ica.wildapricot.org · 2020. 9. 10. · Our new Umbra Bb Clarinet Mouthpiece creates a beautiful...

Vol. 47 • No. 4September 2020

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEResearch Competition Winner:

Humming and Singing While Playing

Interview with Derek Bermel

Nicolas Bacri’s Ophelia’s Tears

The Quarter-Tone Extended ClarinetMARIAM ADAM

& BERGINALD RASHTHE CLARINETISTS OF CHINEKE!

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2 | THE CLARINET SEPTEMBER 2020

Mitchell Estrin

Dear ICA Members,

I hope everyone is remaining safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the pandemic has changed our lives in ways we could not have imagined just a short time ago, inspiring musical and technological creativity is

keeping us all connected. We hope everyone tuned in to ICA Plays On! during June and will enjoy our continuing series of virtual events. Very special thanks to Executive Director of Operations Jessica Harrie and Social Media Coordinator Jenny Maclay for creating and producing our online events! We are also grateful to all of the panelists who are sharing their time and expertise.

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2020 ICA Competitions! The association is grateful to the competition coordinators and adjudicators for their excellent work and,

despite the current circumstances, insuring that the show must go on!The association continues its commitment to international outreach and expansion. In

coordination with our continent and country chairs, we are working to be inclusive of all clarinetists around the world and to identify and assist those in need to become members. Please consider supporting the Adopt-A-Member program to help someone’s dream to join the ICA worldwide community. Also, please remember to keep your association membership current, so you can continue to enjoy all of the resources and benefits available exclusively to ICA members.

As I complete my term as president, I would like to recognize and extend my heartfelt thanks to the many people who have worked with me during the past two years to continue the association’s path forward. Thank you to my dear friends and colleagues on the Board of Directors – Caroline Hartig, Denise Gainey, Chris Nichols and Tod Kerstetter – for your wisdom, support, and collaboration. A very special thank you to Past President Hartig for her many years of distinguished service to the ICA as she completes her term on the Board. Thank you to the distinguished ICA Advisory Board – Julie DeRoche, Stéphane Gentil, Luis Rossi, Alan Stanek, and Steven Williamson – for serving in this important capacity. Thank you to ICA Chair of International Relations Luca Saracca for expertly organizing our Continent and Country Chairs and expanding our international outreach. Thank you to the extraordinary Executive Director of Operations Jessica Harrie who has tirelessly worked with me on every initiative and aspect of association business. Thank you to the Editor of The Clarinet Rachel Yoder for her scholarly work and high standard of excellence for our journal. Thank you to ICA Social Media Coordinator Jenny Maclay for her creativity and significant expansion of all of our online platforms. Thank you to U.S. State Chair Coordinator Julia Heinen and all of the State Chairs for your many contributions. Thank you to all of the sponsors, advertisers and exhibitors for continuing to support the ICA. And last, but certainly not least, thank you to the membership for giving me the privilege to serve as your president these past two years. I could have never imagined some of the unique challenges we would face during this time, but the ICA Plays On! We are stable, fiscally sound, and optimistic about the future. Music unites and inspires, and our love and passion for the clarinet will carry our great organization into the future for decades to come.

I welcome Denise Gainey as the 21st ICA President and look forward to serving the association in my new role as Past President.

Long live the ICA!

Musically yours,

Mitchell Estrin President, International Clarinet Association

President’sThe

EDITOR Rachel Yoder

[email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jessica Harrie

[email protected]

EDITORIAL BOARD Mitchell Estrin, Heike Fricke, Denise Gainey,

Jessica Harrie, Rachel Yoder

MUSIC REVIEWS EDITOR Gregory Barrett

[email protected]

AUDIO REVIEWS EDITOR Kip Franklin

[email protected]

ASSOCIATE AUDIO REVIEWS EDITOR Karl Kolbeck

[email protected]

GRAPHIC DESIGN Karry Thomas Graphic Design

[email protected]

INDEX MANAGER Emily Kerski

[email protected]

THE CLARINET ONLINE Jessica Harrie

[email protected]

ABOUT THE COVER:

Vol. 47 • No. 4September 2020

ALSO IN THIS ISSUEResearch Competition Winner:

Humming and Singing While Playing

Interview with Derek Bermel

Nicolas Bacri’s Ophelia’s Tears

The Quarter-Tone Extended ClarinetMARIAM ADAM

& BERGINALD RASHTHE CLARINETISTS OF CHINEKE!

Mariam Adam and Berginald Rash; photo by Matthew Higham

The Clarinet (ISSN 0361-5553) is published 4 times a year by the International Clarinet Association

International Clarinet Association 829 Bethel Road, #216, Columbus, OH 43214

[email protected] +1 888-983-5441

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© Copyright 2020, International Clarinet Association. Views expressed by writers, reviewers and advertisers in The Clarinet are not necessarily those of the staff of the journal or of the International Clarinet Association.

SEPTEMBER 2020 THE CLARINET | 3

Contact information for continent, country and state chairs is available at www.clarinet.org

Argentina: Carlos CéspedesArmenia: Alexandr G. ManukyanAustralia: Floyd WilliamsAustria: MSDir. Mag.

Dr. Friedrich PfatschbacherBelarus: Vladimir P. SkorokhodovBelgium: Hedwig SwimbergheBrazil: Ricardo Dourado FreireBulgaria: Bobo YotzovCanada, Atlantic Region: Karem SimonCanada, St. Lawrence Region: Marie PicardCanada, Great Lakes Region:

Trevor Pittman Canada, Central Region:

Dr. Catherine M. WoodCanada, Pacific Region: Patricia KostekChile: Luis RossiColombia: Javier Asdrúbal VinascoCosta Rica: Lenin Izaguirre Cedeño Croatia: Davor RebaCzech Republic: Igor Frantisak

Cyprus: George GeorgiouDenmark: Anna KlettFinland: Juhani ValtasalmiFrance: Jean-Marie PaulGermany: Prof. Johannes M. GmeinderGreat Britain: Dr. Sarah WattsGreece: Paula Smith DiamandisHong Kong: Maria WongHungary: Bence SzepesiIceland: Kjartan ÓskarssonIndia: Dr. Pandit Narasimhalu VadavatiIreland: Paul RoeIsrael: Danny ErdmannItaly: Luigi MagistrelliJapan: Masaharu YamamotoLuxembourg: Sébastien DuguetMexico: Luis Humberto RamosMoldava: Victor TihoneacNetherlands: Céleste ZewaldNew Zealand: Marie RossNorway: Christian Stene

Panama: Alexis Fong CastilloPeople’s Republic of China: Yi HePeru: Marco Antonio MazziniPoland: Barbara BorowiczPortugal: António SaiotePuerto Rico/Carribean: Kathleen JonesRomania: Cosmin HarsianRussia: Kyrill RybakovSerbia: Andrija BlagojevićSlovakia: Július KleinSlovenia: Joze KotarSouth Africa: Danre StrydomSouth Korea: Imsoo LeeSpain: Lara DiazSweden: Stefan HargSwitzerland: Matthias MüllerTaiwan: Chien-MingThailand: Cassandra Fox-PercivalUruguay: Martín CastillosVenezuela: Victor Salamanques

COUNTRY CHAIRS

Europe: Friedrich Pfatschbacher (Austria)Israel and the Near East: Ilan Schul (Israel)Asia: Zhen Sun (China)Asia: Masaharu Yamamoto (Japan)

Asia: Hyung-Jik Yoo (Korea)Africa: Danre Strydom (Republic of South Africa)North America: Catherine WoodSouth America: Marco Mazzini (Peru)

CONTINENT CHAIRS

President: Denise Gainey – [email protected] President: Mitchell Estrin – [email protected] Elect: Diane Barger – [email protected] Vice President: Eddy Vanoosthuyse –

[email protected]: Christopher Nichols – [email protected]: Tod Kerstetter – [email protected]

ICA EXECUTIVE BOARDExecutive Director of Operations:

Jessica Harrie – [email protected] of International Relations:

Luca Saracca – [email protected] Media Coordinator:

Jenny Maclay – [email protected]: Jean-Marie Paul – [email protected] Coordinator and Library Liaison:

Joshua Gardner – [email protected] Chair: Phillip Paglialonga – [email protected]: Kevin and Sonya Morgan – www.morgansites.com

STAFF

University of Maryland – www.lib.umd.edu/scpa/scoresICA RESEARCH CENTER

Alabama: Lori ArdovinoAlaska: Mark WolbersArizona: Robert SpringArkansas: Andrew DeBoerCalifornia: Julia HeinenColorado: Daniel SilverConnecticut: Jim KleinerDelaware: Christopher NicholsFlorida: Lynn MuscoGeorgia: Kenneth LongHawaii: Melanie YamadaIdaho: Leslie MoreauIllinois: David CookIndiana: Thomas JosenhansIowa: Jorge Montilla MorenoKansas: Dawn McConkieKentucky: Adria Sutherland

Louisana: Malena McLarenMaine: Beth WiemannMaryland: Robert DilutisMassachusettes: Jonathan CohlerMichigan: George StoffanMinnesota: Karrin Meffert-NelsonMississippi: Michael RowlettMissouri: Jane CarlMontana: Christopher KirkpatrickNebraska: Jennifer ReevesNevada: D. GauseNew Hampshire: Elizabeth GunlogsonNew Jersey: Maureen Hurd HauseNew Mexico: Jeffrey BrooksNew York: Julianne Kirk DoyleNorth Carolina: Andy HudsonNorth Dakota: Cassie Keogh

Ohio: Caroline HartigOklahoma: Dawn Lindblade-EvansOregon: Wonkak Kim Pennsylvania: Christy BanksRhode Island: Jim KleinerSouth Carolina: Joseph EllerSouth Dakota: Deborah Check ReevesTennessee: Elizabeth AleksanderTexas: Timothy BonenfantUtah: Jaren HinckleyVermont: Steven KlimowskiVirginia: Cathy OgramWashington: Mary KantorWest Virginia: Cathy OgramWisconsin: Jennifer FraleyWyoming: Blake McGee

STATE CHAIRS

www.clarinet.org

www.lib.umd.edu/scpa/scores

www.morgansites.com


YOUR DONATION WILL:

• help students around the world afford ICA membership• purchase up-to-date clarinet equipment for those in need• support ClarinetFest®

• provide ClarinetFest® student travel grants• support ICA competitions• support the Adopt-A-Member program• support the Harry Sparnaay Scholarship for bass clarinet

research and performance• support the Loren Kitt Memorial Award, which supports

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Thank you for helping us raise over $20,000 so far!

