The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-08-22 01:45
Last night on New Music Australia (classic FM) amongst other things they played the Gordon Kerry Clarinet conerto - a fine work which will be re-broadcast in a couple of weeks.
The whole program was devoted to the clarinet and I listened to it through. One piece in particular that stuck out was "onomatopoeia" by Nigel Westlake. Written for a choir of clarinets of all sizes from the mammoths up to the e-flat. Interestingly, he performed the work himself and must have spent hours in the studio recording each, individual track.
The point? Well, I must confess having heard a lot of contemporary music in the late 60s early 70s and not being very impressed by the noise. I think contemporary composers nowadays have turned full circle and are writting extremely interseting textured pieces that often are quite tonal or at least modal.
Long live contemporary music and long live contemporary clarinet music.
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-22 02:54
diz, please don't take this as a criticism, but anyone who can spell "onomatopoeia" ought to be able to spell anything.
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Author: diz
Date: 2002-08-22 03:07
JMcAulay - I must confess, I did refer to my OED for this one.
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-22 05:23
Now I know your secret. Your only lexicon is the OED, and it's too much trouble for shorter words.
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Author: Andy
Date: 2002-08-22 07:45
Diz,
I am currently writing my honours thesis on Australian Chamber music involving the Bass Clarinet during the 1980's onward and the piece you are speaking about features in my writing. The piece is however written for a sampled b/cl and live b/cl, not an array of clarinets. The sounds that you thought you were hearing as e flats etc were actually just westlakes computer having fun. On the whole I am discovering that Aussie chamber music is much more accesable then our collegues o/s.
Anyway, the point of the post is to agree whole heartedly withyour oppinion and to tell youto buy the CD. It is on the Tall Poppies label (I don't have the cat. no. handy) and features only works written by Wesltake and performed by himself with the Aus. Ensemble, John Williams and Synergy. A FABULOUS CD!!!!!
I will write more about the topic soon, whenI have more time,
Cheers,
Andy H
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2002-08-22 13:31
For those of us with small dictionaries, on-o-mat-o-poe-ia [in my largest dict] is defined as "1. the formation of a word,such as buzz or cuckoo, that sounds like what it denotes" [etc], 2. the use as "a literary device" etc. We may need the music to really understand, TKS, Diz!! Don
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-08-22 14:48
For all you wordsmiths, crossword puzzle fanatics, and Scrabble players out there:
-onomatopoeia is one of the (approximately) 45 words in the English language with contains 4 consecutive vowels,
-and more impressively, one of only 13 words (at last count) which ends with 4 consecutive vowels...GBK
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Author: GBK
Date: 2002-08-23 03:34
David...If you really must have the others, they are:
mythopoeia, pharmacopoeia, prosopopoeia, queue, enqueue, dequeue,
reliquiae, zoeae, graeae, sequoia
However, if you consider "y" as a vowel ( a,e,i,o,u and sometimes "y") the list expands to include:
bayou, payee, employee, gooey, flooey, hooey
oops...I guess that makes a total of 16.
Word counting was never one of my strengths. Words are.
(by the way - the word "strengths" is the longest word in the English language which contains only one vowel)...GBK (whose brain is tired - class dismissed)
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-25 05:47
GBK: And if we include proper nouns, we may add J. D. Salinger's famous "Zooey." By the way, you are a cruel person. You are forcing me to buy an OED. My Random House Unabridged, which even includes words obscure, virtually worthless, and unknown to Merriam-Webster -- such as "monopsony" -- lacks "zoeae." The word is unknown to me.
Regards,
John
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Author: JMcAulay
Date: 2002-08-26 03:33
Mea culpa, mea culpa. I must plead excessive tiredness last night. Woke up this morning remembering that a Zoea is a crab larva, so "zoeae" would be the plural of same. Duhhh.... Please keep this slip-up quiet, or the State of California might defrock me....
Look, look. Look at John. See John's face. John's face is red.
Regards,
John
Credentialed in California to teach, among other things, Marine Biology
and has never been sure why he knows anything at all
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