Carl Maria von Weber Op. 34 Clarinet Quintet, Movt. 2

Referring to the English Horn solo in the second movement of Dvorak 9th Symphony, J-M Zeitouni recommended not playing exactly with his beat, but rather to follow the musical line of the soloist, Rob Royse.

I have harped about this issue in the past: “But I’m with the conductor!”

In general, conductors lead the orchestra, not individual players. The orchestra as a whole should follow the conductor. Individual players need to stay with the “pack”. If any player leaves the “pack” to follow individually, they miss the point.

A savvy conductor will carefully lead the back of the orchestra, which usually suffers the most from acoustical delay in a hall, as in the case of the Ohio Theater, where the Columbus Symphony plays.

Plus I realized that I have recently been changing too many parameters in my equipment: changed clarinet, barrels, mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds, thumb positions. I feel dizzy just thinking about all those changes. Too much to keep track of what’s what!

I went back to my R13 Buffets from the Selmer Privileges (with relatively new Backun barrels and bells) and my Lelandais mouthpiece (which I’ve been coming back to for 20 years… you’d think I’d learn…)

But I kept the Legere reeds I’ve been experimenting with for six months now. I have played on the Legere Signatures for a few months, and I love them. However, the harder ones ended up being too tricky to control, so I went softer, and softer, from a 4, to a 3.75, and recently to a 3.5!

Playing the 3.5 Legere Signature is the most comfortable I’ve felt on synthetic reeds since I started trying them 6 months ago. Attacks and articulation are as natural as with a cane reed (but more consistent). Tone is warm and full. I really feel like I’m playing on a cane reed.

I’ve been playing Legere reeds exclusively for every rehearsal and concert this season. I have not played any cane reeds.

I must report that I’ve tried the competitor, Forestone, again and again. The more I play it, the less I like it. Forestone reeds sound “flabby”. They require biting. They cannot be played without biting. I tried their hardest reed, almost unplayably hard, and I still had to bit to get the pitch up. If you don’t mind playing flat, they’re okay, though they still sound flabby and unfocused. I am sure some people can play them. Not me. And not another principal clarinetist in an orchestra, to my knowledge.

So, there’s the update.

I’ve been wood-shedding Jeanjean 2, but not to the point of being ready to share it with you. (I may move to 3 before recording 2 to give me some breathing room with practicing. I’m getting a bit stuck on 2. We’ll see)

The goal in performing this jazzy faster movement of the Copland Clarinet Concerto is to strive for a feeling of spontaneous improvisation.

Copland Concerto, pt. 2

“How do we live in a world where people don’t understand what we do?”

People think artists/musicians are flakes and should work for free and are drug addicts and perverts and any number of things. We don’t always help with that image either. We tend to be emotionally fragile or volatile, lost in our own little worlds.

I think our job (and this just my opinion) is to educate people about what we do and if I can entertain them while doing that, ever better.

That about sums up the purpose and intent of my blog! Thanks Keith!!

But near the end, you hear a church bell ring, and there’s a beautiful coda of peaceful music as day approaches.

It is near the end of this that a lonely but sweet clarinet solo appears, followed by a little more optimistic flute solo in the same vein.

It’s a tricky little solo. To capture the sweet sadness it depicts, the slur up to the high e must be effortless. I also try to diminuendo the e, as if it just floats away, before continuing with the next part of the phrase. The triplets must also float lightly before the high e, and must not bog down in “subdivision” style playing.

I crescendo in the 5th and 6th bars toward the 2nd beat of the 6th bar, where the repeated c triplets should diminuendo, almost as if giving up, tired, before resolving to the b. It’s a very intimate solo, and cannot be played too extrovertedly.

The program sounds like it will be fun and entertaining, with some gorgeous Broadway songs from Phantom of the Opera and others, sung by Lisa Vroman and Doug LaBrecque between a few orchestral numbers. It’s not a typical “scary” Halloween concert, but that’s a refreshing change.

Robert Spring, Clarinet Virtuoso

Bob Spring is already somewhat of a legend in the clarinet world. His album “Dragon’s Tongue”, a CD of virtuoso clarinet music with wind band, is a must have for any music library. He teaches at Arizona State University. You can read his full bio on the Pro Musica website HERE.

What he is most well known for is his ability to double tongue, circular breath and play just about any technique on the clarinet. However, if anyone thinks he is so good just because he’s talented, take note. He does a 1.5 hour warm up every single day, of challenging scales and long-tones.

Like a rock star “groupie” I asked him to play Flight of the Bumblebee. He complied. I got to see his circular breathing and fingers close up. (remember, I’m working on these techniques, so I’m always looking for how the pros do it.) He manages to take huge circular breaths, puffing his whole mouth up. I usually keep it to small breaths so I don’t have to puff so much and lose the embouchure.

I also observed how he moves his hand/fingers while playing so fast. His hands are not big, and he moves quite a bit to get around the instrument. Despite all that hand and finger motion, he never interferes with his Primary Control; his neck back stay free. (students take note!)

He has played on the same Pyne mouthpiece for decades. From experience, I know that the mouthpiece is critical when attempting high level techniques such as double tonguing and circular breathing. He also plays on pretty hard reeds 4.5. In short he’s an amazing athlete on the clarinet: strong, fast and versatile.

Bob showed me what he was working on, preparing for an upcoming solo performance. Click the thumbnails for larger views. The piece is called SubtrainS and Strata’sfearS for solo Bb clarinet by Eric P Mandat, written for Robert Spring.

I don’t know if you can see the detail in the weak photo my phone camera took, but there are custom fingerings above almost every note!! And he plays them with ease. Though the piece was written for Spring in 1995 it sounds fresh and new as ever. (I’ve never heard it, until he played a bit, and I’m intrigued to hear the whole piece now.)

I’m not much of a clarinet geek, but I really enjoyed hearing, watching and chatting with such an amazing player close up.