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Ben Armato (1928–2015)Walter Boeykens (1938–2013)Betty Brockett (1936–2003)Clark Brody (1914–2012)Jack Brymer (1915–2003)Larry Combs, Evanston, IllinoisEddie Daniels, Santa Fe, New MexicoBuddy DeFranco (1923–2014)Hans Deinzer (1934–2020)Guy Deplus (1924–2020)Stanley Drucker, New York, New YorkF. Gerard Errante, Las Vegas, NevadaDavid Etheridge (1942–2010) Lee Gibson (1915–2013)James Gillespie (Editor Emeritus), Denton, TexasPaul Harvey, Twickenham, Middlesex, U.K.Stanley Hasty (1920–2011)Ramon Kireilis, Denver, ColoradoBéla Kovács, Budapest, HungaryFrank Kowalsky, Tallahassee, FloridaJacques Lancelot (1920–2009)Karl Leister, Berlin, GermanyMitchell Lurie (1922–2008)John McCaw (1919-2015)John Mohler (1929-2019)Charles Neidich, New York, New YorkRon Odrich, New York, New York Fred Ormand, Lawrence, KansasBernard Portnoy (1915–2006)Alfred Prinz (1930–2014)Petko Radev (1933-2017)Luis Rossi, Santiago, ChileHarry “Bud” Rubin (1928–2018)António Saiote, Porto, PortugalJames Sauers (1921–1988)James Schoepflin, Spokane, Washington Selim Sesler (1957–2014) David Shifrin, Norwalk, Connecticut William O. Smith (1926–2020)Harry Sparnaay (1944-2017)Hans-Rudolf Stalder (1930-2017)Alan Stanek, Papillion, Nebraska Milenko Stefanović, Belgrade, SerbiaRichard Stoltzman, Boston, Massachusetts Ralph Strouf (1926–2002)Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, East Lansing, MichiganBernard Van Doren, Paris, FranceEddy Vanoosthuyse, Kortrijk, Belgium Himie Voxman (1912–2011)George Waln (1904–1999)David Weber (1913-2006)Pamela Weston (1921–2009)Michele Zukovsky, Los Angeles, California

HONORARY MEMBERS

For advertising rates and specifications or to join the International Clarinet Association, visit www.clarinet.org.

Ramon Kireilis 1973-1978 (I.C.S.)Lee Gibson 1978-1980Jerry Pierce 1980-1986John Mohler 1986-1988Charles West 1988-1990 (I.C.S./C.I.)Fred Ormand 1990-1992 (I.C.S./C.I.)Howard Klug 1992-1994 (I.C.A.)F. Gerard Errante 1994-1996Alan Stanek 1996-1998Robert Spring 1998-2000Julie DeRoche 2000-2002Robert Walzel 2002-2004Michael Galván 2004-2005Lee Livengood 2005-2008Gary Whitman 2008-2010Keith Koons 2010-2012John Cipolla 2012-2014Maxine Ramey 2014-2015Caroline Hartig 2015-2018Mitchell Estrin 2018-2020

PAST PRESIDENTSDaniel Bonade (1896-1976)Louis Cahuzac (1880-1960)Benny Goodman (1909-1986)Reginald Kell (1906-1981)Robert Marcellus (1928-1996)Harold Wright (1926-1993)

ICA LEGENDS

Don’t miss an issue of The Clarinet!

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ICA RESEARCH CENTER

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2 The President’s Message by Mitchell Estrin

NEWS 8 Clarinotes

14 Letter from the UK by Paul Harris

16 International Spotlight by Danré Strydom

21 The Clarinet Choir by Margaret Thornhill

24 Historically Speaking by Deborah Check Reeves

26 The Clarinet Enthusiast by Donald B. Jenny

PEDAGOGY28 Pedagogy Corner

by Paula Corley

32 Master Class by Nicola Bulfone

REVIEWS68 Reviews

77 Audio Notes by Kip Franklin

80 Clarinet Chronicles by Jenny Maclay

Departments

AMB Clarinet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Ann Arbor Clarinet Connection. . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Buffet Crampon Summer Academy. . . . . . . . .13

Buffet Group USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

Chedeville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Clark W Fobes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Classical Collection Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Crystal Records. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

David McClune Mouthpieces. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

DePaul University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Freewing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80

James M. Pyne – Pyne Clarion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

J.L. Smith & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Keiser Southern Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Lisa’s Clarinet Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Lomax Classic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49, 55

Music Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Muncy Winds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

P. Mauriat Music Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Patricola Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Peabody Conservatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Precision Reed Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

ReedGeek, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Retro Revival Mouthpieces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

Rice Shepherd School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

RJ Music Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Rodriguez Musical Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

Roosevelt University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Rovner Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Taplin-Weir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Vandoren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .OBC

Wichita Band Instrument Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Yamaha Corporation of America. . . . . . . . . . . IBC

Advertiser Index

ICA Capital Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42021 Research Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132021 Composition Competition . . . . . . . . . . . .292021 Young Artist Competition. . . . . . . . . . . . .522021 High School Solo Competition. . . . . . . .55Call for Honorary

Membership Nominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67Call for Proposals – ClarinetFest® 2021 . . . . . .672021 Orchestral Audition Competition . . . . .78

Announcements

38 Nicolas Bacri’s Ophelia’s Tears: Concertante Elegy for Bass Clarinet and Orchestra by Stephan Vermeersch

40 Humming and Singing While Playing: Analysis of Two Distinct Vocalization Techniques During Clarinet Performance by Jeremy Ruth

46 James Dean Mackey’s Clarinet Patents by Will Peebles

50 The Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet by Gregory Oakes

53 Reexamining Articulation in Alban Berg’s Vier Stücke by Eric Schultz

56 In Discussion: The Clarinetists of Chineke! by Berginald Rash

60 Interview with Derek Bermel by Rachel Yoder

66 ClarinetFest® 2021

Features

56

53

Charles Neidich 21st Century Series

Richard Stoltzman21st Century Series

Paula CorleyICA Pedagogy Chair

NEW FIRST-EVER PUBLICATION FOR CLARINET OF THIS MASTERPIECE

NEW URTEXT EDITION - THE FIRST BASED ON BRAHMS’ MANUSCRIPTS

SOUTHERN MUSIC INTRODUCES TWO OUTSTANDING NEW EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

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ALSO AVAILABLEBACH Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue for Clarinet and Bass Clarinet Duo* ......................42681BRAHMS Intermezzo, Op. 118 No. 2 for Clarinet and Piano* ............................................42682FOSS Elegy for Clarinet and Piano..................................................................................144421HARTKE Concerto for Clarinet: Landscape with Blues (solo/piano reduction) ................127805SCHUBERT Sonatines 1 & 2, Op. 137 for Clarinet and Piano...........................................42593

*includes audio

ALSO AVAILABLECAVALLINI 30 Caprices for Clarinet “the only edition with audio”*.....................................42367GERSHWIN Three Preludes for Clarinet and Piano ........................................................144422JEANJEAN 18 Etudes for Clarinet* ....................................................................................42385MOZART Concerto in A Major KV. 622.............................................................................172779ROSSINI Introduction, Theme and Variations .................................................................. 111949WEBER Concertino for Clarinet and Piano ...................................................................... 111948

*includes audio

Bach’s Sonata for Viola da gamba and Harpsichord, BWV 1028, would later be incorporated into one of the composer’s greatest masterpieces, the St. Matthew’s Passion. This new transcription by Richard Stoltzman, edited for Clarinet in A, was inspired by collaborations with two legendary pianists - Keith Jarrett and Yehudi Wyner. This publication’s clarinet part contains Stoltzman’s performance suggestions and interpretive markings, set off in a light grey as to not alter the original. HL000262903

So You Want to Play the Clarinet is a carefully sequenced book for beginner clarinetists that emphasizes good tone quality and phrasing. The range is moderate, from the lowest E to third line B-flat. Rhythms and basic techniques needed for first semester performance are included. For the best result, follow the lessons in order. With regular practice, you can teach yourself to play. Visit clarinetcity.com to find articles, videos, and helpful information that is free to download. HL00298849

MUSICRKeiser Southern Music

Clarinet Publications

BACH SONATA No. 2 in D MAJORfor Viola da gamba and keyboard

SO YOU WANT TO PLAY THE CLARINET

THE BREAKCrossing the ‘break’ can be a source of frustration for developing clarinetists. The Break is a logical guide for mastering this important step in clarinet performance. Part 1 of the method covers the clarinet overtone series and how new note names attach to previously learned fingerings, the ‘right hand down’ technique, first scales across the break and melodies in the clarion register. Part 2 contains Rhythmical Articulation Studies by Pasquale Bona, selected and edited for clarinet. These combined studies and exercises provide the ideal means to develop smooth connections between the lower and middle registers of the clarinet. HL00298118

This edition of the Sonatas Op. 120 for Clarinet and Piano is unique in that it is the first and only one based on a thorough study of Brahms’ working manuscripts, which the composer generally destroyed. These, however, he gave to his great friend, the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeldt. They include both the piano scores plus the clarinet parts written for Mühlfeldt. They not only clear up problems of where Brahms placed dynamics and expression marks, they resolve questions of misprints which have remained to this day in every edition since Simrock first published them in 1895. HL00298301

BRAHMS - TWO SONATAS, Op. 120

keisersouthernmusic.com


NEWS

by Andrija Blagojević

In 2020, Serbia celebrated the centenary of the birth of Anton Eberst (Vršac, 1920 – Novi Sad, 2005), author of the 1963 book Klarinet i klarinetisti (Clarinet and Clarinetists). It was the first book on the clarinet published in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia and was based primarily on German sources, as well as Italian, British and American sources, and on the author’s correspondence with significant clarinetists of his time. The book can be found in public and university libraries worldwide, including the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. In 1971, it was published in Poland as Klarnet od

A do Z. The book is listed in university curriculums and bibliographies of various books and doctoral dissertations in the former Yugoslavia, Russia, Poland, the U.K. and the United States.

