 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2005-10-21 17:01
No replies about lamps, please. Several questions on unrelated topics will be included in this post.
I own a Conn Cavalier Metal clarinet from the 1930s. I use it for marching band. It has the capability to be extremely loud (it projects well), and the tone isn't bright at all unless I'm using a reed that's too soft. I've found it to be rather flute-like. I'm currently using a Vandoren B45 with a Bonade inverted ligature with Vandoren V-12 3 1/2s. All of the instrument plays very well in tune, except for the throat register. Which is, scarily enough, flat. Yes, flat.
Are there any fingerings to remedy this problem?
Second question.
Playing Bb clarinet is difficult for me - I have asthma and reactive airway disease. I'm looking for a mouthpiece that will aid with this. I have some $230 to spend, so I'm looking for something that'll let me play far past college (I will be double majoring in music education and clarinet performance). I've had recomendations for the Ridenour and the Pine, but I'd like a few second opinions. Should I have someone make a custom mouthpiece for me, and how would I go about doing that?
Third Question:
This is kind of a bizarre one. I enjoy playing Eb clarinet quite a bit - I'm better on Eb than Bb at this point, however, I've found that there are very few pieces of music written for Eb clarinet, and most band directors and orchestral directors hate them with a passion. I've never had issues with the instrument - it's easier to play than Bb by a long shot. Are there any career opportunities as a performing musician on the Eb clarinet, or should I just put the thing up and keep struggling with the Bb?
That's all for now.
-Jenna.
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2005-10-21 17:43
Jenna, for a very fortunate few, there are "performance" opportunities on the Eb horn. However, all that I have known of use it as an auxiliary instrument at best, and the player is required to double on Bb and A soprano as well.
I even have a childhood friend (Steve Hartmann) who is official the Eb clarinetist for the New York Ballet or Opera pit orchestra (one of the two of them, anyway). He even made a Buffet endorsement in that capacity. (He looks the same as when I knew him in the early 1960's, save only that he no longer has any hair. This was probably due to the time spent blowing on the Eb...)
The Eb (and the D, the orchestral equivalent) horn was made as a "color" instrument in the 1800's, much like the bass trombone and the bass clarinet. As such, the number of classical/romantic/art music parts written for same is a mere fraction of that available for the soprano clarinets (A, Bb, C).
There will be parts for it (particularly with the later period scores; Wagner and Strauss, for example), but they will not be in the majority of the scores performed. Hence, the usual "part time" nature of the Eb clarinetist.
In forms of music other than "art music", the Eb clarinet player's pickin's get pretty slim real fast. For example, you will get paid to play Eb clarinet in perhaps one in a dozen Broadway musicals. Ofttimes, those parts are only in one or two of the numbers in a show (Company has a very prominent Eb solo part in one five minute number, for the rest of the show the Eb horn sits unused.) In every case, you'll have to double clarinet and sax and other horns if you ever land a pit job with Eb playing in the job description.
Movie work might be viable, but again only as a doubler. The "odd" horns (like Heckelphone and the like) get some significant use for their timbre and tone in soundtrack work now and then. In any event, breaking in there is, to put it mildly, pretty difficult.
Other than that, zip, zero, zulu, bupkiss, as itemized below:
• Jazz on an Eb?
Well, someone plays jazz on alto clarinet, and I've heard of someone using his basset clarinet to play jazz, so anything is possible. Don't bet the farm on an audience, though.
• Rock? No.
They've got enough trouble dealing with saxophones, much less a little clarinet.
• Chamber music?
No. Most of the stuff performed predates the horn, and any modern stuff that might include an Eb along with the theremin or rothphone may have an audience, but it is certainly a very small one.
• Concert band?
I think that the Marine Band carries an Eb player (I am recalling an audition ad very dimly from six or eight years ago), but I'd be willing to bet that he/she spends as much time on Bb. In any event, military bands are the only large source of concert band musician employment as a "career" these days (circus bands?), so there might be a call for them there. The enlistment contract is a potential negative there, though.
Nope, I'd not plan on Eb playing alone for anything other than an advocation.
