 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-07-19 18:23
I've been fairly diligent with practice, work schedule permitting, for seven years now, since I picked the clarinet up again after a short 33 year break. This year I re-joined the local community band, and it's been fun and challenging to play with others. Though the music is mostly easy, it's been a good learning experience to play it well, and in tune, and fitting properly into the ensemble.
The section is small - from 1 to 6 clarinets so far this season. I sit first chair, meaning, any bloopers are blatantly conspicuous. That always bothers me, but I don't lose sleep over it like I did when I was younger. At my age, one has already looked as foolish as possible countless times over the years and survived, so new instances are more like objective feedback.
People have occasionally been complimentary. My prior life hasn't prepared me to deal with that. I just smile and say thanks, unsure if more is appropriate. (Like, well, you wanna go to bed?!)
One solo I've been doing that has gotten some (to my mind underserved) praise is the piccolo solo to Sousa's Stars & Stripes, which the conductor was willing to farm out to other instruments, because we didn't have any flute players willing to play it. He passed out computer-generated parts for it on different instruments, but there were not many takers. The clarinet part was in the clarion register, which seemed to me to compound the inappropriateness of not doing it on piccolo, so I play it in altissimo, trying to sound bird-like. We play the march every concert; the solo is slightly harder than I can play at good tempo, and so far I haven't nailed it clean, and its inherent musicality mostly remains home in the practice room. Yet people applaud, probably seeing it as a stunt. Which, maybe it is.
Just before I went on vacation for a week, the conductor passed out some new music, all solo pieces. He want's to do one concert with a number of solo pieces. He asked me if I wanted to do one, and I said, I guess so (hah, OF COURSE I want be famous, and have everyone admire me and love me - that part was tacit.) He said he'd have the music when I returned from vacation.
So I got back this week, and he passed out Flight of the Bumblebee, arranged by Albert O. Davis. I've never seen or heard this for clarinet solo. I have just over a week to prepare. After my initial doubt, I find the arrangement might work; Rimsky's delightful music can be presented - and must, if this isn't to be just a hash of chromatic runs. A little speed, but not too much . . . hmm. Memorization looks attainable. Hope my nerves hold up.
This is where I wanted to go, right??
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-07-19 19:08
Bumblebee has probably been arranged for every instrument known to man. You need to be very good at playing a chromatic scale. Then it's a matter of whether you can keep it up at the tempo the conductor wants to go. It can't go too slowly or it starts to sound like the Autumn Death of the Bumblebee.
Karl
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Author: donald
Date: 2014-07-20 04:58
@ David Blumberg- I show my students the youtube clip of Julian Bliss doing Bumblebee so we can watch his fingers/arms at work. He barely moves his right wrist, and his left wrist appears to move around, but looks very light and relaxed (though we can't really tell from looking, but the movement is very fluid) and always returns to the same axis. He makes playing fast look like it's taking little physical effort (though he's concentrating pretty hard). Students at a certain phase in their development find this quite inspiring (as well as being impressed by the virtuosity).
dn
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-07-20 06:04
Bliss is good. Even more impressive is to listen to and watch on YouTube 16-year-old Mu-Chien Chen zip through the Flight of the Bumblebee on a recorder without the aid of clarinet keys and rings, relying on the coordinated contrary motion of cross fingering to play the chromatics. Chen also seems to be double-tonguing throughout. Virtuoso recorder player Michala Petri often played a more difficult version of this piece as an encore on her grenadilla recorder, with a much more ringing tone, but I cannot find her playing this on Internet.
Hollywood studio trumpeter Malcolm McNabb trumps even this by performing, also on YouTube, the entire Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on trumpet, up to tempo, altissimo notes included (Yes, Maynard Ferguson and Cat Anderson, roll over in your grave; McNabb actually plays the highest notes quietly rather than screaming them.) McNabb teaches a summer camp in which he preaches "economy" and "efficiency" of production in wind performance, which he illustrates in his own performing style.
All three of these performances--Bliss, Chen, and McNabb-exhibit what wind instruments can accomplish when played with an economy of motion in the fingers, lungs, lips, and tongue. No unneeded effort, no wasted motion--just exactly enough to get the job done.
Post Edited (2014-07-20 07:04)
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-07-20 06:54
I just watched several of the videos of Bliss playing the Bumblebee. Apparently, he doesn't think of this piece as music, just a vehicle for showing off his fingers.
Speed alone rarely impresses in music. It turns out to be a common attribute among high level pianists, violinists, etc. The achievement of high speed is not difficult, it just takes time to develop, straighforwardly, almost stupidly, rep by rep. But other expressive attributes also take time, and musicians presumably devote their time to multiple attributes and their combinations with the goal in mind of making music.