Eberst also wrote the first Serbian scale books for the clarinet (Škola za klarinet – lestvica i akord, 2 vols., 1954–1957, featuring the dedication: “To my esteemed Professor Bruno Brun”), for wind instruments and percussions (Priručnik za duvačke instrumente: flauta, oboa, klarinet, fagot, rog, truba, pozauna – lestvica i akord, 1958; Škola za duvačke instrumente: flauta, klarinet, B-truba, tenor, bariton, ES-truba, rog, F-bas, B-bas, udarački instrumenti i teorisko uputstvo, 1960), first orchestral studies for the clarinet (Orkestarski album za klarinet, 2 vols., 1954–1956), first books on teaching wind instruments (Nastava duvačkih instumenata, 1964, Metodika nastave duvačkih instrumenata, 1979), the second oldest clarinet method (Osnovna škola za klarinet, 1967), collection of solos (Koncertni album za klarinet i klavir, 1975), book about wind instruments (Šta treba da se zna o duvačkim instrumentima, 1958, with co-author Milan Čuljak), and numerous music history books. Some of his books were subsequently published in Germany.

Anton Eberst studied clarinet and cello at a military music school in Vršac (1938) and clarinet at a music academy in Belgrade (1953). His clarinet appointments include those in the Royal Guard in Belgrade and in several orchestras in Novi Sad: Opera Orchestra of the Serbian National Theater, Novi

Sad Chamber Orchestra, Radio Novi Sad Orchestra and Novi Sad Philharmonic Orchestra. Eberst served as secretary and, eventually, president of the Novi Sad Philharmonic Orchestra. On the record of the Novi Sad Philharmonic Orchestra (RTB Stereo 22-2555), Eberst appears as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, conducted by Predrag Milošević. The recording was taken at a public concert on January 10, 1956. Eberst also performed Mozart’s Concerto with the City of Sombor Symphony Orchestra. Eberst was the clarinet teacher, founder (1946) and head of the wind department at the Isidor Bajić School of Music in Novi Sad.

Since 2008, an international competition for clarinet and flute named after Eberst has been held in Novi Sad (www.antoneberst-cfc.rs). The jury members for the competition include artistic director Nikola Srdić, clarinet professor at the University of Novi Sad, Đuro Pete, current clarinet teacher at the Isidor Bajić School of Music (where the competition is held) and other important clarinetists including the ICA national chairpersons for Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary.

CENTENARY OF ANTON EBERST, CLARINETIST AND AUTHOR

Anton Eberst (1920-2005)



www.clarinet.org

www.clarinet.org


NEWS

by Mackenzie Dunseath and Hwan Gyu Cho

On February 29 and March 1, 2020, Brandon University celebrated the 10th anniversary of its clarinet festival. This annual event was founded by BU professor Catherine Wood and was hosted by the BU clarinet studio.

The festival began with a master class by world-renowned clarinetist Franklin Cohen and featured students from across the prairies. It was an incredible opportunity to hear stories and learn from his expertise. Participants had the chance to get to know Buffet Crampon artist André Moisan in a Q&A session and were treated to an impromptu performance that showed his phenomenal versatility. The charismatic Moisan also gave a workshop on peak performance strategies. Throughout the festival there was a strong focus on entrepreneurship: Vandoren artist and popular blogger Jenny Maclay presented on social media and digital marketing, and award-winning business owner and entrepreneur Lisa Canning gave a compelling lecture on creative

entrepreneurship. That evening, everyone was treated to the concert of a lifetime by Cohen, his daughter Diana and son-in-law Roman Rabinovich.

The second day started with a session on body alignment and breathing by voice professor Sarah Hall. BU’s dean and saxophonist Greg Gatien gave a workshop on improvisation. Participants received free gifts and prizes from Buffet Crampon, Vandoren and St. John’s Music. A highlight of the day was a concert that showcased the incredible talent of the guest

artists and BU faculty. They performed a variety of music from folk to classical by Azmeh, Hope, Horowitz, Poulenc, Kovacs, Tiricanti and Tomasi. The festival finale was the clarinet ensemble concert which featured the BU Clarinet Choir, the Regina Clarinet Quintet and the mass festival choir. Festival participants ranged from those just beginning their clarinet journey to those who have been playing for many years. The BU Clarinet Festival was a huge success thanks to our guests, sponsors and participants.

2020 BRANDON UNIVERSITY CLARINET FESTIVAL

Franklin Cohen (center) with Catherine Wood (second from right) and the Brandon University Clarinet Studio

Phot

o by

Ben

Zub

ryck

i

www.ambclarinet.com


NEWS

by Jerry Rife, Professor Emeritus, Rider University

On March 24, 2020, esteemed clarinetist and beloved teacher Dr. Frank Sidorfsky passed away in Manhattan, Kansas, at the age of 89. He taught undergraduate and graduate applied lessons (clarinet, flute and saxophone), woodwind classes, music history, music appreciation and counterpoint at Kansas State University from 1965 to 1999. Frank studied primarily with Leopold Liegl at Kansas State Teachers College in Emporia, Kansas, and received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Eastman where he was a student of Stanley Hasty. He also studied with Robert Marcellus, Anthony Gigliotti, Sigurd Rascher (saxophone) and Joseph Mariano (flute). His extensive performance career includes four years in Navy bands, recitals in 13 states, several orchestral positions and solo work with bands and orchestras. He performed the Copland Concerto under the baton of the

composer and presented solo recitals and ensemble performances at ClarinetFest® conferences in Denver, Lubbock, Tokyo and Lincoln. In 1985 he began to specialize on the basset horn in solo and ensemble settings.

Professor Sidorfsky was profoundly dedicated to each of his students. In my lessons he systematically and with great care covered all the basics, and he made sure I understood his comments by asking that I demonstrate and discuss each in detail. Often he would say, “I’m serious about this! Let’s go over it again.” He drew upon his deep wisdom of all aspects of playing. Additionally, he taught us about clarinet history, legendary players, repair, reed making, acoustics, and mouthpiece refacing. Perhaps the most valuable benefit from the Sidorfsky studio was his teaching the elusive art of playing the phrase and making music from the notes. Frank Sidorfsky greatly enriched and shaped my education as a conductor and performer, and through emulation, he made me a more effective teacher as I pass his knowledge on to my students. He is with me whispering in my ear every time I pick up the clarinet. I think all of us would agree with a fellow Sidorfsky student, Susan Cranston, who said, “He changed my life.”

What follows are additional tributes from those who knew Frank and worked with him.

As the saying goes, Frank Sidorfsky and I go back a long way. We studied at Eastman School of music at the same time, and he often visited Robert Scott, the famed repairman and woodwind craftsman in Lansing. My favorite memory of Frank dates back to the years when Pierre Monteux was still alive and had a summer “camp” in a tiny town in Maine for a month or so. There, a number of young conductors would lead a “pick-up” orchestra in a standard repertoire piece and he would critique their efforts. We were playing Weber’s Der Freischutz Overture, and I had just launched into the big solo starting on above-the-staff A when suddenly the spring on the right hand rings snapped and my rather fulsome

high A became a sort of A-flat. Monteux howled, “clarinet, wrong note,” and I was totally embarrassed. Frank immediately loaned me his clarinet for the rest of the rehearsal and then we went to a dime store where he bought a packet of sewing needles. He selected one that fit his specifications and installed that needle into the post where it worked as the right hand spring for a month until I returned to Lansing and Robert Scott. It would have been a long trip from that small town to find a place to get the spring fixed had it not been for Frank’s resourcefulness. He was a wonderful person on so many levels, and we enjoyed many good times together, but I’ll never forget how he saved the day for me.

– Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Distinguished Professor of Clarinet,

Michigan State University

I had the pleasure of working with Frank as a member of the Manhattan Basset Horn Trio. He was an extremely knowledgeable musician, with a beautiful feel for music. More importantly, he was a kind human being who was willing to help me through a rough time, even before we got to know each other. I learned about both music and life from him, and for that, I am grateful.

– Chris Hill, Principal Clarinet, South Dakota Symphony

Dr. Frank Sidorfsky shared so much with so many. He did so often, unselfishly, and in so many different ways. As an undergraduate student in his studio, he started with the basics, taking me where I was and moving me with steady, continuous improvement through graduate school. After graduation, I was fortunate to have been able to perform with him for many years in bands and other joint performances. Along with many others, I count myself lucky to have been profoundly influenced by his proven musicianship and his dedication to the highest levels of performance.

– Dean Armstead, Former Student, Kansas State University

REMEMBERING FRANK SIDORFSKY (1930-2020)

Frank Sidorfsky


NEWS

KEY CHANGES AND CLOSING CHORDS

Compiled by Jessica Harrie

KEY CHANGESCorey Mackey has accepted an appointment as assistant professor of

clarinet at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Evelyn Moria Tunison has accepted an appointment as adjunct instructor

at Illinois Wesleyan University.

CLOSING CHORDSFrank Sidorfsky (1930-2020) passed away on March 24, 2020, at the age of

89. He was professor emeritus at Kansas State University, where he taught for 34 years. A tribute can be found in this issue.

Information in this column is gathered from the Clarinet Jobs Facebook Group and submissions to [email protected].

by Seth Shelden

Dr. Paul Shelden, professor emeritus of music at Brooklyn College and an influential woodwind performer and educator, died April 17, 2020, at his Hewlett, Long Island home, at age 79, due to complications from COVID-19.

