Of course I forgot my recorder. After having managed to get my horn, my sheet music and my crappy tape recorder, I didn't realize till I was at Kirt's house that I didn't have my little digital recorder. Now I have to just reconstruct what I can.
In no particular order then:
We talked a lot about the recording of the concert that I attended at clarinet symposium. I have to say I have been listening to this recording quite a bit, and I am quite fond it of. It has given me an appreciation of the classical clarinet that I did not have before this. Let me also say that all the players on the tape are about 10,000 times better players than I am, and I would be happy to play anywhere near their level.
Kirt, being a teacher, is quite opinionated on all the players, and can frankly hear things that I cannot. I miss some of the spots where the players are sharp or flat - sometimes even in the same phrase.
Most intriguing to me of what Kirt pointed out was what he calls surging, and this is a bit difficult to grasp so bear with me. Two places where surging is apparent: when the player is playing a long phrase with lots of notes in succession, where the notes don't come out evenly during the phrase. Think of how if you are not careful, when you do something as simple as playing a C scale above the break, once you hit the G above the joint in the horn, the note can easily honk. You know what I mean, it will not sound dynamically or tonally the same as the other notes. I will pop out, and in a bad way. Bear in mind, these variations are not intentional, not artistic in intent, especially since classical players in particular want to have above all a clear, even tone.
The other part of surging to consider is when the score calls for note to be held for a long time. In this case, you can hear the amount of breath support ramp up and down, which also affects the tone. The most important point here, that I cannot stress too heavily: surging is NOT the same as dynamics! What I am aiming for is the ability to produce the same tone at low or high volumes. That is why when I play long tones, I start quietly, quickly ramp up to a high volume and do as long and gradual fade out as I can - and always trying to make the same tone. In every situation and on every instrument I have studied, that is the main thing: can you consistently produce the same tone and volume in whatever you play? Because as far as I am concerned, if you can't do this you are crippled. Its not at all like I am saying that anyone should not vary the dynamics and tone of a piece of music when they are playing it; that would make the music lifeless. But if you work at being able to control the tone and volume at both times, you will be the one in charge, and I would say, playing will become much less difficult for you. This is my experience with the guitar, and on the one or two occasions on the clarinet when this has happened, the whole playing experience becomes not effortless but just pretty easy. It's a hell of a lot more fun too, let me tell you.
As you know Kirt was taught, and played for years until he found his teacher that taught him the method he is teaching me, the standard classical technique of playing, which in part consists of very heavy reeds (think #5s if you can imagine) and a much more locked down approach to the embrosure, where instead of chewing up towards the beak of the mouthpiece, you are more biting upwards towards the rails of the mouthpiece. I know, I know it sounds crazy, and please excuse any glossing over of the classical method, but remember I am not being taught that way, thankfully. As Kirt has said several times, where the classical player is totally focused on the embrosure and making adjustments there Kirt's method is to move the focus back into the throat, as I have written about many times. The classical player with their setup and focus provides them with security, so that they can back off slightly on their breathing to get the tone. The method I am being taught, therefore, is much less rigid and less physically secure, if you will, but the result is once you get it much much less work for the player, where you can breath less and play longer phrases, for a long period of time, than with the classical method. Part of this ability to play longer amounts of time on one breath is that you don't increase dynamics by playing harder, but by opening the glottis more, which will allow more air to come out, thus more volume. But you are still putting the same amount of air through the horn.
Again, with the classical system, you are playing differently with each note you play; on this system, you are playing one long tone (with obviously very subtle adjustments of the gliss) and using the fingers to simply lengthen and shorten the column of air to produce the different notes.
So back to how this fits into phrasing and the problems of surging: the way I am being taught, you phrase with your fingers, not with your breath. Doing it this way, I think once I get better at this, will allow me much more flexibility in doing all the things that make a piece of music more than just notes on the page: the expression of thought as rendered through the instrument.
Just a final comment here from Kirt after reading this entry::
"The one main thing I would say is that the approach I teach is in fact the classical approach. There's just more than one approach. Ralph McLane and others blew one note while they moved fingers; they don't surge."
Last Wednesday I had the chance to go to music school - at least for one day.
I took the day off work, since they owed me one, and as it turned out it was the first nice sunny day we have had in two months of nasty, snowy weather.
Barbara dropped me off at the campus of the University of Portland. I have to say, its been what a couple of decades since I have walked thru a college campus. Damn! The students all look, as Barb would say, like the have just been hatched. Makes a fellow feel old, let me tell you.
Still I managed to make my way to the first event of the day, a 12:30 concert. When was the last time I went to see music during the day? But maybe I am going too fast, so let me tell you what this day was about.
This was the second annual clarinet symposium, sponsored by the University. The program today consists of six guest clarinet players, from all over the country, in a set of concerts, a master class, and an instrument show with manufactures reps showing off their wares.
I found out about this by accident in the sheet music store, and I really didn't know what was on tap, as it turned out.
And so here I am in a small concert hall on the beautiful campus, and there on the stage is the grand piano.
