Buzzing Reed- Classical Music & Clarinet Culture

The Debussy Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet and piano (or orchestra) has been in my repertoire since I was 16 years old. I won two concerto competitions in High School with it, and performed it with the National Symphony and Baltimore Symphony.

I have also performed the Rhapsodie with the Columbus Symphony, and am a featured artist playing the it on the CD “CSO Showcase”.

Yet the music, however deeply ingrained in my psyche and body, still thrills and challenges. A friend of mine in the Columbus Symphony said to me after playing it, “Wow, it’s a wonderful piece of music. I was reminded of “Afternoon of a Faun”.

I have had several chances to play it the past few weeks, and will have two more in the next week. (4 total) It’s quite a luxury to have so many live performances of a solo piece, especially for an orchestral musician.

And it’s also a luxury to play it with good pianists. The piano part is notoriously difficult. “It’s all flats!” one pianist exclaimed.

Written in 1910 as a competition test piece for clarinetists seeking to graduate from the Paris Conservatory, Debussy composed the piece with piano first, and orchestrated it a year later.

Though the full “Boehm” inspired key system had been around for decades when Debussy composed this piece, I am still impressed at Debussy’s facility in writing to the edge of the instrument’s technical abilities.

Much of the piece requires great facility “over the break” meaning where the clarinet moves from one register to another. Fingerings in this area can be awkward.

Also, near the end of the piece, the composers writes a passage which uses all seven key choices for the pinky fingers of both hands. It’s sort of a finger “tongue twister”. Here is that passage:

technical flourish using all pinky keys

French culture emphasizes and expresses subtlety more than most cultures, and it’s not surprising that Debussy aimed to test more than just the technical note possibilities. He writes numerous extremely soft and high notes in liquid lines, demanding absolute breath and tone control. In order to really play the dynamics he notates, the player must have all his technical and tonal facilities at full steam.

Beyond the notes, the Debussy Rhapsodie is deceptively challenging. To achieve the vast variety of colors, musical characters and development, the player must astutely pace the music so that it builds in layers to its final bluesy climax.

In about 9 minutes, Debussy presents several thematic “nuggets” and develops them rhapsodically (freely) toward a vastly different modd in the end.

The opening bars create a floating, enigmatic mood, with the clarinet stating a 3 note idea, which then leaves the listener hanging. The next few bars allow this little idea to continue into something only slightly more substantial.

3 note idea used throughout

3 note theme w chromatic tail, developed later

Seeing the beginning in images, I imaging a little wood sprite poking up her head from the lilting softness of a fern forest. Then she retreats. Again, she emerges, showing more of herself. Next she prances out and does her little dance.

3 note idea w chrom tail, playfully repeated

Then the scene transitions and opens up into the next theme, which is built on the exact same first three notes, but playing in reverse, and much slower. This theme becomes the main lyrical melody of the piece, and it appears in several different guises, eventually returning in the coda to lead the listener beyond and into the final exciting dance.

Main theme, and Soaring theme at key change

The music begins to rise rhapsodically toward yet another theme, one with great skips in it, reaching low and then soaring high in its arching shape. This theme becomes the piece’s favorite, and also creates the most challenging sections for tone and breath control. By transposing the theme ever higher each time it appears, the player must rise to control it ever more, maintaining the effortless fluidity it demands to be musically effective.

The next section speeds up the pace a bit, using a slightly altered version of the first three note theme. Here Debussy expertly creates subtle variation using specific and varied articulations. The impish mood quickly returns to the second theme, an octave higher, and greater challenge, before moving to the next section, a mini “storm” of only a few bars and lots of notes, before returning again to yet another version of the first three note theme.

3 note idea impishly developed

Again, this music organically evolves into a development section, advancing the little “themelet” to express outward joy and exuberance. I see the little wood sprite dancing in a sunlit open field.

Middle section developing 3 note theme playfully

Only a few bars later, this miniaturized tone poem moves to yet another familiar scene, the soaring theme with great skips across the instrument. This time it’s at the high end of the clarinet’s “altissimo” range. Marked pianissimo, this is the rhapsodic peak of this first half of the piece. The music continues beyond the arching theme to extend the magical floating mood even further. Debussy suggests “Plus retenu” “even slower”. Time seems to stop.