As assistant director at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, and inspired by his time playing under Leonard Bernstein, he spent decades producing and conducting concerts for young people, bringing classical music to hundreds of thousands of Brooklyn public school students.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Shelden was a musician from the start – as a child he performed on Ted Mack’s Original Amateur Hour alongside his identical twin brother, before later becoming the youngest band director in the Catskill Mountain resorts. It was there that he met his wife Pamela, after she sang with his band. He would go on to receive multiple degrees from Juilliard, to perform and conduct in a wide range of genres, including classical, opera, jazz and klezmer, in numerous venues including Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Center and the White House, but also Broadway pits, recording studios,

and radio programs. In popular music, he worked with luminaries such as Bob Hope, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett, and played with groups ranging from Blood, Sweat & Tears to the famous Lombardo orchestra, ushering in the televised New Year’s Eve festivities for years. In classical music, Shelden performed under the batons of conductors such as James Levine, Robert Shaw and Leonard Bernstein, and premiered works written specifically for him, including at Carnegie Hall. As an academic, with a doctorate from the University of Maryland, he published widely about pedagogy and performance and adjudicated numerous competitions and programs.

In his later years, he founded his own musical instrument company, Diplomatte Musical Instruments, where he oversaw the design and manufacture of woodwind instruments made in China. He battled Parkinson’s disease, even in a somewhat literal sense, as he became a devoted participant in the Rock Steady Boxing program (a noted Parkinsonian therapy) at the New York Institute of Technology – carrying on the legacy of his father, himself a boxer in his youth. But Shelden continued to perform, even into his final months, including with Long Island’s Northwinds Symphonic Band.

His son, Seth Shelden, is a musician and performer in his own right – among his credits is years of playing Harpo Marx (and Harpo’s instruments) in the first-ever revival of the Marx Brothers’ first-ever Broadway show. He is also a law professor at CUNY Law, and part of the team that was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Paul Shelden’s wife of 51 years, Dr. Pamela Shelden, a lifelong educator who spent much of her career teaching at Stuyvesant High School, was also sick with COVID-19 but has since recovered. Their daughter, Dr. Loren Napoli, is a school psychologist living in White Plains with her husband, Rocco, and two children. Dr. Shelden is survived also by his identical twin brother, Aaron Shelden, 79, who after a career in television works in financial services.

What follows are additional tributes from those who knew Paul Shelden and worked with him.

Really the most modest of men, Paul never understood just how extraordinary he was – as a human being or as a musician. All who knew him admired his warmth, charm, sweetness, and sensitivity, wonderful characteristics that clearly enhanced his talent as a clarinetist.

– Dr. Pamela Shelden

TRIBUTE TO PAUL SHELDEN (1941-2020)


NEWS

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I doubt that anyone will ever love me the way he did, inspire me or admire me the way he did, or do anything in their lives as well as he played the clarinet. His accomplishments were extraordinary, and he could have given us still more. Everyone was so drawn to him as someone full of goodness – he never boasted about his accomplishments – but had you heard him perform, you would have realized his unique greatness also.

– Seth Shelden

“…. [W]e were very close throughout our years at Juilliard, the Catskills, Brooklyn College, and many freelance jobs. Paul was multitalented. A terrific woodwind doubler, a wonderful professor

of music, a terrific Catskills band leader, and so much more. Paul was always someone we could rely on, answer our questions or offer advice. I remember Paul’s laugh and his joy in making people happy… He was a real mensch!

– John Moses, Grammy-award winning clarinetist

Paul had a deceptively simple, positive and wonderfully constructive nature. His level of musical understanding and artistry was profound and an inspiration. He is one of the colleagues who always made me proud to be in the music business and always made me feel good being in the same room with him.

– Bert Lucarelli, oboist

You can read more tributes to Paul Shelden at The Clarinet Online:

www.clarinet.org/TCO.

www.patricola.com

www.clarinet.org/TCO

www.pmauriatmusic.com


2021 Research Competition

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS

ClarinetFest® 2021 Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Coordinator: Jane Ellsworth ([email protected])

Deadline: January 15, 2021

The ICA solicits proposals for research presentations (such as papers or lecture-recitals) on any topic related to the clarinet.

Prizes: First place – $1000 USD and

publication in The Clarinet journal Second place – $500 USD

Visit www.clarinet.org for full competition rules and

application details.

www.jlsmithco.com

www.clarinet.org

www.buffet-crampon.com


NEWS

A ndrew Marriner has recently moved on from his amazing 36-year relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra.

His life in music has been deeply rich in so many respects: in the characters he has known and with whom he has shared performances, in the repertoire he has played, and in innumerable fascinating experiences that make a such a life in music so very special.

The list of Andrew’s musical colleagues reads like a veritable “Who’s really Who” among 20th-century giants: Abbado, Bernstein, Brendel, Brymer, Celibidache,

Previn, Schiff and Tavener are to name but a very few.

But it all began in Cambridge. Andrew’s father, the celebrated conductor Neville Marriner, sent the young lad off to be a chorister at the famous King’s College School, which provides much of the music for one of the world’s greatest icons of religious music, King’s Chapel. In fact, chorister Andrew’s first recording at age 8, still available and lauded, was singing treble in Allegri’s Miserere with Roy Goodman & The Choir of King’s College, conducted by Sir David Willcocks. During his years at King’s, Andrew learned

a lot. “They taught you to feel and behave like a professional from the age of seven,” Andrew reflects. He went on to King’s School, Canterbury where he decided to take up the clarinet. Thanks to Sir Neville, he had some lessons with two of the greatest British players of the time, Jack Brymer and Gervase de Peyer. Andrew met up with Gervase at Dartington and had been given a £5 note (to pay for the lesson) and the equivalent of about 12 pence pocket-money. De Peyer was about to embark on a doubles tennis match but happily agreed to delay the match and give Andrew a short lesson. The young player presented two performances, back to back, of the slow movement of the Mozart Concerto. De Peyer, delighted with the performances, thanked and congratulated young Andrew. The playing over, Andrew thought it time to discuss financial matters, “My dad says how much do I owe you for the lesson?” “Oh… just give me what you thought it was worth,” came the reply. “So I gave him the twelve pence,” Andrew recalls with a mischievous grin. De Peyer seemed not to mind. When they met again on a National Youth Orchestra course, Gervase gave Andrew a lot of help including lending him his precious 1010.

Andrew held the position of principal in the National Youth Orchestra for a number of years and a particular highlight was a performance of the Rite of Spring under Boulez in 1968. “Another highlight was playing it again with Boulez, forty-five years later!” He also learned a lot playing in the NYO.

Letter by Paul Harris

from the

A CHAT WITH THE DISTINGUISHED ANDREW MARRINER

Andrew Marriner


NEWS

After a single year at Oxford University reading academic music, Andrew decided that he’d rather play the clarinet for a living. He went to tell his father about his somewhat dramatic change of plan. Sir Neville was in fact in the middle of a session recording horn concertos with Barry Tuckwell at Abbey Road, but was not at all fazed by young Andrew’s decision and set it up for him to go and study with Hans Deinzer at the Hochschule in Hanover. “It was tough going,” Andrew recalls, “I was in a class with Sabine Meyer, Reiner Wehle, Wolfgang Meyer and various other spectacular players, but Deinzer had figured it all out. And this was a real beginning in really learning how to play the clarinet. It was all very methodical and about minute attention to detail. Germanic thoroughness! It was all about consistency of sound.” British players of the time would often allow and indeed relish the different characteristics of notes (often due to the wider bores of British instruments) to determine the phrase shapes and climaxes. The German method demanded much more tonal uniformity. “Musically, he would dissect music to allow you the freedom to play as you wished.” Andrew decided that this was certainly the direction to take his playing, although at first the German sound made getting working in the U.K. a little difficult.

In 1978 he finished studies with Deinzer, returned to the U.K. and had a number of lessons with Anthony Pay. He also invested in an early example of an answering machine, hoping to pick up work while acting by day as a tour guide taking foreign tourists to the Tower of London. After many silent days, the machine finally took a message – it was an invitation from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra inviting Andrew to play Daphnis and Chloe (second clarinet). After three weeks of practice and a cheerful train ride to Birmingham, Andrew arrived full of expectation and anticipation. But his greeting was far from cheerful. “Are you Andrew Marriner? You’re in dispute with the management!” “Well, I don’t think so,” replied Andrew, somewhat bemused and very surprised. “You’re in dispute over meal allowances paid to our freelance players. They’re not going to pay you for lunch so you’re on

strike.” Andrew was mystified, and the result was no Daphnis and Chloe. Instead, back in London, Andrew gained a lot of experience over the next few months from a host of jobs: in the pit for Evita; with Opera 80 and the Wren Orchestra; and then in the Albion Ensemble, a wind quintet of which he was a regular member. Eventually there was some work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and finally the London Symphony Orchestra.

The celebrated Romanian conductor Celibidache was invited to work with the LSO in mid-1978. He ended up staying in an apartment in London owned by the Marriners and (to Andrew’s delight) sharing meals. Celibidache wanted a doubled clarinet section for a performance of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. The section didn’t. So Andrew was invited to sit in the orchestra and pretend to play. An unusual first invitation to “play” in the LSO but not one that Andrew was going to turn down. Indeed he ended up playing quite a few notes and no one seemed to mind. In fact, they seemed to be clearly impressed as, five years later, he was invited back. But this time as assistant principal. Andrew sat in for Jack Brymer on a five-week world tour and impressed Abbado. He was then invited to become guest principal until Brymer retired a year later. He became principal in 1986 and held this position for 36 years. “How lucky can you be?” Andrew muses on those golden years. “Playing all this wonderful repertoire and constantly on the move.”

Alongside his LSO duties Andrew was also principal in the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – one of the world’s greatest chamber orchestras.

I asked Andrew what were the highlights. It was too difficult a question to answer – there were too many. But working with Colin Davis, especially The Trojans, was among them. So, too, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with Abbado and Russian music with Valery Gergiev.