The audience is filling up, mostly students and faculty, and at least some of the people here are demonstrably older than me - thank god.
I set up my trust zoom recorder and hope for the best (which is what happened, and I have the files up here for you to listen to). I'm not the only one recording, lots of people have digital recorders out on the chairs. This could be good. I realize that several people in the audience have clarinets with them. I am for sure in the right place.
The first half dozen pieces are for clarinet and with piano, and its obvious from the onset that I am in for a treat - this is a group of really talented people, playing classical music from several periods.
The sounds of the piano and horn blend and contrast, and once again I am struck just how unique, how soulful and compelling the sound of the clarinet is. It really helps to have a good sounding hall and an attentive audience.
All of the players have a unique sound, no more so than during the latter part of the program. The pianist has left the stage, and clarinet ensembles with four to six musicians show off their chops.
Is there anything that can compare with the sound of a group of clarinets? If there is, I don't know what that could be. It hits me in some deep part of my soul, way down there in the basement where the furnace is. Its just amazing to me, how I didn't realize this years ago.
My favorite piece has to be a pavanne by Faure, just exquisitely beautiful, deep and mystical and very moving.
Not everything was serious though, the last piece was 8 1/2 for six clarinets by Nino Rota. You even seen a Fellini film? Rota did scores for many of his films, and the music is playful, clever, light and in some places rather odd. Great stuff!
The morning concert over, the crowd disperses over to the other hall where the exhibit and master class will be held. As it happens I walk over with the pianist and talk briefly with the clarinet player that I thought had the best tone of anyone on the stage - and that is saying, really saying a lot. And what kind of horn does he play? No surprise in this classical crowd, its an R13, although modified by some famous-but-I-don't repairman. Also of note: I found out later that this same clarinet player, with the superb tone, also is a serious klezmer player. Cool, eh?
Everyone is quite friendly, and I think with regret again how I was never able to go to music school......but that is a whole other story, for some other time.
We walk into the hall, and the first thing I see is a table with maybe twenty Buffet clarinets of all sorts, Bb, Eb, bass - well this was a serious group of horns, all Buffets, all fancy, many of them the Tosca models. I get into a very animated conversation with a man from a company in Denmark(!) - Loff and Pfeiffer - that modifies clarinets in several clever ways.
The main idea this company has is to eliminate the clatting noises when you close the keys. To do this they have some special arrangement with the pads, and more interesting to me, there are tiny ball bearings that are installed on the ends of the rods that they keys are mounted on. I must admit, you could not hear the keys close at all, never seen anything quite like it. Supposedly this setup also means you never ever have to have the horn adjusted again. Hmm.....you can check out their website at http://www.clarinet.dk/; hope you can speak Danish.
Oh yeah, a slight upcharge for all this fancy stuff - about $2500 extra on top of a new Buffet. Uh, just a bit out of my price range.
One thing that frustrated my no end, during this entire show what that I didn't bring my mouthpiece or horn with me, so I couldn't try anything. From my read of the flyer before I came, I was under the impression it was an instrument show. I should have figured that there would be stuff for sale there, but I guess at least this way I didn't spend anything.
I did however get my first piece of swag for the day, a nifty silver polishing cloth with the Loff & Pfeiffer info on it. I finally tore myself away before the friendly but somewhat hyper Dane talked both of my ears off.
Man its crowded in here, and I wonder how much of the percentage of all the clarinet (at least classical) players that live in Portland are here.
There are several other tables. I spend quite a bit of time at the Backun table, which has a ton of barrels and bells, in exotic woods. I get into a long conversation with the attractive young sales rep. Its interesting that she only got interested in the Backun stuff after trying them out for herself. According to her, the part of the horn (aside from the player one assumes) that makes the most difference to the sound of the horn is the bell. I have never heard of this from anyone, ever. I wonder if this is accurate? Certainly there has been a lot of thought given to these bells. They are two different lengths, and some of them have and extra groove carved out all round the inside of the bell, down an inch or so from the top of the bell. This is supposed to improve the ring of the horn.
Also there are tons of barrels, like I have never seen. None of them, just like the bells, have any metal on them. Some have wooden rings, some not. Many of them are a normal, rather straight profile, but some of them are quite thicker in the middle, sticking out almost like an egg. Of course the chamber can't be that shape, so I don't really know how this would affect the sound. No matter what the young sales rep says, I would have to hear for myself .And then I suppose you would need to have the right barrel/bell combination.....you could drive yourself crazy with this. Why in hell didn't I bring my horn?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
There were a few more tables, one with sheet music, one with rep from Buffet. OK, so this table also had a good amount of new Buffets, and also some super fancy cases, even ones that look like they are made out of carbon fibre! I guess when cost is no object....oo
The sales rep here was cool too. Hopefully once I get an email back from here I will be able to identify the model of my Buffet, since it doesn't say a thing on the horn. I also got my second nice piece of swag, a Buffet-Crampon baseball cap. Pretty cool, and when I wear it only another clarinet geek will have any idea what the hat is about.