Soaring theme in upper register, pianissimo

The transition to the next “impish” section and theme is accomplished by yet again playing with the very first three note shape.

This next section, impish in character, asks the player to demonstrate a perky and light staccato, and to be able to control that articulation in the high register. The theme itself, I believe, is an extension of the first wood sprite’s theme, the short chromatic descent seen in the 4th bar of the piece.

Scherzo theme based on 3 note chromatic tail

Debussy continues to develop this idea for another 20 bars, before returning briefly to the soaring theme. Then the whole scene comes unraveled as the music returns to the first theme, ultra placid, especially after all the excitement of the intervening music. However the music takes yet another turn, building with great dynamic and harmonic tension (and the most difficult part for the pianist) to another virtuosic flourish of riffs for the clarinet before entering the final impish dance which builds with bacchanalian fervor to a final “bluesy” statement of the very first three note theme before coming to a crashing close.

Return to main theme w buildup to ending

Technical flourishes transitioning to ending dance

Bluesy ending using 3 note idea

All in all, a miniature music masterpiece, well written to challenge any clarinetist’s technique. Gotta love it.

Radio Shack Sound Meter

I bought a Radio Shack sound meter a few weeks ago. It cost about $50.

Richard Hawkins (Oberlin) mentioned he uses it to teach his students air and tone control. I also read about it in a recent issue of Clarinet magazine, in an article by Larry Guy (Vassar).

If you want to get one, be sure to get the digital version, as shown in the photo at left. It also has analog readout.

I have been working extensively with it, and I have to say, it’s quite challenging to do longtones with it.

As suggested in Larry Guys article, I set the reader to 80, fast response, C weighting, for the lowest notes on the clarinet, from low E up to C.

With the reader set at 80 Db, it reads from 70-90. Below 70, it measures “lo” and above 90 it just blinks.

I began a long tone on a low E, trying to register only 70 before attempting to crescendo up to 71, then 72, remaining on each decibel for a few seconds.

In addition to the numbered digital read out, there is an analog type meter under the numbers. I found this quite useful. Watching the analog meter, I can see it bouncing around at the low end, and it give clues as to how controlled the tone is. It also helps me gauge the progress better than the numbers, because it anticipates the digital readout slightly.

I usually run out of breath by the time I get from 70 to 75, if I get that far. (this all became easier with time) So I breathe and attempt to begin exactly at 75, from which I increase to 80, then breathe, etc, until I reach 90. The start at 90 and diminuendo in stages until I am back at 70.

As recommended by Larry Guy, I also suggest moving the meter to 90 starting around low C and up, since those notes are automatically louder and it’s almost impossible to control them at 70 Db.

Another variation is to begin the longtone at 75 (or 85 when using 90 as the setting), and crescendoing to 85 (or 95). This is plenty difficult, and will allow you do practice more longtone notes.

It’s interesting how much more “crescendo” seems necessary to increase volume at the higher decibels. This is not only because it takes more air speed and strength to play up to 90 Db. It’s also due to the way Dbs are measured. Below is a rough description of how much increase in power it takes to increase 10 Db. (here is the source of this information.)

On the decibel scale, the smallest audible sound (near total silence) is 0 dB. A sound 10 times more powerful is 10 dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than near total silence is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than near total silence is 30 dB. Here are some common sounds and their decibel ratings:

* Near total silence – 0 dB
* A whisper – 15 dB
* Normal conversation – 60 dB
* A lawnmower – 90 dB
* A car horn – 110 dB
* A rock concert or a jet engine – 120 dB
* A gunshot or firecracker – 140 dB

You know from your own experience that distance affects the intensity of sound — if you are far away, the power is greatly diminished. All of the ratings above are taken while standing near the sound.

Any sound above 85 dB can cause hearing loss, and the loss is related both to the power of the sound as well as the length of exposure. You know that you are listening to an 85-dB sound if you have to raise your voice to be heard by somebody else. Eight hours of 90-dB sound can cause damage to your ears; any exposure to 140-dB sound causes immediate damage (and causes actual pain).