In this next phase of his life, post-LSO, Andrew is teaching and enjoying sitting on adjudicating panels. And among all this he is passing on his great experience playing the repertoire: chamber and symphony orchestra and the great canon of solo clarinet music. So much of this repertoire might be summed up in character as warm, intelligent and witty. It’s curious how those attracted to playing the clarinet so often have similar characters. Andrew Marriner certainly has. v

ABOUT THE WRITERPaul Harris is one of the U.K.’s most influential music educators. He studied the clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the August Manns Prize for outstanding performance and

where he now teaches. He is in great demand as a teacher, composer and writer (he has written over 600 music books and compositions), and his master classes and workshops continue to inspire thousands of young musicians and teachers all over the world in both the principles and practice of musical performance and education.

a2clarinet.com


I recently interviewed a few established clarinetists in Africa to help give a basic outline of the current situation regarding clarinet

playing opportunities and education in the selected countries.

EGYPTAmr Imam, professor of clarinet and saxophone at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in Egypt and principal clarinet of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, writes that there are two professional orchestras in Egypt: the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and the Cairo Opera Orchestra. There are several ad hoc orchestra events as well as a student orchestra and big band at the Cairo Conservatory for students and high school learners. Advanced clarinet players can study clarinet at the faculty of music at the Helwan University. Imam states that classical music is not as popular as traditional Arab music and that playing the clarinet is not a popular choice among young children, but that the instrument is well-known and that those who do opt to learn to play the clarinet “like to play it.” There is some support from the government for classical music, but as with many other African countries, this is not enough to solve many of the financial problems that the institutions have.

ZIMBABWEAngela Wilde, clarinet teacher based at a private school called Hellenic Academy in Harare, Zimbabwe, provided quite a bit of information on clarinet activities in her

country. According to her, classical music is rather active and they are quite busy with teaching the youth:

We have a fairly large music department… it is probably the largest music department in the country. There are very few clarinet teachers here in Harare. I am the only qualified clarinet teacher based in Harare. There are only three schools that have an orchestra and wind band. I always enter my private students into the Eisteddfod, and then we do ABRSM-based exams normally in the second term. Unfortunately, the ABRSM examiners will not come to Zimbabwe anymore because of the political situation. For the more advanced ones – they will do the examinations out of the country, normally in South Africa although sometimes we have gone to Zambia for those exams.

The National Musicamp Association of Zimbabwe is a camp that has been running for about 56 years and is held in the April school holidays. It is a weeklong camp that caters to instrumentalists and choristers of Grade 4 level and above. There are universities here, but none that specialize in music. They may have ethnomusicology programs, but nothing that focuses on Western classical music. All music studies need to take place out of the country.

I would say about 20% of my students have their own instruments. We do not have any music shops here in Zimbabwe. All of the reeds and mouthpieces/cleaners have to be brought in from other countries.

SOUTH AFRICASouth Africa has various music schools and institutions where young learners have to opportunity to take clarinet lessons. There are also several universities where students can study clarinet, including the University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbsoch, University of Pretoria and the University of the Free State. The University of Cape Town and the University of the Free State have full-time employed clarinet lecturers. One of the most prestigious institutions for school-going learners is the Hugo Lambrechts Centre in Cape Town. Established and sought-after clarinet lecturers Liam Burden and Charlene Saayman briefly elaborate on the institution and the opportunities they create for young clarinet players.

Based in the Western Cape of South Africa, the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre is one of three Western Cape Education Department Music Centres. Founded in 1986 with the late Leon Hartshorne, a clarinetist and respected pedagogue as principal, the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre has over the years produced many excellent young clarinetists who have gone on to careers both locally and

by Danré Strydom, ICA Continent Chair for Africa and Country Chair for South Africa

International

THE CLARINET IN AFRICA AND THE INTERNATIONAL CLARINET EXTRAVAGANZA

“International Spotlight” showcases perspectives from the global clarinet community.


internationally. Learners have the opportunity to perform as members of three level-appropriate wind bands as well as the Hugo Lambrechts Symphony Orchestra for the most advanced learners. Competitions and Eisteddfodau provide performance opportunities for learners across the Western Cape. Concerto Festivals hosted by ArtsCape and the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre give aspiring young musicians the opportunity to perform as soloists with symphony orchestra. The Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre currently has three clarinet teachers, namely Dr Arisa Voges (principal), Liam Burden (departmental head of the woodwind department) and Charlene Saayman. The Western Cape is lucky to have many schools with exceptional wind band programs that produce many young musicians and clarinetists, all contributing to a vibrant musical life.

THE ZA INTERNATIONAL CLARINET EXTRAVAGANZAThe first International Clarinet Extravaganza hosted in 2016 was a tremendous success, and it has grown into a major South African classical music event. The extravaganza took place this year from January 28 to February 1, 2020, and was hosted by the Odeion School of Music, University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. The objective of the festival is to expose South African clarinetists of all ages and levels as well as educators to current international clarinet trends, excellent artistry and the opportunity to receive master classes from top clarinet pedagogues. The 2020 extravaganza included eight concerts, workshops, individual masterclasses, various competitions and a festival clarinet choir. The 2020 guest artists were Eddy Vanoosthuyse (Buffet Crampon Artist), Severine Sierens (Buffet Crampon Artist), Bence Szepesi (RZ Instrument Artist) and Danielle Rossouw. Danré Strydom (Buffet Crampon Artist) was curator of the extravaganza and also taught various master classes and performed at the gala evening concert.

Participants from seven different provinces attended the weeklong event

and all players had several individual master classes. The age of the participants ranged from 6 to 76 years old. Each day there were four master classes happening simultaneously in the various Odeion School of Music venues. There were three of these sessions per day, with a professional accompanist at each venue.

This gave young as well as advanced players the opportunity to perform their repertoire with an accompanist, which was a first for many players. Learners of all levels and experience received master classes and smaller ensembles were arranged for the less advanced learners to play in quartets to work on ensemble

(Left to right) Eddy Vanoosthuyse, Lesley-Ann Botha, Severine Sierens, Jana Matthee, Danré Strydom, Cezarre Strydom, Bence Szepesi

Master class participants at the International Clarinet Extravaganza


playing, sight reading and intonation.Each afternoon there was a clarinet

choir rehearsal. This was also a first for the majority of the participants. As it is a Beethoven year, the choir opted to play an arrangement of the first movement of the Fifth Symphony with the Free State Symphony Orchestra.

The clarinet choir with more than 50 players and a symphony orchestra was a unique experience not only for the audience, but also for the participants and professional orchestra members. At this same gala event, all the international guests performed a solo work or concerto with the orchestra. The audience feedback was extremely positive and the newspaper review concluded it was a “gala concert that blew the audience away.” The concert was live-streamed with listeners from all over the globe. Other concerts included a concert with the professional Odeion String Quartet. This concert was held at a beautiful venue outside of Bloemfontein, Warmkaroo, where guests received five-star canapés and drinks after the quintet concert. Another well-attended and extremely successful concert was the concert where the international guests performed with top South African collaborative pianists Cezarre Strydom, Anneke Lamont, Lesley-Ann Botha and Jana Matthee. These four pianists performed the wonderful concerto by Bach, BWV 1065, for four pianos and orchestra, with the Free State Symphony Orchestra as part of the gala evening.

As part of the aim to create a feel of unity among the players and to emphasize

the “greatness” of the instrument, a giant clarinet of 6 meters was constructed from recycled material. This was displayed in the foyer of the Odeion School of Music and was a welcoming gesture to all the participants.

The official partners for the event were the Odeion School of Music, Free State Symphony Orchestra, Odeion String Quartet, OSM Camerata, Buffet Crampon, RZ instruments, Free State Arts Trust, Rupert Foundation and the International Clarinet Association. There were also several local sponsors that were crucial in the success of the extravaganza.

A composition competition was introduced this year as part of the clarinet extravaganza and organizers were amazed at the amount and quality of applications. There were three categories: clarinet and piano, clarinet and string quartet, and clarinet and chamber orchestra. Interested players and teachers are welcome to contact the winners for a copy of the new compositions. The three winners were:

• Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra Chesney Palmer (Johannesburg) [email protected]

Sketches of Memory is based on a poem that deals with violence towards women … The piece has tender

Giant clarinet made of recycled materials at International Clarinet Extravaganza

Sketches of Memory by Chesney Palmer


melodic moments and subtle shades of color and mood changes that capture serendipitous moments of innocence, somber chorale themes that speak of purity and exciting moments of redemption.

• Clarinet and String Quartet Jeremy Hart (Cape Town) [email protected]

Oscillation is a piece which seeks to take two juxtaposed elements – that of the melody and harmony which are both organized by structures independent of each other – and unify them via a single point of common ground: the shared pitch which they both oscillate around.

• Clarinet and Piano Rexleigh Gay Bunyard (Johannesburg) [email protected]

HOOHA is a set of tiny fun pieces with tongue-in-cheek titles inspired by

the playful abstract artworks of a friend. A “Hooha” is a fuss, commotion or uproar (which soon dissipates). The germinal musical idea uses a play on major/minor third intervals and extended figures, in various mutations, with quirkily conversational accompaniments favoring minimal resources.

Another competition that formed part of the extravaganza was an art competition where young artists were invited to creatively portray a clarinet.

At the gala event, the award for the most promising festival participant was given to Naledi Dweba, a final year student at the Odeion School of Music. The award includes a scholarship to attend the prestigious international clarinet festival in Belgium, Clarinets on Stage (www.clarinetsonstage.be). Dweba stated,

The biannual International Extravaganza was an unforgettable

Oscillation by Jeremy Hart

HOOHA by Rexleigh Gay Bunyard

www.muncywinds.com


week consisting of a daily warm-up class, lessons for all each day, ensemble rehearsals, classes on reeds and auditions, ample daily performance opportunities by participants and clarinet choir rehearsals. It was moving to see so many young South African clarinetists at the extravaganza and to see that the clarinet culture in South Africa is being developed through mediums of teaching the youth. v

* * * * *

Detailed information about the complete extravaganza program and all the international artists and mentors can be acquired from the official Facebook Page

ZA-International-Clarinet-Extravaganza. Interested guest performers, teachers and participants can also send an email to [email protected] for further information on the 2022 extravaganza.

