Thoughts from an Orchestral Clarinetist, Solo Clarinetist, Clarinet Teacher, Clarinet blogger
So I don’t appear out of touch. Here’s a great tribute to Mr. Drucker, retiring from the NY Phil. after 60 years service.
To me, Drucker IS the Corigliano Clarinet Concerto! (written for him) If you haven’t heard his version, get it. I first heard him perform it in a broadcast when I was eighteen.
I’ve been thinking about previous teachers recently. I was practicing some excerpts when I turned to a xerox of Till Eulenspiegel and saw the signature of Alan Balter at the top.
I took a few lessons with Alan during the 80’s while I still lived in Washington, DC. Though I had graduated from Northwestern U in 1982, having studied with Marcellus and Brody there, Balter taught me some things I never got from any other teacher.
When I played a note perfect Mendelssohn Scherzo for him, he commented how well I had played it, and then said it was missing one key element of the music, its dance like quality.
He encouraged me to learn to “spin the air” as I played, which freed up my air for more expressive subtlety, and also for a touch of vibrato when I desired it.
He helped me focus on the quality of motion of my right hand index finger, the weakest link in my finger technique.
I still apply these ideas and others to my playing and teaching to this day. I will always be thankful for what he taught me.
Unfortunately, I cannot thank him personally. Alan Balter passed away in 1998 from complications caused by some disease he had battled for over a decade.
He played 8 seasons as principal clarinet of the Atlanta Symphony and then went on to conduct after winning the MIN-ON International Concours for Conductors in 1976.
For the past few months I’ve been testing and acquiring barrels and bells from Backun Musical Services in Burnaby Canada. In this post, I discuss the pros and cons of Backun clarinet parts, and I also detail what to keep in mind when trying new equipment of any sort from mouthpieces to clarinets.
Most clarinetists know Backun brand. Non musicians will not know the name. As for non-clarinetists, though they may not know Backun parts, they certainly know the fever of seeking the best instrument and/or parts. 
But EVERYONE knows how Backun parts look. Eyecatchingly beautiful! You cannot miss them from a distance.
Our instrument IS our voice. How we use it is up to us, but the instrument and all its parts are critical to how we sound. However, I remember something Loren Kitt (Principal Clarinet National Symphony, Washington, DC) said to me. “You’ll always end up sounding like you, so just get the most comfortable equipment.” The most comfortable equipment is probably the best, at least for you.
That’s were it gets tricky. Comfortable is a relative thing. For example, if you bite the mouthpiece when you play, an open facing will be more comfortable, though it caters to a bad habit.
When I began to test all these beautiful barrels and bells, the challenge was to play consistently. I had to take into account the variables of the reed, ligature, mouthpiece, and room acoustics. (I aimed the instrument to the same corner of the room for each test.) In other words, it had to be at least a bit “scientific”, with all variables controlled as much as possible.
At first I tried only the traditional style barrels in Cocobolo and bells in Grenadilla. The previous set I had owned were all Cocobolo, and I wanted to avoid the Cocobolo bells because they seemed not to project well in my 3000 seat hall. I also tried bells with the voicing groove and without.
I found that the voicing groove helped not only with voicing the tone of the long “B”, but also changed the shape of the tone of the whole range of the instrument, giving it a more round quality. It took some getting used to, since I habitually “voiced” the long “B”. When I stopped trying to doctor it, it sounded better. (I tested this outcome by recording myself, since the long B continued to sound stuffy close up)
I played a C scale, mezzo-forte, to do a quick test of each new piece. Consider that I had a great variety of both barrels and bells, so even this quick test took some time. I put aside the ones I liked, and started round two.
For the second round, I played some excerpts: Brahms 1- third movement, Brahms 3- second movement, R.K. Scheherazade- third movement, the perky ppp staccato solo, and R.K. Capriccio Espanol opening solo and Respighi Pines of Rome solo. These excerpts cover a range of challenging tests for any equipment.
As I said before, I had to concentrate on maintaining my embouchure, voicing and air support at a consistent high level. It was easy to “make” one barrel or bell sound better or worse to “speed up” the process. At times I would spend 4-5 hours trying them, and after picking the “best”, would go back and find I had doctored them with my voicing, and that another piece was in fact more consistently better overall. Or they sounded good with one reed, and not another, or in one room, but not a bigger room, or one excerpt, but not another.
