 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2007-08-01 01:13
I had a suprise great practice session this evening, one of those times where much seems natural and more seems possible. After 3 hours I wanted more, MORE, but desisted in respect of my current physical limits.
Anyway, toward the end I took out the Mozart concerto just to drill on a couple hard spots, and I got to reflecting on a recording of it I heard recently, by Thea King playing the basset clarinet. I remember admiring her playing and also some interpretive things she did (like accenting certain trills with nice dramatic effect). However, I disliked some of her choices for utilizing the low notes on the basset clarinet.
King seemed to take EVERY opportunity to play low, especially when it came to altering descending broken arpeggios into descending straight arpeggios, and many of those hit me as awkward. Some seemed to make musical counter-sense, losing something valuable in the melodic line, though I've no doubt Ms. King had solid reasons for those choices that could easily be inaccessable to my less studied taste.
Well, my instrument can't plumb the bowels of the basset hound -horn!, I mean - but I realized tonight I can still play in that game . . . in the other direction. In the last movement there's ASCENDING broken arpeggios that can be straightened. Of course, the result takes one soaring into the ultissimo (c'''', d'''', etc), but hey, if Mozart's guy could have played it that way on his basset thing, I've no doubt Mozart would have wanted him to. :-)
Please note that this is MY idea, and I'm claiming intellectual property rights. So I better not hear any of you performing it that way for big bucks, at least until I do. (Yes, this is supposed to be funny.)
Question - how high do others here practice their scales? I'm trying to implement the whole fingering chart (found somewhere from this site), but so far I'm only able to manage things up to f'''' or f#'''' - and not so fast or smooth or in tune either. It's getting better, but why am I doing it? I can play the Mozart up an octave, but frankly it doesn't sound so good up there (at least, when I do it.) So, what pieces use those notes?????
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-08-01 01:17
My scales have never gone above an altissimo G. I VERY recently started to work on slowly increasing (chromatically) from the altissimo G upwards, but I can never seem to get past a Bb. And even the Bb sounds strained and weak.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2007-08-01 14:57
Keith Koons's great article comparing editions of the Mozart Concerto http://www.clarinet.org/fests/1998/Koons.asp notes that the Breitkopf and Hartel Trio Clarone edition of the Mozart Concerto (#EB8523) contains suggestions for playing as many of the hypothetical original low notes as possible, and there are several recordings that do this.
I love hearing a performance on the basset clarinet, but to my taste, at least, after hearing so many recordings with the "standard" notes, I'm bothered by halfway measures, which just remind me that the lowest four notes are missing.
Thea King's basset clarinet performance is, in my opinion, dreadful, though it got an ecstatic critical reception. In her defense, it was recorded on a nearly unplayable instrument. See http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=72303&t=72295 Following up on that posting, Steve Fox is now making a very fine reproduction of Stadler's Riga poster clarinet, and Eric Hoeprich has also made one and recorded the Mozart on it.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2007-08-01 15:31)
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Author: marshall
Date: 2007-08-01 15:12
The Barenreiter edition is an 'Urtext' (even though the original signature score is lost) and when you buy it it comes with the piano score, the solo clarinet in A part, and a basset clarinet in A part. She was probably playing of the Barenreiter basset part (or some other edition with a basset part). Listen to other basset clarinet recordings (I know Sabine Meyer has a recording...I think its EMI) and see if those are the same. If they are...then she's probably playing off of an edition written for basset clarinet.
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Author: janlynn
Date: 2007-08-01 15:32
i used to ask myself that question too. at first going as high as i could - then wondering why. i found out why. i currently play 1st part in a wind symphony, and occassionally some marches (washington post) and other pieces do go up to high G and A. quite often, there are high F's and F#'s in my parts too. so i continue to practice scales at least up to high G.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2007-08-01 22:06
Marshall - I have the Sabine Meyer EMI recording you mentioned. I'll have to relisten to it to be sure, but my memory thinks it was a different version, i.e., different notes were played in a number of places. The notes agreed with other sources I've seen that many modern soloists refer to the Barenreiter edition, but then they make their own decisions. It wouldn't surprise me if both Meyer and King did so.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2007-08-01 22:24
Janlynn - a lot of those old marches are HARD, requesting those F's and G's in staccato 16ths. Many of the Sousas and others must have been written with professionals in mind - I understand that back in the 1800s a lot of concert band repertoire consisted of transcribed orchestral works with clarinet passages straight from the violin pages - those clarinettists.
Anyway, I really meant higher up. Spohr notes up to c'''' sometimes, for dramatic reasons, and the Martino Set goes up to b'''', which I think might sound great if I could keep in tune up there and observe the many other markings. What other pieces make good use of that register, or higher?
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Author: ZCClarinet
Date: 2007-08-02 00:28
Like tempo, I usually like to be well within my limits when playing. If I need to be able to play something at 120bmp on stage, I'll be sure to be able to play it at 132, just so I'm completely comfortable on stage.
I see no difference here with register. If my daily dose of baermann III takes me up to C7 by the second line of the book, then I surely must push myself to bring out up to the E above that so that the C doesn't sound as pushed. Not that anyone is going on stage and playing Baermann... but if they did and did it well, I'd applaud.
And for the most part that's it. A majority of the music I'm studying doesn't go above an A6, but since I can play the E above that, the A6 never feels hard to pop out.
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2007-08-02 00:41
I play scales up to top C (octave above two ledger lines above the stave, is that C''''?) purely for the reason that that was the requirement when I was at college.
Philip...have a look at Hymnos by Peter Maxwell Davies. I seem to remember an Eb'''' or E'''' (or the Eb/E above the C I already mentioned...)
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2007-08-02 02:01
I try to go up to the second E above the staff- If I and the reed are having a good day then I will try up to G.
Before anyone thinks this is impressive, I would like to call your attention to the verb 'try'.
Post Edited (2007-08-02 03:57)
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Author: joeyscl
Date: 2007-08-02 21:39
"My scales have never gone above an altissimo G. I VERY recently started to work on slowly increasing (chromatically) from the altissimo G upwards, but I can never seem to get past a Bb. And even the Bb sounds strained and weak."
Then again, isn't it much the same with the Throat B flat as well?
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-08-03 08:28
joeyscl wrote:
> "My scales have never gone above an altissimo G. I VERY
> recently started to work on slowly increasing (chromatically)
> from the altissimo G upwards, but I can never seem to get past
> a Bb. And even the Bb sounds strained and weak."
>
> Then again, isn't it much the same with the Throat B flat as
> well?
Sadly, yes. Sigh.....
US Army Japan Band
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