ABOUT THE WRITERDanrè Strydom has established herself as one of South Africa’s premier solo, chamber and orchestral musicians through her global concert experience. Born in South Africa, she began her musical

training in neighboring country Namibia.

After attending the Interlochen Arts Camp (USA), she began her formal studies with Heinrich Armer at the University of the Free State. She furthered her studies at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. She holds separate master’s degrees in clarinet, early clarinet and bass clarinet performance from the Royal Conservatory at Ghent University and completed her Ph.D. at the University of the Free State. After playing clarinet in the award-winning Brussels Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013, she accepted a position as woodwind lecturer at the University of the Free State’s Odeion School of Music. She is currently principal clarinetist of the Free State Symphony Orchestra, an International Buffet Crampon artist and Africa continent chair for the International Clarinet Association.

Student artwork from the International Clarinet Extravaganza art competition


It is always gratifying to discover a dedicated teacher who believes strongly in the importance of clarinet ensembles to advanced

study. In August of 2019, I had an online conversation with Pedro Rubio – the distinguished soloist, author and professor at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid – about the Madrid Superior Conservatory Clarinet Ensemble and his view of the role of the clarinet choir in conservatory education.

MARGARET THORNHILL: I was interested to hear that the clarinet ensemble is a mandatory subject at your conservatory. That is unusual.

PEDRO RUBIO: In 2011, the syllabus of the Madrid Superior Conservatory was slightly changed. Following the example of the string ensembles, the wind instruments were allowed to set up groups formed with members of the same instrument family, or closely related. In the woodwind department, the clarinet professors decided to create a clarinet ensemble and made it a mandatory subject during the second and third courses (years). During the fourth course, the students have also the possibility to enroll in it one extra year as an optional subject.

When the ensemble was created, I was the clarinet professor designated to manage it. As a new subject, I had to

design its main objectives and a way to evaluate the process. I decided that the students had to meet at least these three requirements to obtain a positive rating:

A) Attendance. B) Playing the different clarinet parts

(1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th clarinet), whenever possible, and understanding their distinctiveness.

C) Playing, whenever possible, the E-flat clarinet, basset horn, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet parts, understanding their distinctiveness. Alongside, I always encourage the students to perform clarinet concertante pieces, accompanied by the Clarinet Ensemble, with an emphasis on the Spanish repertoire.

MT: Do all clarinet students participate every year? Who conducts the ensemble?

PR: Every year 5 or 6 members go in or out, so every four years its members are renewed completely. Its total number of members ranges from 17 to 20. As the teacher of the subject, I’m the only conductor.

MT: Can you explain for our readers why you believe a clarinet ensemble is so beneficial to advanced students?

PR: A well-balanced clarinet ensemble could be an extremely satisfactory musical group. The original repertory

is significant and good transcriptions from music of any period or style are numerous. Consequently, this versatility and flexibility of a group formed exclusively by members of the clarinet family will help them to develop their musical skills and to be better prepared for their future musical life. Not less important, all the clarinet students form part of the ensemble playing together. This helps create a favorable atmosphere that enhances a spirit of comradeship. In my opinion this is especially important in a highly competitive field like the musical world.

MT: How young are the students when they start at your conservatory, and do they come from the area around Madrid or from different parts of Spain or other countries?

PR: In Spain, there are two types of conservatories: Professional and Superior. The Professional conservatories cover the Elementary and Medium levels and the Superior the last four courses. In the Madrid area, there are nine Professional and only one Superior conservatory.

The students are usually 18-19 years old when they start the Superior conservatory. Approximately one-third of the students come from the area around Madrid; the rest come from different parts of the country.

Clarinetby Margaret Thornhill

The

PEDRO RUBIO AND THE MADRID SUPERIOR CONSERVATORY CLARINET ENSEMBLE: THE IMPORTANCE OF ENSEMBLES


We also have some students from other European countries, members of the European Community, thanks to the Erasmus program, an exchange program for students.

MT: So your students are in a regular degree or diploma program?

PR: All the students are enrolled in the four-course program of the Madrid Superior Conservatory. They have their weekly clarinet lessons with their clarinet teacher. The Clarinet Ensemble is one of the subjects they have during their music training, like chamber music, orchestra or history of music.

When they finish the four-year program, they get the Diploma “Profesor Superior de Clarinete” – equivalent to a university degree in music. This Diploma reflects 14 years of music training, including the Elementary, Medium and Superior levels.

MT: How often does the Clarinet Ensemble perform each year? Do they travel or

perform off campus to other places in the city?

PR: The Ensemble performs at minimum twice a year: once inside of the Conservatory and once in an auditorium in Madrid. This last concert is the most remarkable moment of the course. The venue is always an important auditorium of the city and a good opportunity to show to the public the work done during the year.

In 2018, the concert was in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes and in 2019 in the Residencia de Estudiantes. Both places are important cultural focal points of Madrid. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, a 2020 concert was also scheduled in the Madrid Central Auditorium. The Clarinet Ensemble has also participated in National and International Clarinet Congresses. Among them, I’d name the European Clarinet Congress held in Gent in 2013, and the National Clarinet Congress held in Madrid in 2017. Due to its academic nature, the Clarinet Ensemble does not

usually perform during the holidays (Christmas, Easter and summertime.)

MT: What repertoire have they performed in concerts the past two years? What are your favorites?

PR: Here is a list [see next page]. My favorites are original pieces written by composers that know perfectly the possibilities of the clarinet family, like Arthur Gottschalk or József Balogh. Also, good arrangements of the great clarinet repertoire, like Weber or Mendelssohn, and the Spanish clarinet repertoire, of course!

MT: I looked at your website. In the “Bassus Ediciones” section, I see very good arrangements of 19th-century solo concert pieces as a concerto, with easy accompaniment for the ensemble. I think readers will be interested in these composers who are not generally well known outside Spain. (Romero y Andia, Carnicer y Battle, Oudrid y Segura) and the two short works for ensemble, the Obertura and the Presentación. Why

Pedro Rubio and the Madrid Superior Clarinet Ensemble (2017-18)


did you choose these particular pieces to arrange?

PR: When the Clarinet Ensemble was created in 2011, I decided that one of

its principal objectives would be the performing of the Spanish repertoire of the 19th century, especially the concertante pieces. All these pieces are

in the syllabus of the clarinet studies, so the students can take the opportunity and play them with clarinet choir accompaniment. These pieces are always performed by the students.

Romero, Carnicer, Oudrid and Pérez Casas are Spanish composers who wrote important pieces for clarinet; the students must know them as part of their clarinet heritage.

In the case of the Nicolau’s Obertura and Romero’s Presentación, I arranged them for the important concert that took place in May of 2015 to commemorate the bicentenary of Antonio Romero’s birth (that’s why ClarinetFest® 2015 was dedicated to him and held in Madrid that year). Romero was the most important Spanish clarinetist of the 19th century and clarinet professor of the Madrid Conservatory from 1849 to 1876.

Every year I usually make one arrangement or two (with or without soloist), these pieces will be published and uploaded in the free part of the Bassus Ediciones website. [Note: many of Pedro Rubio’s editions are currently downloadable, gratis, at http://www.bassusediciones.com/descargas.php.]

MT: What do you enjoy most about teaching?PR: To teach is to learn. Each pupil

is different, a challenge and an opportunity to learn: trying to solve a common problem, proposing new solutions, dealing with the topic from a new approach, a new perspective. Teaching is also an act of knowledge transfer, the opportunity to pass to the next generation what you have learned along the years. v

ABOUT THE WRITERMargaret Thornhill, D.M.A., is a performer and private teacher in Los Angeles who conducts the Los Angeles Clarinet Choir and is adjunct professor of clarinet at Concordia University,

Irvine. Send her clarinet choir news or comments at www.margaretthornhill.com.

REPERTOIRE 2017-19, MADRID SUPERIOR CONSERVATORY CLARINET ENSEMBLE

M. Balakirev – Overture on a Spanish March Theme, Op. 6 J. Balogh – Max and Moritz Muppet ShowJ. Balogh – Episodes of the Crescent MoonR. Carnicer – Fantasia para clarinete obligado F. Gómez – Lorito A. Gottschalk – Suite NothingsG. Mahler – Adagietto (5th Symphony)S. Mariné – Angel F. Mendelssohn – Konzertstück No. 1, Op. 113F. Mendelssohn – Konzertstück No. 2, Op. 114J. M. Molter – Concerto No. 1 (E-flat clarinet)A. Nicolau – Pequena obertura C. de Ordóñez – Sinfonia en La C. Oudrid – El molinero de Subiza B. Pérez – Casas Romanza (for bass clarinet) A. Ponchielli – Il ConvegnoA. Román – Montenegro Airs A. Romero – Fantasia para clarineteJ. Van der Roost – RikudimC.M. von Weber – Concerto No. 1

Pedro Rubio conducting the Madrid Superior Clarinet Ensemble (2018-19)


They were striking clarinets with a beautiful reddish-yellowish-brownish color and prominent, symmetrical grain. “Identical

in specific gravity with the best Grenadilla wood,”1 at one time they were “guaranteed not to crack, check or split.”2 So, why did these clarinets not live up to all the hype?

Pan American’s Violin-Finish wood clarinet was designated model 68-N (see Photo 1). It had a laminated wood body and nickel keys and key mechanism.3 The National Music Museum is home to

two of these clarinets. NMM 2508 exemplifies the color and grain that was typical for these instruments (see Photo 2).

It is understood that the Violin-Finish wood clarinet was a student-line instrument. Price lists reveal that they were slightly less expensive than Pan-American grenadilla clarinets, but more expensive than metal or ebonite models.