Distance from the meter is another critical factor in how it reads. If it seems ridiculously sensitive, I move a few inches further away and try again. Just a small increase in distance will change how “loud” the sound is to the meter. Another factor to consider is what acoustical backdrop is behind the meter. (The meter points away from you, since it was designed to be used by someone to measure other sounds, not your own. But this doesn’t affect its usefulness for longtones.) I place it on a music stand, almost at eye level, so I can read the meter without compromising my posture for playing.

Now we get to critical factors in how to control your tone.

1) It is important to remain relaxed and poised as you focus on controlling the air and tone. Try to find a position that you could stay in comfortably for awhile, without slouching. I prefer to stand while practicing. But even while sitting, feet should be “calmly” flat on the floor, knees and hips relaxed, head floating forward and up, neck free, back ribs relaxed and open to air.

2) When “taking” a breath, think of “letting” the air in, especially if you have squeezed the last bit of air out in your longtone.

3) Let the air in while keeping your neck, back and shoulders relaxed. Too often we try to suck air in while straining the neck and back. (and throat!) A good full breath will feel like it fills the space from your seat to to the base of your neck.

4) To control the release of air, think of holding the air with a “full tank” as if you are inhaling a little more, sort of an “open” feeling the air. Then release ever so slowly, pretending to fog a mirror one molecule of air at a time. It really feels like one molecule at a time, especially when you see how little air it takes to make 70 Db of sound!

Remember to keep your neck, shoulders and back relaxed throughout all this “control”. What you are controlling is the motions of breathing, not stopping the air.

We are lucky to have such valuable technological tools to help us master the clarinet. Use them!

If you are interested in learning more about the science of measuring sound in Decibels, see THIS article.

Podcast: Download

Results of votes and identity of mouthpieces- The votes are number of mentions by commenters. Very unscientific.

1- Behn Vintage D – 3 votes
2- Antique Lelandais Chedeville – 9 votes
3- Old Portnoy refaced by a friend – 1 vote
4- Hawkins R – 4 votes

In the ongoing search for the Holy Grail of Tone, the “Toney Grail”, I did some quick tone tests of four mouthpieces. They are posted here for your comments.

There are two sets of tests for each mouthpiece, the second with a bit harder reed. (Legere Signature 3.75 on the first set and 4 on the second.) The order of the mouthpieces is the same for both tests.

I tried to voice and blow the same for each, not adjust the sound in any way. The mouthpieces will be identified after I hear some feedback and votes for best sound. Which do you like from 1-4?

With 3.75 reed:
Clip 1

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Clip 2

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Clip 3

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Clip 4

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With 4 reed:
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Clip 3

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Clip 4

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Here is a clip of a few measures of French clarinetist Michel Arrignon playing with the most beautiful clarinet tone I’ve ever heard. I don’t know much of his playing beyond this recording. He sounds more human on those, so for now, I’m just enjoying the magic he captured on this recording.

The music is Arnold Schoenberg Op. 24 for Septet and Baritone. He sounds phenomenal throughout, not just this excerpt. Here’s the 30 second clip.

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I suggest you buy the CD. It’s really quite a stunning performance from all involved. But Michel Arrignon, in this recording, which is not new, sets a vivid standard for beauty, elegance, ring, color, shape, suppleness of tone.

I have spent the past few days re-accustoming myself to my beloved Buffet clarinets. Sweetness over size. Ring over darkness. Tangy lemon cream chiffon rather than chocolate cake. These are not preferences of quality, they are instead qualities of preference.

Choosing and developing a tone for yourself is a very personal process. One Buffet may sound better than another, one Selmer design better in tune. But a good Selmer and a good Buffet clarinet are merely instruments of tone, not producers of it. The player is the real tone producer, the shaper of it. The choice to play one instrument over another is only one of countless decisions in the process of creating a your own special tone.

My tone production mechanisms had recently become somewhat generic; my breath, embouchure, voicing, the whole package had adapted to switching back and forth between Buffets and Selmers. Though this generifying adaptation was instructive, it felt good to slip back into the same familiar shoes several times a day, and to relish that intimacy and let it re-evolve toward my personal tone.

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.