Archive for the 'Clarinet News' Category
March 10th, 2010 by David H. Thomas
From age 15-20, I studied with Sidney Forrest, who taught me pretty much everything about clarinet from middle school through two summers at the Interlochen School for the Arts, and 2 years at Peabody Conservatory.
Sidney Forrest, Clarinetist & Teacher
After a relaxing lunch at his favorite Chinese restaurant in Kensington, MD, we had a nice chat on his living room couch. He was just getting warmed up telling his long lived stories when I had to stop. But I got a good half hour of history from his illustrious life as a musician.
Mr. Forrest is 91 and still teaches! Listen to the podcast for an explanation of the “Three I’s”. The podcast is at the end of this post. However, here is a music track of him playing the first movement of the Mozart Quintet K581. This recording was made in 1951, with the Galimir String Quartet.
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Sidney Forrest Bio: (B.A., University of Miami; M.A., Columbia University; additional study at The Julliard School), adjunct professor of clarinet. Professor emeritus, Peabody Conservatory, faculty of the Interlochen Arts Center since 1959, and former clarinet soloist with the United States Marine Band and principal clarinetist with the National Symphony Orchestra. Clarinet studies with Simeon Bellison, Alexander Williams, and Otto Conrad. Students in principal positions in major orchestras in the United States and abroad. Extensive experience as a recitalist, recording artist, editor and arranger of solo works for clarinet, and author of articles published in professional journals. Served as adjudicator on the National Fulbright Commission and for the Buffet North American competition and the Quebec Conservatoire.
This is my first podcast. So please forgive any glitches in the recording. Enjoy!
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February 10th, 2010 by David H. Thomas
My clarinet colleague in the Columbus Symphony, Woody Jones, came across this very old copy of Clarinet Magazine published in 1954. He gave it to me because it contains an article by my old teacher, Sidney Forrest.
It also contains articles by Anthony Gigliotti, Daniel Bonade, among others you can see on the cover of the magazine in the photo above. (click on the photo to see it enlarged)
Gigliotti gives advice to move fingers in a smooth manner and flex the air to attain good legato. He also writes a section on proper breathing which I will quote here, since it parallels much of my own advice on the subject.
[...] Mother Nature teaches us to breath correctly when we are babies, and we continue to perform this important function properly through early childhood. However, when a child reaches school age, he is inclined – perhaps because of the fact that he spends so much time in a sitting position- to allow bad posture to interfere with his correct breathing habits. Parents and teachers, noticing this begin to instill in him the false idea that he must stand up straight and expand the chest in order to breathe deeply, which actually causes a body tension that results in just the opposite to what is desired. In holding the mid-section rigid (as one must do, to expand only the chest), one prevents the correct functioning of the midsection, the only section of the body that is capable of normal expansion which allows the lowers lungs to fill properly. If you watch a sleeping person, you will notice that the expansion and contraction in breathing is in the region of the lower ribs, where the diaphragm is located. [...]
Bonade suggests adding right hand fingers to tune throat tones, and to relax the embouchure a bit to lower high tone.
Among other things, including some fun ads for bizarre reeds, there’s an article on playing the mouthpiece upside down, with the reed facing up. Apparently several prominent clarinetists played the clarinet in this manner quite successfully, including Luigi Bassi, and the principal clarinetist of the Boston Symphony at the time, Gino Cioffi. According to the article, Mr. Cioffi switched to the traditional way of playing the mouthpiece, with the reed facing down, not because it was better, but because he was afraid of not being hired simply because he played in an unknown and unaccepted way. I had heard that the clarinet was played this way, but never knew to such high professional degree.
Sidney Forrest, who studied with Simeon Bellison, offers practical advice on playing high tones. I would like to quote his short article here.
1- Whether it be a high tone or a series of high tones, one must first hear the desired pitch mentally before trying to play it. Merely using the correct fingering will not produce the intended tone or tones.
2- Imagine that you are singing the desired pitch into the instrument – the clarinet at all times should be thought of as an “extension” of your voice.
3- take in the optimum amount of mouthpiece – the amount that will be suit you for playing in all registers. It should not be necessary to take in more mouthpiece at any time to reach a high note.
4- Stretch the corners of the mouth further back for high notes, as in saying “EE” or as in smiling. Be sure this is done only in moderation, in order not to disturb the “center” of the embouchure around the mouthpiece and under the reed. It should be emphasized that the basic shape of the lips – the fundamental embouchure – definitely remains constant.
