary, or dungeony scenes. Not always, though. There is a good amount of bouncy folk song inspired stuff as well.
My daughter has graduated from her Winnie-the-Pooh tapes, but she could always count on me to watch them with her when she was 3 or 4. This was of course because her daddy was more focussed on the prominent use of the conta alto clarinet on the soundtracks, than he was upon Piglet's whereabouts or Eyeore's latest sadness.
Not only are the contra clarinets used on the Winnie series, but on many other Disney productions.
The contras have a distinctive timbre in all registers. In the chalumeau, the sound is that of a fat and chesty bass clarinet (this is especially true of the Leblanc metal contras favored by studio musicians). The contra alto clarinet tone is more pure to the fundamental -- more like a bass clarinet -- than is the contrabass. The contrabass (at least the Leblanc) has an edge, especially when played in a jazzy manner, that can sound like a cross betwen the bass clarinet and the contrabassoon. (Don Gross, a contra enthusiast who I believe has done some studio work and who has posted here, has likened the contrabass tone to that of a "digeridoo in heat". The comment is perhaps a little more colorful than the sound actually is. It is true, however, that a player with a metal contrabass, an Andy Gump embouchure, and a soft reed will be able to summon forth visions of the Australian dreamweavers).
The contra clarinet diagnosis is confirmed by the playing of notes quite outside the range of the bass clarinet. Fortunately, in most of the contra clarinet parts I hear on movie soundtracks, this will be the case.
Enjoy,
Patrick
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Author: Patrick
Date: 2002-08-02 07:01
Oops! Toward the end of my post, "Andy Gump" s/b "Forrest Gump". Digeridoo, not doo-doo.
(Andy Gump is the business name of a chemical toilet/portapotty service in Los Angeles, for those unaware of the origin of my malapropism)
Regards,
Patrick
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Author: David
Date: 2002-08-02 10:16
Most people love the big comic sound, and it's good exposed, it instead of being buryied / wasted it as a bass instrument.
I think Paul Harvey carved a niche for himself in the British Horror Film industry to the extent that if you see a Hammer movie or anything with a giant lizard / squid / thing crawling out of the sea, he's probably doing the creepy bass clarinet for it.
There's a Jimmy Somerville version of "It Ain't Necessarily So" that has what might be a bass clarinet. I'm not sure if it's for real, or sampled, but anyway, even though I'm not keen on the tone, the line goes all the way from the lowest register to well into soprano country.
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Author: Jean
Date: 2002-08-02 12:23
Once again David S. comes up with a gem. Just the other day my best friend (A bassoonist) and I were discussing this very thing and we both said if we could start over we would become musicians for cartoons. The bass clar and bassoon certainly do get great parts.
They are both such "character" instruments. And the parts they play are often quite technical, not your standard band fare.
Jean
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2002-08-02 13:45
It's not just cartoons. Frequently you'll hear bass clarinet as the featured or only instrument in television commercials. (Now, if I could only cite one to back up my point.)
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-08-02 13:54
Andy Gump was a cartoon character with a toothbrush mustache and no chin. See http://www.starland.com/sus/2002/sus020613.htm. Since the standard bassoon embouchure calls for the jaw to be dropped down and back (with the chin bunched up in the shape "forbidden" to clarinetists), bassoonists often call it the Andy Gump embouchure. (By the way, it's sometimes useful on contrabass, particularly in the high register.)
According to http://www.jldr.com/faqs.html , the porable bathroom was invented by Massena (Andy) Gump in the 1950s.
For trivia, there's no beating the Net.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Patrick
Date: 2002-08-02 15:34
Ken,
All I can say is Wow! You are a crack shot with the the search engines...not to mention the contrabass clarinet!
I think (kinda) that I actually meant Andy Gump, then. Somehow, Forrest Gump also fit the bill when describing the embouchure I had in mind -- the chinless one accompanied by a distant stare that gives us contra players our characteristic mentally challenged "look" as we coax the special stuff (sounds, sounds) out of our horns.
I wonder, though, if we and our bassoon brothers will want to continue to refer to our distinctive look as "Andy Gump" given that some think it is something other than sound that we coax out of our horns at times anyway. Not to mention the fact that if the contrabassoons and contrabass clarinets are in a row, the phrase "plumbing section" comes to mind...
Oh well, next time I "Gump it", I will accompany the act with all due straining and moaning. Might as well laugh with the audience....
Thanks for the info!
Patrick
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