According to Margaret Downie Banks, Conn historian and associate director at the National Music Museum, it was Carl D. Greenleaf, president of C. G. Conn, Ltd., located in Elkhart, Indiana, who created two new lines of moderately priced musical instruments in 1917: “Pan-American” and “America First.” According to the U.S. Patent Office, Conn,

Ltd. claimed use of both trademarks as early as January 1, 1917; however, the Pan-American trademark was not officially awarded until November 20, 1917. While both lines were initially produced, the America First line quietly disappeared from catalogs in the early 1920s, while the Pan-American brand increased in popularity.4 The Pan American Band Instrument and Case Company was incorporated in 1919 by Greenleaf and two other investors. It was then recognized as a subsidiary company standing alongside Conn, Ltd.5

Like many consumer product companies, Conn suffered from the effects of the Great Depression and World War II production limitations and conversion to wartime products. After the war, reconversion to peacetime production was delayed due to a four-month factory worker strike.6 It was perhaps amid the efforts to become a viable and profitable company again that Conn, through Pan-American, introduced the unique Violin-Finish woodwinds.7 This hypothesis is echoed by a former Conn employee who commented that the novel appearance of the instrument was what “sold,” not necessarily a musical improvement.8

It is difficult to pinpoint an exact date of manufacture of these novel woodwinds. Anecdotal information from Conn employees point to manufacture probably between 1948 and 1952. Price lists show that they were offered for sale at least into 1954.9 It is certain, however, that the Violin-Finish woodwinds were short lived.

Historicallyby Deborah Check Reeves

Photos courtesy of National Music Museum, University of South Dakota; Photo 1 by Ana Sofia Silva, Photo 2 by Byron Pillow

Photo 1: NMM 2508 Pan-American Violin-Finish bell

Photo 2: NMM 2508 Pan-American Violin-Finish clarinet

“Historically Speaking” is a feature of The Clarinet offered in response to numerous inquiries received by the editorial staff about clarinets. Most of the information is based on sources available at the National Music Museum, located on the University of South Dakota campus in Vermillion (orgs.usd.edu/nmm). Please send your email inquiries to Deborah Check Reeves at [email protected].

THE PAN-AMERICAN VIOLIN-FINISH CLARINET


It is true that, for a time, the Violin-Finish clarinet was popular. But evidently a bad batch of wood was obtained that made the instruments prone to cracking. Obviously, Pan-American could not deliver on their guarantee not to crack. It is speculated that cracks developed along grain lines due to the wood becoming delaminated. It is true that the National Music Museum’s clarinets each have cracks along grain lines. Whatever the reason for the cracking, Pan-American continued to tout the durability of the clarinet, but did not maintain the guarantee. In fact, later advertising contained the statement “Covered by the regular Pan-American woodwind guarantee against defective workmanship but not against normal wear and deterioration or cracking of the wood, since wood is a product of nature.”10 Needless to say, sales of the product declined. In 1955, the entire line of Pan-American instruments was dissolved, with sales of inventory continuing into 1956.

Folklore abounds about the actual wood used in the Violin-Finish

woodwinds. A favorite story is that the wood was repurposed from airplane propellers. Sometimes even nicknamed propeller wood clarinets, there is, however, no truth to this story.

An interesting fact, though, is that the model designation “68-N” was repurposed from a pre-World War II model. In 1933 Pan-American’s “Challenger” metal clarinet in two-piece design was labeled 68-N.11 v

ENDNOTES1 The Pan-American Violin Finish Clarinet. Single

advertising tri-fold: ca. 1950.2 P-A Extra Value Wind Instruments. Catalog: ca.

1950.3 Pan-American Violin Finish Wood Clarinet 68-N.

Single advertising flyer: ca. 1954.4 The author thanks Dr. Margaret Downie Banks

for sharing this information.5 News item in The Iron Age 104, No. 4 (August

14, 1919): 484.6 Margaret Downie Banks, Elkhart’s Brass Roots: An

Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C.G. Conn’s Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company (Vermillion, SD: The Shrine to Music Museum, College of Fine Arts, University of South Dakota, 1994), 5.

7 Pan-American also produced oboe model 68-Q in the Violin-Finish.

8 Correspondence from former Conn employee to Dr. Margaret Downie Banks.

9 Price List Pan-American Band Instruments. Elkhart, IN: January 18, 1954.

10 Pan-American Violin Finish Wood Clarinet 68-N. Single advertising flyer: ca. 1954.

11 Price List for Pan-American Band and Orchestra Instruments. Elkhart, IN: September 27, 1933.

ABOUT THE WRITERDr. Deborah Check Reeves is the Curator of Education and Woodwinds at the National Music Museum (NMM) in Vermillion, SD, and professor at the University of South

Dakota. She received a doctorate in clarinet performance from the University of Iowa. She plays with the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra and directs Tatag, the NMM’s Javanese gamelan performance ensemble. She is a contributing editor to The Clarinet, and serves as the ICA South Dakota State Chair.

azmusicmasters.com


“The Clarinet Enthusiast” features a rotating cast of contributors; if you are interested in sharing your perspective, contact [email protected].

THE ELEGANT ELATION OF ETUDES

Over three decades had passed since I last put a reed on my mouthpiece. I had taken music seriously at one point

in my life. I was principal clarinet and a charter member of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra under the late Dr. Marvin Rabin in the 1960s, a member of the symphony orchestra at Northwestern University and a student of Jerry Stowell of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for one year. Then, I transferred from the School of Music to the School of Arts and Sciences and pursued a career in medicine. As I immersed myself in my new studies, the dominant role music had played in my life became a fading memory, recurring only as remnant stories told to my wife and children. Two decades ago, however, the memories were revived by my son who had started to play the clarinet and asked for some help (in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king). As I watched him discover the art’s joy, I rediscovered it as well. Restarting after so many years was painful, but after 10 years of nurturing the process on my own, I moved to a great university town and had the good fortune of continuing clarinet lessons with the university clarinet professor. Under his tutelage, I realized the great value of the many eclectic clarinet studies and how they can contribute, often in unique ways, to overcoming specific performance issues. During this time of isolation, they may provide a perfect source of uplifting diversion and joy.

While in high school, I had been given an old large-format Alphonse Leduc edition of Paul JeanJean’s Twenty-Five Etudes

Techniques et Melodiques, which became my favorite book of studies. I found the whole-tone melodies and funky rhythms haunting: the elegant No. 3 (style ancien) has such proud grace; No. 7 begins with a lambent vif which then suddenly changes to the new melody of a bright dolce; No. 12, and the eight bars in its mid-section that seem, for me, so difficult to play fluidly, has such beauty; the sheer fun and gaiety of Nos. 13, 14 and 17. I really loved them all – and they seemed somehow more emotionally fulfilling than, say, Perier!

When I resumed lessons years later, I was assigned the Rose Thirty-Two Etudes. They initially held little interest to me, as they had seemed, years ago, more prosaic compared with those of JeanJean. But they are perfect for the many seemingly pedestrian problems of rhythm and interpretation that I encountered with a musical knowledge that was arrested at the age of 18. I was thrilled, though, when asked to start JeanJean’s 16 Etudes Modernes. Number 5, especially, could stand alone as a concert piece and was a challenging study for me to learn due to the required breath control and tonal focus of the lower register. Then, my teacher introduced me to the works of a Belgian composer I had never heard of: Fernand Carion, whose Ten Grand Etudes remind me of those romantic JeanJean compositions. Number 5 has a quiet, soulful intensity that could also serve as a solo piece; I never seem to tire playing it. Number 10 seems to incorporate many of the rhythms and fingerings in the previous nine, as though it alone summarizes the entire book of studies.

Eugene Bozza, who has composed so many solo pieces for the clarinet, has two fun books of etudes: 14 Etudes Mechanisme

and 12 Etudes. Marcel Bitsch, in his 12 Rhythmical Studies, accosts the clarinetist with interesting rhythms. Roger Wartelle’s 14 Technical Studies are melodic exercises with lively technical and rhythmic challenges. The 60 etudes of Louis Costes are scintillating gems. Costes humbly states, “these etudes have no ambition, other than helping … clarinet players perform modern and classical works.”

I began playing Rudolf Jettel’s Preliminary Clarinet Studies to the Accomplished Clarinetist (three volumes), thinking to myself how a moniker for “preparatory” seems so misplaced. Jettel (who allegedly composed over 500 etudes!), with his difficult rhythms and tempi, clearly challenges my understanding of melody and phrasing. Jettel’s three volumes of The Accomplished Clarinetist extend these challenges. The third volume is comprised of four concert etudes and four sonatas for clarinet and piano. The Advanced Studies by Victor Polatschek provides 28 studies modeled after 21 composers that are excellent in teaching a variety of musical styles, but also for practice of some uncomfortable clarinet fingerings that help obviate the “grabbing” technique as my teacher phrases it. Then, I approached Agostino Gabucci’s Ten Fantasies. If Jettel is teutonic angst, Gabucci is Catanian bel canto; redolent of JeanJean, his studies are filled with often abrupt two-bar moments of lyrically beautiful phrases. These are simply stunning etudes! Fellow Italian Giacomo Miluccio – whose Rhapsodie for solo clarinet is lovely – composed 8 Grandes Etudes De Technique Melodique which are unrestrained beauty; No. 2 and No. 6 could easily be solo pieces. Ferdinand Capelle’s 20 Grande Etudes are also great for technical

by Donald B. Jenny

ClarinetThe


development (No. 12 could also be played as a solo piece).

Peruvian composer Daniel Cueto certainly challenges the clarinetist with his 5 Estudios Criollos. As noted by the composer, the English translation of “Creole” is not equivalent to the Spanish word; the pieces are based on indigenous melodies from coastal Peru and “represent a fascinating artistic tradition still largely unknown to many musicians around the globe.” These are wonderful and all are composed for performance (in potentially creative combinations).

The Béla Kovács Hommages are nine demanding clarinet solos (“intended to be etudes or studies”) in the style of nine different composers: Bach, Paganini, Weber, Debussy, de Falla, Strauss, Bartók, Kodaly, Khatchaturian.