5- When playing a large ascending interval, tilt the clarinet ever so slightly upward simultaneously with the change of fingering; e.g., solos in Egmont Overture, introduction; Night on Bald Mountain, Pines of Rome.
6- Give special support to high notes by raising the diaphragm (located between the abdominal and chest cavities) and pulling in the abdomen.
7- It is a good practice to flex the upper part and sides of the reed away from the mouthpiece. Insert and old but un-chipped reed or celluloid card between the reed and mouthpiece and bend the reed away from the mouthpiece firmly but gently and with a bit of spring in the motion.
8- A parting “don’t.” Don’t bite, don’t press, and don’t squeeze the reed and/pr mouthpiece to play any high note.
This last note is typical of Mr. Forrest who often used humor or word games to help an idea stick.
Sidney Forrest, who is 92, is still alive and kicking. I visit him when I an in the DC area where I grew up. He still has useful and clever advice on playing clarinet.
October 18th, 2009 by David H. Thomas
My new Twitter friend, Marion Harrington, is posting about a project to record some major French repertoire, after many years of not playing.
In a recent blog post, the complex process of mentally and physically preparing for a recording is described, and some insights are offered to help others who might be struggling with their musical “identity”.
I want to challenge you, and this fits in neatly with the Marketing for Classical Musicians series: on an emotional level why are you doing what you do and what are you trying to achieve?
Another post continues where the last left off, with the full story behind recording day, or R-Day, as Marion calls it.
Go check it out.
March 17th, 2009 by David H. Thomas
From Marianne Faithfull to Marijuana on Clarinet Boulevard, from Brahms to Blues to contra-alto-clarinets to T. S. Elliot, today’s google report on the keyword clarinet overflowed with color and variety.
According to the South Bend Times, an Elkhart mas was arrested after neighbors complained of marijuana smoke smell on Clarinet Boulevard. That’s what happens when a street is named after a party instrument! They may as well have called it Bacardi Lane.
In Monte Vista, CO, the contra-also-clarinet (I thought it was just an imaginary instrument) is featured and played in both the Select Symphonic Band AND the Select Wind Ensemble. These are no ordinary bands; they are a select group of players from CO, NM and UT.
I love Marianne Faithfull. Her haunting voice and choice of high quality songs has always appealed to me. (I like sweet sad songs. Must be my Welsh heritage)
On her latest full-length collection, Marianne Faithfull, the queen of torch songs for the damaged soul, returns with producer Hal Willner for another beautifully haunting tour of a landscape littered with the detritus of shredded hearts.
Why did it show up on a clarinet search?
…an otherworldly setting blending sighing wah-wah guitar with sweetly sad clarinets…
“Sadly sweet clarinets”. That why. I was listening to some Giora Feidman today, and playing along with him. When I grow up I want to play like him!
In sunny Pasadena, a new work for clarinet by Mark Carlson:
…the award winning chamber ensemble, Pacific Serenades, presents the world premiere of Carlson’s “View from a Hilltop” for clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello and piano…Also on the program – entitled “Music Among Friends” – are Brahms’ Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114 and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano.
“View from a Hilltop” will make its debut in the company of works by icons like Brahms and Ravel. “This allows the audience to realize what should be obvious,” explains Carlson, a professional flutist who founded Pacific Serenades in 1982. “Every composer in the past was a composer of new music, yet because of their god-like stature in our present mentality, we forget that they were cranking out new music all of the time.”
It sounds like something worth attending. I’d like to hear the piece, and the rest of the program.
Members of the National Symphony (from Washington, DC) will be spending the last week of March all over Arkansas, in what’s being called a “residency” in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Loren Kitt will be involved, giving masterclasses and reading through student compositions with feedback from the players. oren is one of the best orchestral clarinetists in the US these days. He doesn’t get the high profile press of many more famous younger players, but he is a master of the instrument, with marvelously rich and mellow tone and impeccable legato, intonation and phrasing. I hope the students who play for him in a masterclass realize that.
From the United Kingdom, a blog called Interchanging Idioms write of a world premiere of a work by Joseph Swenson, a Symphony for Horn and orhestra called The Fire and the Rose.
Swensen took his inspiration from T.S. Eliot’s poem, Four Quartets, a poem that was written in response to Beethoven’s late string quartets. The two main themes are time and remembering, with many references to déjà vu in Eliot’s poem. Swensen has captured the essence of déjà vu by creating echoes of echoes which reverberate throughout the piece.
Sounds like a piece worth hearing, or perhaps performing here in Columbus. The rest of the program includes Sibelius’ Pelléas and Mélisande and Respighi’s The Birds.
