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The Ethnic Clarinet The C4 standard

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RE: naftule brandwein

Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2002-06-28 22:51

Brandwein was taught trumpet by his brother, then switched to clarinet. I haven't heard anything else about how he learned, such as if he had any teachers. His sound is *unique* - definitely not what we learned in school band. There is an intense percussive quality that could stem from this musical beginning. Intonation many times plays second fiddle to rhythm, which makes him at times hard to transcribe. Several people report that Brandwein used to play at times with his back to the audience, so that nobody would steal his special fingerings. It could be too that he didn't know any better fingerings and didn't want anyone to know how odd his fingerings actually were. Maybe someone can shed some light on whether the quarter tones were intentional, or rather were the result of Brandwein's personal fingering system.

Kurt Bjorling told me that if I memorized a couple Brandwein tunes in their original keys on my C instrument, and wasn't having great fun, to put the C on the shelf. No dust here.

Regards.

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