I will also emphasize that testing for soft attacks and articulation is critical, since some pieces sound great loud, but have unworkable resistance in pp. (hence choosing R.K. Scheherazade ppp articulated solo)
I also recorded myself in a large room, with the microphone at least 10 feet away. Some pieces sound good close up, but less focused 10 feet away.
Another thing to be aware of is the tightness of a barrel. A tight barrel may sound very focused, but it will not “blossom” in sound, and will sound spread or unfocused from a distance. A tight barrel will feel tight when you try to open up the sound in a crescendo. The sound focuses too soon in the vibrating column, and will feel tight in your throat when you try to voice it.
After I had picked the best barrels and bells, I took them to my hall to test them there. Unfortunately, the traditional barrels did not cut over the orchestra into the hall. So I decided to give the new MoBa (and Mo-expensive) design a try.
The new MoBa line of Backuns is a collaboration by Riccardo Morales and Morrie Backun. According to Erika Block, the wonderful person who handles all the sales orders, the MoBas project better than the traditional Backun design. I tried the Cocobolo version on her recommendation.
When I received them, I was amazed how much more focused and projected the sound was, especially by the bells, which are radically different in design from any bell I have seen. They are shorter than Buffet bells, and have a larger bore which then flares less.
Overall, I was very impressed with MoBas, and I bought a set or barrels and bells.
Now a few words about my overall impression of Backun parts. The Backun style rendered customizing our instruments infinitely more interesting and colorful. (One colleague joked that Buffet should only sell the body of the instrument, sans barrel and bell, since nearly everyone switches.)
Do they make you sound better? If you enjoy your own playing more, you will sound better. If you are more comfortable, you will sound better. The process of testing them is a learning process in itself. It helps you separate what is your responsibility and what is the equipment. I truly became a better player in the process.
Backun barrels and bells mellow the edge of a clarinet sound. Don’t play them if that is not what you want. They change the sound, adding a “bulbous” quality, more like an English horn. By this I mean that the tone is a bit more “contained” and less extroverted.
I found that I began to blow more deeply into the instrument and tone as I grew accustomed to the Backun sound and feel.
Is the Backun sound better? It’s different. If you like it better, then it’s better. Again, be sure to try them in a large hall if that’s where you work, since they tend to sound better close up than regular clarinet equipment.
Are they better than Buffet (or Selmer) barrels and bells? Ultimately, if you were able to choose from a dozen Buffet barrels and bells, you would probably pick parts which improve the quality of your equipment, and your playing. Anyone who has tried Moennig or Chadash barrels knows that 1 out of 5 might be really good.
Do they tune as well as, or better than, standard equipment? Tuning your pitch comes from being able to connect with the core of your sound. If Backuns help you do that, you will tune better. (However, since they change the shape of the core tone, they take some getting used to)
Overall, I believe Backun style has helped evolve the traditional clarinet sound into something more mellow and round. The projecting quality of a good clarinet tone has its dangers. Often, a projecting tone takes on a bright, or even shrill edge. Bakuns take off the edge, but, especially with the MoBas, keep most of the projection. This allows the high level player to put more volume into the sound without fearing the encroachment of dreaded brightness.
And, I have to admit, they are beautiful, even kind of sexy, to look at!
My bottom line advice. If you have a good Moennig or Chadash barrel, consider trying the MoBa bells, with voicing groove, in Cocobolo.
I recently performed three Paul Jeanjean (1874-1928) etudes from the book of 18 (actually 17 and a duet). Here is the video of 15. You can see the others on my YouTube channel. I played these on a new Selmer Privilege model clarinet which I got two days before the recital, and on a new Hawkins R mouthpiece, which I also had for only a few days. The clarinet has a left G#/C# key, which got in my way a few times, though I don’t think it happened in this etude.
Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra, written in 2002, transmits a magical portrait of a large, modern orchestra in a rich variety of colors, textures, rhythms and harmonic density. It seems to hail from an exotic (but friendly) planet across the galaxy, presenting a world both familiar and completely new. During louder passages in our two rehearsals of it thus far, I felt my insides vibrating, happily receiving its fresh and often impish message. The Columbus Symphony will be performing this piece this Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and 19.
Concerto for Orchestra is deftly orchestrated, as it should be, with lots of idiomatic writing for solo instruments and sections, in a playful style and form strongly reminiscent of Bela Bartok’s iconic masterpiece of the same name.