The only mention of the clarinet is “the Orchestra’s Principal Clarinet, Maximilliano Martín, takes the solo in Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet.” But who cares. Mention of Brahms late works, Beethoven late string quartets and inspiration from T. S. Eliot are enough to pique my interest. Weekend trip to Glasgow, anyone?
From another blog called Brit Abroad (Missouri), an excerpt of an upcoming novel mentions clarinet in the middle of a beautiful and evocative description of the narrator’s grandparents arriving in New Orleans from Germany.
Just then, the sound of a cornet floated through the air. Frederick listened. This was not the sort of dry fugue that echoed through Hanover concert halls. The instrument had been unshackled: it spiralled upwards in bewildering syncopated patterns, a whirlwind of graceful elision and complex melody. The music streaked into the night, every note dripping with joy. My grandfather stood up, thoughts of return forgotten. He followed the sound.
Half way down a nearby side street stood a building lit up like a beacon, bathing the sidewalk in its warm glow. A sign hung over the door: Chez Benny’s. The strange music spilled out of open windows. As he approached, Frederick could hear other instruments –clarinets, a trombone, a banjo. He peered inside. Through a fog of smoke Frederick could see a large room crammed with people, some at small tables, some standing, others dancing. At the far end of the room, six musicians stood on a stage. The cornet player was at their centre, his eyes tightly closed as he blew his horn. Staccato flurries of notes ripped into the night, ragging the up-tempo tune. Behind him the other men were swinging in a sweet, scorching counterpoint of rhythm and harmony. The cornet player bent his knees like a boxer as he delivered each new blistering line of attack. Hot glissandos shimmered in the air, tearing up the joint.
There’s more about the coronet but the clarinet’s tone is one of the spicy sounds of the scene.
Speaking of New Orleans, coronet and clarinet, the Arts Journal Blog (New York City) writer Terry Teachout waxes about Louis Armstrong’s West End Blues.
He quotes from an upcoming book of his on Armstrong:
“West End Blues,” recorded on June 28, starts with a surprise, an unaccompanied cadenza in which Armstrong snaps out four biting quarter notes by way of fanfare, then vaults upward through a chain of interlocking triplet arpeggios to a fiery high C embellished with a touch of vibrato. It was the most technically demanding passage to have been recorded by a jazz trumpeter up to that time, and for this reason alone it was bound to have displeased the old-school New Orleans musicians of Armstrong’s youth, one of whom grumbled that “because Louis was up North making records and running up and down like he’s crazy don’t mean that he’s that great. He is not playing cornet on that horn; he is imitating a clarinet. He is showing off.” Armstrong admitted that he had aspired when young to the facility of the great New Orleans clarinetists: “I was just like a clarinet player, like the guys run up and down the horn nowadays, boppin’ and things.”
There you have it. We can now be sure that the clarinet is a dangerous influence on any person’s character, inclining them toward “boppin’ and things”; to play strange other worldly not-quite-believable instruments (contra-alto-clarinet). Clarinet music can be seen with the like of such unruly characters as a deaf Beethoven, T. S. Eliot, Brahms (a closet Gypsy), partying in rowdy bars, and causing folks to turn to drugs such as marijuana, or tend toward melancholy and enjoying “sad sweet” moods. And famous clarinetists proselytize in remote places like Arkansas, looking for fresh converts. Parents, be warned, letting your child play clarinet could cause serious problems later in life.
March 10th, 2009 by David H. Thomas
Clarinetist Scott Locke has released a commendable recorded collection of music for solo clarinet spanning nearly the entire 20th century.
The earliest composition on the CD is Stravinsky’s canonical 1918 Three Pieces, which along with Willson Osborn’s well known 1958 Rhapsody (originally for bassoon), are the only works familiar to me.
The CD jacket states the Stravinsky was recorded live. Locke’s performance and interpretation was impressively natural and effortless. In fact throughout the CD, Dr. Locke rises to all technical and musical challenges with aplomb. His big, chunky sound never interfered when lightness and sparkle were needed.
(click image to buy on Amazon.com)
The title composition,
Celestial Dreamscape (1997) by Deborah Kavasch and two other works, Canyon Music (2000) by John Steffa and Stanos 1 (1993) by Kristine H. Burns, were written for Dr. Locke.
I enjoyed getting to know the two contrasting movements of Kavasch’s meditative Celestial Dreamscape, which seemed to have an appealing combination of technical challenge, including some cool sounding multi-phonics, and musical depth.