(By the way, that little solo in Company is one nifty bit of hammy clarinet playing. Talk about the rest of the world standing still while you get to show off, bending notes with gay abandon. I still use it to demonstrate the Eb, along with the breaking of Till's neck solo from Strauss.)
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: redwine
Date: 2005-10-21 21:39
Hello,
Terry Stibal wrote for e-flat clarinet: "Chamber music? No."
The only chamber music I know for e-flat clarinet is the middle movement of the Hindemith Quintet and a piece that I commissioned, by John Stephens, for string quartet and clarinet, where the clarinetist changes from e-flat clarinet to a clarinet to b-flat clarinet. I premiered this piece about a year ago, recorded it professionall, and performed it again last summer in Oklahoma at the convention.
I'm the e-flat clarinetist for the US Naval Academy Band. I'd say that on an average concert, I play 80% e-flat and 20% b-flat. Of course, for ceremonies and marching, it's only b-flat. I'd say that every premier military band carries an e-flat player and several "regular" military bands do as well, with varying amounts of actual e-flat playing. To be sure, noone (if I were to wager a bet) has nor ever will make a career out of playing only the e-flat clarinet.
Ben Redwine, DMA
owner, RJ Music Group
Assistant Professor, The Catholic University of America
Selmer Paris artist
www.rjmusicgroup.com
www.redwinejazz.com
www.reedwizard.com
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Author: OboeAtHeart
Date: 2005-10-24 02:45
That makes me kind of sad. I love playing the Eb.
Have any suggestions for difficulty getting the longer fingerings in tune? Also, the throat register on my teacher's R-13 Eb is about -10 flat - ironically enough, the same as my metal horn. Does it have something to do with the fact that their single piece instruments?
*~"The clarinet, though appropriate to the expression of the most poetic ideas and sentiments, is really an epic instrument- the voice of heroic love."~*
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-10-24 03:08
FYI, Jenna, there is a piece for solo Eb clarinet & piano...William Bolcom's Little Suite of Four Dances. It's really neat! I've not played it with a pianist yet, but the Eb parts are moderately difficult.
Katrina
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Author: ron b
Date: 2005-10-24 03:21
Why not make up your own stuff, OatH? I mean, music is an artist-friendly medium if ever there was [is] one. Create, adapt, arrange and astound folks by your inventiveness. I've witnessed first hand some astonishing things done by an Eb clarinet/slide trumpet duo improvising stuff that left my musician friends and me wondering if we were dreaming. We weren't. It was very real. There's nothing standing in the way of someone, anyone, determined to express themselves.
- r![[cool]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/cool.gif) n b -
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2005-10-24 15:18
Ron's right! I mean, inventiveness is what I do musically...I play in a classical trio which is me (clarinet & flute), a violinist, and an accordionist! We play string quartets all the time!
Katrina
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2005-10-24 15:44
I second Katrina's and Ron's opinion. (ie I third them)
As long as your instrument is in tune with the rest of the band nobody should care what part you play. Bach organ works sound good on an accordeon or a clarinet too. As long as Rondo Veneziano <shudders> can get away with playing Glenn Miller on violins...
--
Ben
(currently squeaking the one or other tune from Brahm's Hungarian Dances)
--
Ben
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2005-10-24 16:46
Eb clarinet is used to a healthy degree in clarinet choir (ensemble) music. Our first player doubles quite a bit on her Eb soprano.
Of course clarinet choir music is designed to show off the whole array of the clarinet family, so includes the Eb alto and the contras besides the regular bass. Also, we often decide to substitute instruments available in our ensemble in order to add depth and richness to the arrangements. For example in one of our pieces (written for 1st to 4th) we decided to have the contra bass and the bass double the 4th clarinet part just because we have the personnel to keep the sound balanced and the will to experiment.
If you can, try starting a clarint choir. In any case one can always feel free to experiment and even write parts for the Eb. Nobody's there to say you can't. If it doesn't work you haven't lost anything, but some of it will sound great.
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Author: BelgianClarinet
Date: 2005-10-24 19:59
In the chamber music section, sub section very special :
Anton Webern (!!!) wrote a trio for : Soprano (singer), Eb Clarinet and Guitar.
In our 'wind band' (non pro's) we have always a full time Eb clarinet.
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