Author: ChrisC
Date: 2003-10-08 05:44
Thanks for the speedy response, Katrina!
I was at the East Coast Balkan Camp at Camp Hi-Rock in Massachusetts, where Catherine Foster taught the sax/clarinet class. I distinctly remember Catherine playing a 5JB with Blue Box 2 1/2's, I think, and of one other student who had a good deal of experience with Balkan music playing a 5JB as well, so it looks like that's the way to go, so I'll look into that, though my B45 might approximate the 5JB fairly closely, since it was professionally refaced and is probably more open than a B45 straight off the assembly line.
The soft reeds/open mouthpiece combination makes a good deal of sense to me, since the problems I've been experiencing have a great deal to do with simply finding it too much of an effort to get air through the mouthpiece, especially after playing a few measures of a fast kopanitsa ( is there such thing as a slow one?), which would definitely be alleviated with a less resistant setup. I don't expect any reed/mouthpiece combo to help my fingers move any faster ( though that would be nice)! I find that my tone at this point is also quite pinched, though I figure at least part of that problem is at my end.
Interesting anecdote re: reed strength--Catherine mentioned that the gypsy sax and clarinet players she met in Serbia (Zlatne Uste returned there after more than a decade last summer) used extremely hard reeds--4's, I think--and they actually rejected the reeds she brought as gifts because they were too soft! Appaently, reeds are hard to come by in that part of the world, especially for Rom communities that don't necessarily have access to the luxury of mail order. Considering the amount of pitch-bending that is present in the South Serbian Rom clarinet style (listen to the guy in the Boban Markovic Orkestar), I am absolutely shocked that they do this with such stiff reeds!
Anyway, sorry for the digression and thanks again for the info, I'll be sure to keep you and any other interested parties updated on my progress in figuring this music out. In the meantime, I'll be learning more tunes, trying to track down more CD's from which to learn even more tunes, eagerly anticipating seeing Yuri Yunakov and Ivo Papasov for the first time in a couple weeks, and making a complete fool of myself on the dance floor of any folk dance event that I stumble across.
--Chris
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The Ethnic Clarinet
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