 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Alphie
Date: 2007-11-08 00:00
At the moment we’re having our annual composer’s festival, this year with music by the Chinese composer Tan Dun. Mr Dun is conducting his own music. Personally I’m involved in two pieces, “Paper Concerto” and the opera “Tea”.
In both pieces he’s writing parts for clarinets in Eb/Bass, no regular clarinet in these parts. The bass clarinet is very orchestral and not so exposed but after very quick swaps to Eb you’re supposed to play very delicate solos in p or pp in the altissimo register. These solos are written in a sort of Chinese folk style with glissandi both up and down. This takes some concentration especially coming directly from the bass.
What I found the most difficult in the first rehearsal was to aim the first note correctly by ear before playing due to the different pitch. Another difficulty is to immediately produce a high quality sound on the bass coming directly from the Eb because of too much muscle tension in the lips. It seems to take a few seconds before they relax.
It’s the first time I get to play demanding high quality music having to play this combination of instruments. It reminds me again how important it is to have a relaxed, flexible and dynamic embouchure, free from static ideas as the ones of some posters on this board. Reality is to do what you have to do at a given moment without any preset formulas. They very rarely fix the problems when they occur.
Alphie
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Author: Ebclarinet1
Date: 2007-11-08 12:13
Yes Alphie that is a problem and I do it often too, although I'm more afraid of going back to an instrument that has become COLD and a different pitch too. Seems to be worse in going from bass onto Eb than the other way around. Of course there are Mahler's in which you throw Bb into the mix too. Just making sure you have the right clarinet in your mouth is the added challenge there. I generally use RED PENCIL for those jumps.
The piece you're doing sounds very interesting but I wonder if it's one that should really be performed by two players. That would certainly make life easier.
Eefer guy
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Author: William
Date: 2007-11-08 15:31
Another problem, depending on how long your instrument sits idle, might be a reed drying out or even warping on your mouthpiece. Two ways of avoiding this: 1) always moisten your reeds with saliva--never water--in your mouth for a couple of minutes. Then rub the vamp of the reed vigorusly with a finger to seal the pores and prevent over-soaking during use, and drying out during rests. 2) consider using a Legere reed on your bass. The advantage is that the synthetic reed will never dry out or warp and it will always respond the same no matter how long it is played or how long it sits idle. I often use a Legere #3 or 3.5 on my Grabner CXBS bass mouthpiece (basically a customized Selmer C*) with excellant quality of sound and consistant response in all registers. On Eb, I use cut down V12 Bb reeds and always rub them down before assembling on the mouthpiece (Bay custom). Their sound is much "bigger" and because they are saliva moistened and sealed, they never dry out.
Big mpc to small--or vice versa--no problem with enough experiance. You mouth and fingers will learn to do what they have to do. Play lots and have fun--sounds like exciting music for you to play.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2007-11-08 16:13
I guess we won't expect idiomatic clarinet music to originate from Mr. Tun. Maybe you could become his Stadler/Baermann/Neufield.
Bob Phillips
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