The slow first movement (“a stillness of moonlight”), along with several other pieces on the CD) attests to the seminal and prevailing influence of Olivier Messiaen’s Abyss of the Birds from Quartet for the End of Time. The second, much faster movement (“a sparkle of starlight”) states a jagged theme of sorts, then develops it recognizably.
The three movements of John Steffa’s Canyon Music stuck less well with me. The electronic accompaniment sounds like music from Dr. Who. (If you don’t know Dr. Who, Google it. If you do, you know what I mean) Perhaps with some strobe lights and Daleks running around…
Raga Music (1956) by John Mayer, also recorded from live performances, is unknown to me. The nine very short movements (some only 26 seconds) may have Indian names, but stylistically they are jazz and Messiaen influenced. Though they do not break any new ground in music (even for the 50s), they are worth considering to add accessible variety to a recital. I wonder if these recordings were taken from different performances in different halls, since the acoustics sound markedly different in several of them.
Kristine Burns’ Atanos 1, has what sounds like a piano accompaniment, but no, it’s “Disklavier”. This is serious “plink plank plonk” music, and sounds like a devil to perform; and I might add, enticing and funky enough to consider playing. My question to Scott: what ARE those high notes, and what kind of reed plays them?! Do reeds come in strength #6?
Reversible Jackets (1987) for flute and clarinet by Dan Welcher, features the only other live person (Stephanie Rea, flute) playing (impressively) on this otherwise solo CD. Written as a wedding present for friends, this playful duet in canon is pleasant and well constructed. Within the fairly serious second movement (honeymoon over?) Mendelssohn’s Wedding March is briefly quoted, and the music ends with a smile.
Scott Locke, with a Doctor of Arts from Ball State University, also studied at U. of Southern California with Mitchell Lurie. He has performed solo and chamber music in and around Washington DC, and at the University of Georgia, Arkansas State University, Illinois State University, Middle Tennessee State University, Perdue University, Anderson University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Locke also performed on a concert tour of France and has soloed with the Indianapolis Symphony as a Vistas in Performance winner.
Currently he is Associate Professor of Clarinet at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky, and is principal clarinet in the Paducah Symphony Orchestra.
If you want to buy a copy of his CD, you can buy it on Amazon.com. For questions about the music or for parts, you can contact him directly at scott.locke@murraystate.edu.
March 7th, 2009 by David H. Thomas
Summaries of clarinet news the past week.
From California, a rediscovered work sounds like something which should be played more often. I’m always looking for works for clarinet and strings.
An obscure work by film composer Bernard Herrmann was the highlight of Monday night’s concert in Samueli Theater, the final event in the Pacific Symphony’s annual American Composers Festival. A quintet for clarinet and string quartet, written in 1967, “Souvenirs” comes out of the same chest of drawers as Herrmann’s score to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” It is a lovely, seamless, autumnal work. …The piece sounds as if it were written in a dream.
David Krakauer is someone I would love to hear live.
American clarinet virtuoso David Krakauer will play the Kongresowa Hall in Warsaw March 12 as part of the Era Jazzu series of concerts. A unique blend of traditional Jewish klezmer music and jazz has brought Krakauer worldwide success. He is equally at ease performing jazz standards by Sidney Bechet or Thelonious Monk as avant-garde pieces by John Cage or John Zorn.
I have several CD and some of the numerous pieces commissioned by he Verdehr Trio. This group has advanced the wave of new music more than any other single group.
The most influential violin-clarinet-piano group on the planet has does the same with music. The Verdehr Trio has commissioned more than 200 new pieces, and this week the Michigan-based trio swoops into Rochester to work with students at Eastman and perform a concert of intriguing music you’ve probably never heard before. Freshly penned after 2000, works include Jennifer Higdon’s “Dash,” “Commedia” by David Liptak, and “Dancing Helix Rituals” by Augusta Read Thomas.
James Campbell is one of the pre-eminent players in the US today.
WATERLOO- Renowned clarinetist James Campbell will visit Wilfrid Laurier University March 12-15 to lead master classes for Laurier music students and to perform in a free public concert as part of the MWM Financial Group Distinguished Artist Series.
In local Columbus Symphony news: Ann Melvin won the Arts Partner award for her lifetime support of the arts, especially the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
February 27th, 2009 by David H. Thomas
The clarinet is such a versatile instrument. It is well known in jazz music, Klezmer (spirited secular Jewish music), German polka bands, and is often used in Indian music.
Here is an article describing the use of clarinet in a “classical” Indian music concert in Islamabad, Pakistan!
