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f#, Robert Marcellus and me

Author: HAT
Date: 2005-04-22 22:28

Such a controversy. Claims of 'impossiblity.' Whenever someone says 'never,' 'always' or 'impossible, I get skeptical.

I stand by everything I said in my masterclass.

What was left out of the argument is context.

If you have a slur from f to f# or vice versa and that is it, I can see the argument against flipping.

In real life, generally you are either going from somewhere or to somewhere from f or f#. Getting off of two side keys while slurring to, say, throat A or A flat is going to cause problems compared to coming from first finger f#.

The context of my comments in the masterclass were regarding the 2nd of the Stravinsky 3 pieces. The student was grabbing for the two side keys unsucessfully. A good example of a context where the ability to make the exchange absolutely cleanly is necessary. There are probably thousands of such examples in the standard repertoire alone.

Just try playing through the Baermann III book without ever using the flip.Good luck! Now try it without ever using the two side keys. You won't find any examples where it is absolutely necessary!

As I said in my class, the side f# fingering is easy to use and you can always turn to it if you like. But if you rely on it, you are going to run out of luck eventually.

In any case, I am not here to debate this.

However, if any of you are convinced you can tell for sure what fingering is used in context, I propose the following:

When playing my scales today, I recorded four of them twice and made four sound files (each file is one scale played twice in succession).

F# major
D flat major
B flat harmonic minor
F# harmonic minor

Anyone who sends an email to me requesting these files (less than 1 megabite for all of them) is requested to analyze them and state which times the flip fingering was used and which times the two side keys were used for throat register f#.

Since we have some experts here, it should not be hard for you to tell definitively what fingerings I used.

After all the responses are posted in this thread, I will reveal the answers.

As for Robert Marcellus, he was dogmatic about this but his reasons were sound. It is hard to believe he has been gone 9 years now. Most people have already forgotten or never knew what a superb musician he was. Yes, he had a wonderful sound on the clarinet, but the better you become as a player and a musician the more his ultra solid rhythm, variety and musicality of his articulation, dynamic range, spectacular legato and most importantly, his musical intelligence become apparent. He achieved all he ever achieved as a player by the time he was 45, under the most relentless pressure an orchestral player can be subjected to.

Though he hasn't played a note professionally in well over 30 years, Robert Marcellus is still considered one of the few best examples of what it means to sit in a principal chair in a major orchestra on any instrument. He was also a highly skilled conductor and an outstanding teacher.

Any takers on my challenge?

David Hattner

Post Edited (2005-04-22 23:12)

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f#, Robert Marcellus and me new

HAT

2005-04-22 22:28