Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2017-06-27 07:38
"What Fröst is doing is puffing out the cheeks, as you do when you circular breathe, which means that the clarinet sound is now being produced solely from the air stored up in the cheeks. While doing this he hums, so that all of the vocal sound is coming seperately out of the nose. This enables him to produce vocal tones without distorting the clarinet sound. Co-ordinating all of this is pretty difficult, and Fröst must have spent many, many hours working on this technique."
..and does he double/triple tongue while doing this too, maybe play two clarinets at the same time like Bob Spring does here?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGa7s9qxPbA
Perhaps you've sensed my tone, implying, "when is enough enough?"
Maybe I'm biased as I cannot do these things and wish I could.
Make no mistake Frost is, apart from all this "dog and pony" show stuff a remarkable musician, not just a remarkable technician.
Maybe he's...bored....when you've performed "Mozart" (the Mozart Clarinet Concerto) 100 times in front of audiences, maybe you're entitled to feel this way. (I thought maybe that's where his new conducting direction came in.)
But a part of me asks, "is there a line drawn where musicianship ends and showmanship begins?" Maybe not. As musicianship is itself showmanship.
Maybe Frost is pushing artistic boundaries I should respect as I would art itself, even if it doesn't "float my boat." And especially since you'd never find him doing this stuff while performing the classical clarinet repertoire.
I truly don't know how I feel here about this clarinet "plus" type stuff, and if it detracts from the clarinet itself.
Some sitting respected orchestral players don't (i.e. can't or aren't good at it as they live without it) double tongue or circular breath. And among today's up and coming auditioners, I suspect few can't.
Post Edited (2017-06-27 07:39)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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