Author: Tom Puwalski
Date: 2006-01-19 00:45
I just read Campione's article, and it seems to me he's saying a very similar thing: The top lip changes some things that effect to sound, but it's not a direct connection as does the lower lip. Tony I thought double lip wasn't used in the UK so much because of that "Stiff upper lip" thing?
All the fine clarinetists I've ever heard have developed an embouchure that is very flexible and allows for maximum vibration of the reed, with the ability control the dampening of the upper harmonics. Flexible in pressure, location of pressure, and amount touching the reed. When I use double lip, a lot of those things line up without a lot of hustle. I practice with a very good recording set up and I have to admit, when I keep everything else the same, and then put my top teeth on the mouthpiece. It sounds the bloody same! I do find I really have to concentrate on keeping oral cavity the same and stay really sensitive to the pressure, because if I don't that sound change will change and very noticeably. It won't be a bad sound, it might be a color that I could find useful for some piece of music.
I think a bigger problem in the USA is that we tend to listen very few non-American clarinetists. I would wager that most clarinetists in music schools in the USA have heard one recording of K622. the Marcellus one. I have a teacher, mentor and amazing clarinetist friend that spends lots of time every year in Europe, he's always bringing back CDs of clarinet music to listen to. There is an amazing amount of things being recorded "over there" and European clarinetists don't seem to feel they need to sound like "korg" tuners. So why do Americans? Maybe it's the fact that there are audiences for music in Europe, and a lot of American orchestras are play to half full hall, maybe it's the herd mentality, everyone wants to sound the same and not play outside the lines. We need to start playing like it's fun!
Tom Puwalski, former soloist with the US Army Field Band, Clarinetist with Lox&Vodka, and Author of "The Clarinetist's Guide to Klezmer"and most recently by the order of the wizard of Oz, for supreme intelligence, a Masters in Clarinet performance
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