 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Tom
Date: 2002-11-30 11:56
Hello!
I've just started playing the 2nd study from Rudolf Jettel's "The Accomplished Clarinettist". It's going fine apart from bar 14. It's basically the following, slurred: left hand G# on the stave, then right hand C#, left hand B#, right hand C#, then it gets to D#. I don't have a left hand D# key, so I don't see how it can be done. It's very fast, so I can't swap fingers on one of the notes.
The only way I've been able to do it is by tonguing the note after G# and playing it with the left hand.
Thanks for any advice!
Tom
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Author: HAT
Date: 2002-11-30 14:04
Your solution is the one I would use. Nice passage, huh?
It's an etude, not something you would do in a concert, so ultimately breaking the slur is not a big deal.
The point of this etude is not breaking the rhythm, obviously.
Good for you for doing Jettel. I paid my dues there as well. I remember quite clearly having to slide very quickly from the lh c# up to the lh g# in one of the etudes I recorded. Not impossible as your example is, but the context made it extra nasty. Jettel always makes you slide (can't imagine what it must be like on a Viennese clarinet).
David Hattner, NYC
www.northbranchrecords.com
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Author: Robert
Date: 2002-11-30 14:30
I don't know the etude. You could play the G-sharp using the first two fingers of each hand. The quality of the G-sharp won't be as good, but at least you can get to C-sharp using the left hand.
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Author: Hank
Date: 2002-11-30 15:25
Hi,
I ran across the same fingering situation in a recent community band selection and without the left D#/Eb, Robert's 1 2 / 1 2 fingering worked just great. I did have to mark the fingering to REMIND myself as years and years of eye-coordinated muscle memory dies hard!
Hank
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Author: HAT
Date: 2002-11-30 18:25
For some reason this fingering never occured to me. I think I had to use this fingering somewhere in Jettel also. . . possibly for a trill.
It should work in the passage in question. Good thinking, folks.
-HATTNER
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Author: Ken
Date: 2002-11-30 18:31
I pulled my copy out and blew the dust off. Articulating a detached G# on beat one to make the LH C# will work. I suppose, if you're willing to clip the G# you could also play the RH C# pattern, choke the 2nd C# and lightly tongue the RH D#. HAT is spot on; here you definitely want to ensure a rhythmically even septuplet and solid tempo. However, instead of sneaking a little space and compromising the slur you might consider taking advantage of the grouping as written (especially being in E Major and without a LH auxiliary key) and hone your "alternating sides" and "finesse" skills.
From the beginning of the figure try standard G#, RH C#, LH B#, RH C# maintaining the LH C#. Quickly swap "pinkies" (ONLY) back to the LH C# between notes then make the RH D#, LH B#, RH C#. Obviously, timing and smoothness is crucial on this move or the D natural will keep popping out. Good Luck. v/r KEN
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2002-11-30 23:39
It's interesting how an etude can be converted from being a sliding exercize for the instrument it was written for, the German system, into a braintwister of a combination problem for another instrument, the French. It works as a good exercize for both instruments but in completely different ways.
Alphie
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2002-12-02 19:01
Jettel played a German-system clarinet. Most German-system instruments have a tab projecting down from the C#/G# key to allow it to be operated by the right index finger. Sliding your right index finger off the tab and on to the hole is at least possible. Of course you'll still have to slide your right little finger from the F/C key up to the Ab/Eb key, but most German-system instruments have rollers to help. Alternatively, you could use the "patent" mechanism to play the C# with your left little finger, the B# (= C) with the right little finger, and then play the standard C# and slide up to the D#, or alternate little fingers using the patent mechanism.
Sometimes things are easier on the mechanism the etude was written for. (A good example is the trill from Ab to Bb in the first movement of the Mozart Quintet, at the fourth bar of the development. Stadler's clarinet had no Ab key, and Ab was played with the register key alone, so the trill was done just with the A key.)
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: HAT
Date: 2002-12-02 21:48
Jettel played a Viennese-system clarinet which lacked many of the refinements of the clarinets used today by leading German clarinet players. I don't think he even had a second option for bflat/f natural (in other words he could only play it forked).
My understanding is that the Viennese still have not adopted all of the improvements of what is called the 'full oehler' clarinet.
Someone will correct me on this if I am wrong.
Hattner
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Author: Tom Jackson
Date: 2002-12-05 10:26
Thanks very much for all the help with the passage, the alternative G# works great, if a little weak.
Cheers,
Tom
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