The other two tables were pretty fun too. There were a couple of repair guys from a local horn repair shop. They has a selection of old horns, some nice Selmers and Buffets, including one of my teacher's horns. He had purchased it on ebay, of course, had it rebuilt and then didn't like it that much. I played it at his house, and it was a nice horn, full Boehm, and it sounded very nice, but not nicer than my horn, I don't think.
I spent a lot of time talking to the two repairmen, mostly about old horns, and Selmers. I have decided that since I already have a good Buffet, I just need to have a Selmer too. From my understanding they are more of a jazz horn, and I am all for that. You know, as much as the new horns are all shiny and new, there is something about the older instruments that is somehow more appealing to me; maybe they don't sound better, but they look lived in, ya know?
Finally I swim thru the crowds to the Vandoren table. It is covered, no surprise, with ligatures, mouthpieces, boxes of reeds and lots and lots of literature. The rep is actually one of the fine musicians I saw in concert earlier.
We start talking reeds. I have been using the 56 Rue LePic for some time now, but Vandoren makes many other types of reeds, for differing styles of playing. The rep knows a heck of a lot about reeds, and I score some more swag, a few different reeds. I was surprised that there are reeds that are made specifically for German system clarinets.
(Later at home I played the other reeds he gave me: the Black Masters were awful for my setup, but the V12s were really good. Interesting to me: they are thinner in profile thatn the 56s, even at the same reed strength, and the whole reed is wider. I may have to switch to these, they are really good).
I wander round a bit more. Did I mention that the hall was filled with the loud buzz of many voices, and lots and lots of horn playing? Crazy, a clarinet party. I can hardly believe that there are so many players here, its so cool.
As you can see some time has passed, and now its time for the master classes.
You have probably attended these before, but in case you haven't here is the drill: a certain number of students will prepare a piece for the master player. They will perform this piece for the members of the class (other players mostly) and then the master will comment on the playing, just like a regular lesson. Almost.
You can only imagine how much pressure this puts on a young musician; you not only are trying to play well, but play well in front of an audience, and worse yet, they all play the same instrument you do. Can you say pressure?
First up is a high school lad, playing a piece that I will probably never be able to hack - this is some serious stuff. He is backed up by a woman on the crappy little upright piano that is in the room. Boy, what a bad sounding piano!
Its a long piece, and he does well. The masters in this case are the guest clarinet artists that played in the morning concert, and like all players/teachers, they listen for and hear different things.
I have taken so many lessons by this point that will all of the master class players, I don't hear a whole lot new. However, its all interesting, all the comments from each student/teacher interaction. Many of the things that are said are about having the idea of singing the parts you play, and that makes a lot of sense to me, not that I had not hear of this concept before, but when you hear it from the outside, instead of in a lesson yourself, it rings even more truly as a good concept to always keep in mind.
If it sings, it swings.
Only a couple of other general things to note during these lessons. One of the players is in college, and he played a truly difficult modern piece. Thing is, he doesn't even have a teacher now, since he is studying statistics in school. He must have had a heck of a teacher, and I can't imagine what he must sound like if he was practicing with real intention.
The last student was a woman in her thirties that did a stunning job on a beautiful piece by Debussy. She just nailed it, lovely, and the master said, well, there isn't much I can comment on that, since she did such a great job.
He mostly talked about artistic interpretations of parts of the piece; certainly this woman had technique to burn.
The master also talked about how his teacher, Izzy Gennusa (of the mouthpiece fame I am guessing) explained some of the finer points of the piece. I guess in any genre, there are pieces that everyone learns to play, and that is a good thing I think, it is what carries on and expands the traditions of the music.
At the end of the master classes, people again were at the vendor tables. I had intended to stay for the evening concert, but that was two and a half hours away and I was getting pretty tired.
So all in all a great day. Some parting thoughts:
This being classical music, there was barely any vibrato that I heard at all. Huge, beautiful tones, blazing fast runs, but not much vibrato. I still don't know why there was so very little vibrato, seems to me it would fit fine especially in sustained passages, it would add even more to the playing. I mean, its not like other wind instruments in the classical world don't use vibrato. Look at the classical flute, you have to play with vibrato in order to have correct technique.
That being said, I loved it all, the whole day. I can only imagine what it must be like to attend a klezmer camp. I would probably go nuts!
So, if you ever get a chance to attend something like this, just go, even if you are not interested in classical music. You just might get turned on to something new!
I have uploaded the complete concert for you to enjoy, all you have to do is go here and grab it, right click to download. Note: I cut all the applause out between the songs, but there are still some coughs and clicks but what the heck its a live recording! Also note: the webserver my site is on is being flaky again, so I hope the Bass doesn't mind I uploaded it to the GTC server. Thanks Bass!
Here is the listing of the pieces:
Denneriana by Andre Bloch (1873-1960)
Prelude et Rigaudon by Edmond Avon
Rondino by Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
Two pieces from Romeo and Juliette Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Romance by Tauno Pylkkandn (1918-1980)
Petit Piece by Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Les yeux noirs for four clarinets by Anonymous
8 1/2 for six clarinets by Nino Rota (1911-1979)