Many great musicians have shown off their speed in recitals and recordings, but almost never just as an end unto itself. Why? Because that way is boring - and, no matter how fast, it actually sounds less impressive, less exciting, than when speed and other expressive attributes are combined, as in the following example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmq5JBpFf9w
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2014-07-20 07:09
I once saw the late Jimmy Edwards of comedic fame play this up to tempo on a trombone, and then to wind up his act he played it again on the Tuba.
Tony F.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2014-07-20 07:36
I grew up thinking TFOTB was written for trumpet. And especially written for Rafael Mendez ...
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Author: MichaelW
Date: 2014-07-20 22:30
And how about this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMq_tKtRZ5s
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Author: kdk
Date: 2014-07-21 00:49
seabreeze wrote:
> All three of these performances--Bliss, Chen, and
> McNabb-exhibit what wind instruments can accomplish when played
> with an economy of motion in the fingers, lungs, lips, and
> tongue. No unneeded effort, no wasted motion--just exactly
> enough to get the job done.
>
Keep in mind that the original version of this - Rimsky's orchestration in Act III of "The Tale of the Tsar Saltan" - is mostly (with a few passages given to the clarinets) scored as flute solo, some of which is unison with violins. (Interesting that no flute recordings were mentioned so far in this discussion - only one recorder.) So, it was originally conceived as a piece for woodwind soloist, Raphael Mendez (and his circular breathing) notwithstanding.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2014-07-21 01:19
And I've got a recording of a legendary Flutist doing a demo at a Flute Convention of a technology thing that his Flight was oh so bad - sloppy and uneven.
Took me back hearing him play that badly!
Everybody has a bad day, but wouldn't expect that from him, as he was still at the top of his career.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-07-21 02:13
Here's the version of this I grew up with. (I purchased this album in the mid 1960's- it's still somewhere in my stuff.) Sorry, but I still prefer it over the others listed here... I guess that says more about me than it does the performers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zXx0ReqOOI
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: afmdoclaw
Date: 2014-07-21 08:08
"People have occasionally been complimentary. My prior life hasn't prepared me to deal with that. I just smile and say thanks, unsure if more is appropriate. (Like, well, you wanna go to bed?!)"
MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION-- if "more is appropriate" means sex then even I will consider joining a community band. Now that is a close community.
PROBLEM - the last community band I heard and saw "go to bed" meant GO TO SLEEP.
OH WELL
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2014-07-30 06:40
I got through my solo performance of the Bumblebee tonight with my community band. Whew. It came out pretty good; the conductor took a relatively slow tempo to clarify chromatic runs in the accompanying woodwind parts. That let me easily keep my playing clean and even, avoiding its becoming "Blight of the Fumblebee". I even projected a few dynamics to evoke the beastie's hovering, landing, taking off, etc. People apparently enjoyed it. This piece doesn't have to be blazingly fast.
My memory, mostly ear memory for this, didn't let me down at concert time. We rehearsed it just before the concert, and I had a couple memory failures then; but it turns out this music is pretty easy to fake, and I was able to play some similarly apian chromatic stuff when I got off track - I think only the conductor noticed. But no memory problems during the concert.
Working on this piece was instructive in a couple ways. In this arrangement the main theme involves playing in the throat register and repeated crossing of the break. I got better at those things, and practicing at home I got to feeling pretty secure with those passages at the printed tempo (144).
The other instructive thing had to do with double-lip embouchure. I switched to double-lip last year and gradually got better at it. However, when seated, I'd developed a bad habit of steadying the bell with knee support. I've sort of tried to correct this habit over time, but not hard enough to eradicate it. But I had to play the solo standing up, so in the two weeks I had to prepare, I tried out some slightly different ways of positioning the lips, and discovered that, done correctly, double-lip doesn't need knee or other added support AND it needn't unduly pressure the upper lip.
Thanks for listening to my blah-blah-blah (if anyone did.) I've got a post-concert "buzz", and there's nobody else I can express this stuff to.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2014-07-30 07:46
Good stuff- congratulations!
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2014-07-30 19:48
Did the flight 3 nights in a row with the local orchestra...no problem..most important is to keep the clarinet still and steady through out the break especially. Seems like it has become a popular work again..the first page is the hardest I find..with the side key f to f sharp in the throat, steady hands.
I think double lip is great except if you have a cold sore.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-07-30 21:59
Many people, including Julian Bliss, never use the side keys for F#, but always switch between the left thumb and index finger. Almost everyone does the switch in descending passages.
Ken Shaw
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The Clarinet Pages
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