Higdon’s harmonic language uses whole tone scales mixed with modes to create a French sounding effervescence, and also infusing a magical quality into the music. She uses this mercurial lightness to great extent in almost rapturous passages which sound inspired by the orchestral music of Olivier Messiaen, another other worldly composer. She even indicates “mystical” and (in rehearsal today) “magical” for the style of the third movement. Many of the themes are hauntingly alluring.
Dissonances are so richly textured that they become simply dense colors rather than “wrong” sounding notes. Tonal melody can be heard through this thick haze of notes, but often only vaguely. Yet, despite the density of sound, balance is not much of an issue, an indicator of effective orchestral writing. Also, though fairly difficult music to play, it does not come across as a struggle for anyone in the orchestra.
Though much of the five movement work uses strong, repeated rhythms, either alone or under melodies and counterpoint, many intimate ensemble passages convey a jazzy freedom. In such cases, each part seems to have a mind of its own, chatting with and around the others.
Technically, the first movement has one passage written into the stratosphere of the clarinet range. I’ve never played a double high C in an orchestral piece. (I have played Ginastera Danses Concertantes on C clarinet, which then goes up to a double high B)
But the writing is such that it’s not unnatural to go up that high. The fingerings came somewhat easily (we often have to invent fingerings that high), and the style of this particular lick, a sfumando run, up in smoke, lends itself to the vagueness of such high writing. (Tuning up there often involves some luck.) Yet, since the flutes are also playing in the same range, the passage is not damaged by playing it down an octave, which I think the Atlanta Symphony did in their recording.
Overall, I am enjoying getting to know this relatively new work for orchestra. It is a nice balance of challenge and reward.
The young and highly touted conductor from Mexico, Alondra de la Parra has done well putting this all together so far, rehearsing intricate spots and transitional passages enough to give them a comfortable feel. Maestra de la Parra seems to understand the effervescent requirements of Higdon’s music, and is choosing tempos to that effect, though there were occasions where her intentions did not translate into effective stick commands. Overall, this young conductor seems unhindered by the masculine tradition of conductors, and her dynamism and verve on the podium convey a natural excitement for the music.
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.
I just had a great lesson with Emily Bacon, who has studied with me for a little over a year.
She is finally done with all her music school auditions, so we could move beyond the material required for those. (as much as I love the process of preparing music with a deadline, it hampers the real learning process, which has it’s own timetable)
We had nothing scheduled to work on during today’s lesson, so our time was a blank slate.
I decided to review some basic techniques with her. I gave her two exercises. The first is to play a chromatic scale, 16th notes, 3 octaves, and to articulate every other 16th. (tongue the first note, then slur two note groups all the way up, so the articulation is a 16th off the beat) This allows the player to keep the tongue very light and to emphasize the quality of air and voicing throughout the range of the instrument.
The second exercise is inspired by the first Parez Scale Book. C scale, slurred, one 8th and 16ths one octave up to an 8th at the top, stop-tongued, then an 8th on the lower octave C, stop-tongued. (I’ll write this out and post it below). Then the same scale on D (still a C scale), then the same on each note up the C scale. Then reverse and start from the top C coming down.
After we had reviewed and stabilized these two exercises, keeping the basics in mind (lose, open jaw, soft throat, soft “sinuses”, high back of tongue), I suggested a radical idea: playing with earplugs in!
What I love about Emily is her willingness to try something new and different. And she doesn’t just go through the motions, she really gives it a good shot, and she also trusts that I have some logic in mind.
So she put in some earplugs and played a few notes. “Ew, it sounds awful!” was the first, and expected, response. Then I had her play the exercises we had practiced before, and told her to trust the feeling of a soft open jaw, soft throat and sinuses and a high tongue. And she sounded GREAT! (to me, that is, since she could not tell how she sounded, only how it felt)
We continued, with earplugs in, by playing through some standard excerpts, such as the slow movement of Brahms 3rd symphony. When ever something didn’t sound right, I reminded her of the feeling of the basics, and it immediately improved.
I also recorded her playing these excerpts with the plugs in, so she could hear how good she sounded.
She then removed the earplugs and continued to play “by feel”, not allowing what she heard to influence how it felt. And, Voila!, she continued to sound really wonderful, with lots of ring in the sound all the way up the range, with perky articulations, clear attacks and releases of mid-range notes.
Today was the most rewarding kind of teaching, when a fresh idea takes root in a wonderfully receptive student. Thank you, Emily!
