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Re: Approaching Klose Book

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2015-03-26 12:49

CSmith2007 wrote:

> My new question is how sharp is "full sharp"? (in Klose's
> words)
>
> I haven't had to think of this before!
>

Interesting. My Klose books (both volumes - I notice the editions currently available aren't separated) are riddled with all kinds of markings from teachers - even on pages I have absolutely no recollection of having played. All of those teachers had been, were at the time, or were soon to become clarinetists in major symphony orchestras, a couple of them principals. There are no markings on that page of leading tone exercises and fingerings and I don't remember any of those teachers ever mentioning using different fingerings to produce leading tones that were "as sharp as possible." I never heard anything about this approach to leading tones in 7 years of performance degrees in college (two degrees). All of this training was in the '60s and early '70s. None of the players with whom I've worked uses, that I've noticed, different fingerings consistently for this.

I say this not to pump up my background, but to suggest that this idea of making leading tones "as sharp as possible" seems to have been outdated even 60 years ago. Probably longer. Should a leading tone be closer to the tonic resolution than an equally-tempered semitone? Yes. Should it be as extreme as Klose suggests? Some of those fingerings are screamingly sharp. As a soloist you might want to be that high in specific contexts, but as an orchestral or band player I don't think you'd need to go to this extreme. In unison or octave doublings, it's more important to be in tune with the parts you double. If you're playing with a piano you may, depending on what's in the accompaniment, have little flexibility at all.

We tend to push leading tones up a little when we play, almost without thinking about it, because they should pull us toward the tonic. But I think the idea of learning or consistently using a different set of fingerings to do it is in my experience outdated. Spending a lot of time practicing this seems a little unproductive. You might try Klose's fingerings to see what they do, but maybe not dwell on them much. There is lots to practice that's more central to good technique and musicianship, much of it covered on other pages of the Klose book(s).

Karl

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