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Re: Routine extreme altissimo?

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-02-06 19:00

During the heyday of the swing era, Artie Shaw because famous for his ability to play these top altissimo notes, night after night, without squeaking, pinching, or otherwise faltering. Benny Goodman, according to veteran sax players Phil Woods and Bud Shank, always had more trouble getting the top tones out. If you take the time to listen to old Shaw performances, you will hear that "diamond" sharp sound and control he had at the top. even when playing lyrical solos.

Today, there are many players who are quite facile in the upper altissimo. To name just a few: Tony Coe, Andy Firth, Robert Springs (who plays an octave or so higher than that), the remarkable student of Jonathan Cohler, Benito Meza, Jorge Montilla (who also easily plays these notes on the little Eb clarinet), and, of course, Martin Frost. And, many more.

Actually, every first chair clarinet in every symphony orchestra in the world has to be able to play a fluent scale up to the C# above the note you gave as highest. This is required in the famous Variaciones Concertantes for orchestra by Alberto Ginastera. Online, you can pull up Thomas James Kmiecik's PhD. dissertation: "Clarinet Performance Practice for Alberto Ginastera's Variationes Concertantes--Solutions for Orchestral Auditions and Performance."

As the title implies, if you are auditioning for clarinet (esp. 1st chair) in an orchestra, you had better be ready to play this part. The dissertation outlines how some very fine players have approached the challenges of this work.

Youtube abounds in clarinet performances of this work, some in the full orchestra, some in a chamber setting, some alone as a solo. The performances are very instructive, ranging from quite bad to very impressive,

The URLs are too cumbersome for me to type, but if you put in the right key words, the performances easily come up. Listen for example to

Mark Dover Ginastera Clarinet Variation mp4 Nicely played with a bright sound.

Ginasteraclarinetvariation David Crespo Very fine dark-toned performance
on a German Oehler system clarinet

Ginastera Variaciones Concertantes (Clarinet Variations) Christopher Rohrs
Good centered Buffet sound

A. Ginastero Variazione in Modo di Scherzo per clarinetto Pado Beltramini renders the passages in a light Italian bel canto style.

So you can see these notes can be negotiated on a wide range of playing gear and with very different timbres. It's all in a day's work for today's orchestral clarinetists.

Finally, there are some players who take high note playing to a new level.
Like any other pioneering effort the slope can be steep and the perils high. (Meaning you can play the notes terribly out of tune or miss them altogether if you are not careful).

One such pioneer climbing in the Alps of clarinet playing is Mate Bekavac.
To hear him go where none (or few) have gone before go to YouTube and
search for Carmen Sarasate Fantasy part 1 and part 2 Mate Bekavac.

Enjoy!

Post Edited (2015-01-04 07:05)

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Routine extreme altissimo OK new

fskelley

2014-02-06 07:09