All these studies have helped me address a multitude of problems I face in trying to play at a level that allows me to participate in group ensembles. While I have also spent time becoming familiar with some of the classic solo repertoire for the clarinet – and memorization has been incredibly difficult – these clarinet studies have made returning to the clarinet so enjoyable. There are likely many reasons for this, but for me each study is not only a new challenge, but it often seems to explode in totally unexpected delights. Like reading an F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Cheever short story for the first time, they make you look at things a little differently, giving irony, ardency, a piercing joy. They’re fun. From a concert music perspective, I think of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2, when the flutes and strident violins play what suggests birds flitting in the underbrush and then opens into a glorious melody like stepping into a verdant garden; or in the final Pesante Aufersteh’n of Mahler’s Second Symphony when the chorus and brass pause to reveal the strings playing two quietly pulsing phrases until the final glorious measures – when like a passenger jet on takeoff, one’s view is briefly hidden by cloud cover until suddenly breaking through, revealing the clear topography below – like a resurrection. It is difficult to accept that these clarinet studies were all written as singular etudes to stand alone with the clarinetist in a practice room. They deserve much more.

I was surprised to have learned that some of my teacher’s college students have

demurred when asked to work on various clarinet studies. Perhaps they sense an urgency to master the great works and orchestral studies when they’re young. My perspective, after a hiatus from playing for many years and with limited opportunities to perform, probably differs from younger players focusing on their aspirations and future performance goals. Yet these etudes, beautiful by themselves, have enhanced my approach to other standard clarinet repertoire. Would encouraging students to learn some of these studies perhaps expand their own understanding of the clarinet and interpretation of the oeuvre? Without a formal collegiate music education, I know that I likely miss much about what I am playing, but while a botanical garden may be more interesting if one perhaps understood detailed botany and taxonomy, without it, one can still enjoy the flowers. And, depending upon the length of our current pandemic, there is more JeanJean, Jettel, Rueff, Menendez and others to explore. I can’t wait! v

SELECTED ETUDESBitsch, M. Twelve Rhythmical StudiesBozza, E. 14 Etudes De Mecanisme 1948Bozza, E. 12 Etudes 1953Bozza, E. 11 Etudes Karnatiques 1972Capelle, F. 20 Grand EtudesCarion, F. 10 Grande Etudes de Haute

VirtuositesCavallini, C. 30 CapricesCostes, L. 60 EtudesCueto, D. Estudios Criollos Delécluse, U. 14 Grande Etudes Delécluse, U. Six Suites de J.S. BachGabucci, A. 10 Fantasie Gabucci, A. 10 Etudes ModernesGabucci, A. 60 DivertimentiGabucci, A. 50 Duets for Two ClarinetsHeim, N. The Development of the Altissimo

RegisterJeanJean, P. 25 Etudes Techniques (and

volumes II and III)JeanJean, P. Etudes Progressives et

Melodiques – cahiers 1,2,3JeanJean, P. 16 Etudes ModernesJeanJean, P. 18 EtudesJeanJean, P. Vade-Mecum du ClarinetistJettel, R. Preliminary studies to The

Accomplished Clarinetist – books 1,2,3Jetel, R. The Accomplished Clarinetist –

books 1,2,3 (book 3 comprised of 4 concert etudes and four sonatas with piano)

Jettel, R. Zehn Etuden

Jettel, R. 18 EtudenKovacs, B. HommagesMagnani, A. 10 Etudes-Caprices De Grande

DifficulteMenendez, J. 18 Characteristic Studies

(Difficult)Miluccio, G. 8 Grandes Etudes De

Technique MelodiquesPaganini, N. 17 CapricesPerier, A. 331 Exercises Journaliers De

MecanismePerier, A. Le Debutant ClarinettistePerier, A. 30 EtudesPerier, A. 20 EtudesPerier, A. 22 Etudes ModernesPerier, A. 20 Etudes de VirtuositePerier, A. Etudes de Genre et

D’Interpretation – Cahier 1,2Perier, A. Recueil De Sonates pour L’Etude

Du Style Classique – Cahier 1,2,3Polatschek, V. Advanced Studies for the

ClarinetRachmaninov, S. Studies for Clarinet (from

Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini)Rueff, J. 14 EtudesRose, C. 32 EtudesRose, C. 40 Studies for Clarinet (two books

of 20)Sarlit, H. 25 Etudes de VirtuositeUhl, A. 48 Etuden fur Klarinette (two

books of 25)Wartelle, R. 14 Technical StudiesZelinsky/Smeyers (ed.) Studies for Playing

Contemporary Music

[For an annotated list of etude books by category, see Kelly Johnson’s “Clarinet Books for the College Undergraduate” in The Clarinet Vol. 29/3 (June 2002). Ed.]

ABOUT THE WRITERDonald B. Jenny, M.D., is a retired interventional cardiologist living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife Debra of 34 years. They enjoy music, reading, travel and spending

time with their three children. He is deeply grateful to Professor Donald L. Oehler, University of North Carolina School of Music, who rekindled intellectual pursuit of the instrument, suggested the topic of and reviewed this paper, and provided countless hours of inspired teaching.


PEDAGOGY

W hen Bob Dylan recorded his iconic song “The Times They Are A-Changin” in 1963, he said, “I know

I had no understanding of anything. Something had just gone haywire in the country.” Sound familiar? Change is now the constant in our current environment. In this article, we hear perspectives from researchers, performers, teachers and administrators about how the pandemic is changing our musical lives.

Research regarding performance safety is a top priority. Kirk D. Moss, chair of the Department of Music and Theatre at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul, is the editor of a study conducted in May, 2020, at the Freiburg Institute for Musicians’ Medicine in conjunction with the University Hospital and University of Music Freiburg (Germany). This particular study was a collaboration with five physicians whose specialties include psychotherapeutic medicine, ear-nose-throat, infection prevention and hospital hygiene, virology, anesthesiology and critical care. Although this is only one of many studies ongoing, the findings are encouraging for clarinetists. Here are their findings:

• There is no increased risk of droplet infection when playing clarinet. No droplets are released directly into the environment from brass instruments and woodwind instruments that utilize a reed. However, the flute can release droplets into the environment because of how the tone is produced. When playing flute, the air “splits” the

embouchure hole, with some going into the instrument and some into the environment.

• Aerosols do not reach the room air directly from the mouth opening when playing clarinet. When air is blown into a woodwind (flute excepted) or brass instrument, aerosols go into the instrument and can only escape through tone holes or the bells (brass instruments). Research is still pending on how much aerosol is released.

• Performance distancing works. Playing any wind instrument requires an intense air stream. Since no conclusive evidence exists about virus in outgoing air, experts suggest a distance of 6.5 feet between performers. The study concluded that the risk of droplet infection when observing this distance protocol was very low.

• Structural and organizational protocols are necessary for face-to-face private lessons. Based on this study, experts agree that online lessons are still the best option, particularly for those in a high risk group. If face-to-face instruction occurs, the following protocols are suggested: 1) install a partition between teacher and student; 2) teachers should wear a mask; 3) ventilation breaks should be taken every 15 minutes; and 4) the 6.5 foot performance distancing between student and teacher applies.

We need to adapt. Fred Bronstein, dean of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, emphasizes the

importance of remaining flexible when thinking about music in the pandemic:

One thing we teach our students at Peabody is that, as artists, you have to become as flexible as possible. This was true even before the pandemic. But the pandemic is a genuine life lesson on adapting and being flexible in what it means to create a performance for an audience. There are always going to be new and different ways to reach audiences, and we’re seeing this take shape in real time.

Boris Allakhverdyan, Los Angeles Philharmonic principal clarinetist, said the cancellation of orchestra rehearsals and performances has completely changed his daily life.

I no longer practice and prepare the pieces I would have normally. Instead, I spend a lot of time practicing and learning non-orchestral pieces – mostly solo and chamber works – watching a lot of concerts online, and reading. I think this pandemic has provided all of us extra time to think, to analyze, to see things from a different angle. While I do miss playing live concerts and seeing my students face-to-face, I am finding myself constantly trying to think of new ways to satisfy this ache and passion I have for music.

Online teaching has exploded. There are countless apps, videos and virtual classes everywhere. While some

“THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN” – PANDEMIC PERSPECTIVES FOR PERFORMING AND TEACHING

by Paula Corley, ICA Pedagogy Chair

Corner


PEDAGOGY

educational institutions have shortened schedules, implemented social distancing and developed other protocols, others are offering online instruction only. Almost everyone has embraced technology out of necessity. However, teaching clarinet online is not a new concept. Boris was teaching online before the pandemic. He believes students feel more comfortable playing behind a home computer screen than they do in face-to-face settings:

This can take a lot of pressure off from getting nervous in front of a live audience and possibly not presenting their full potential. The downside to online master classes or teaching – aside from technical hiccups – is that you cannot hear the subtle nuances in clarinet tone, dynamics, etc.

Rachel Turgoose launched RMT Music in the fall of 2019 to provide online instruction. With limited startup funds and a lot of determination, Rachel’s first step was to hire a business coach who taught her the importance of fee equality. All students should pay the same, regardless of circumstance.

Rachel said,

Student attrition is low. I check in regularly with parents and ensemble teachers to make sure everything is going well. If there are any issues, I try to resolve them as quickly as possible. Parents have access to the same information as the student, especially practice logs and lesson feedback. The majority of them thank me regularly for having a system and site that works easily and quickly. Parents are especially happy to have a normal routine for their kids.

Rachel now manages ten other teachers who also provide online instruction through her site. She uses Music Staff, a platform that is comprehensive with options for scheduling, payment, teacher feedback, practice logs, assignments, and a calendar function that sends Zoom links to students automatically at their assigned lesson time. To grow her business, Rachel went to the market with the most need –

local school districts. She started by contacting music supervisors and team leaders with her idea, and Rachel is now ready to expand the business and create a scholarship program.

Motivation is challenging. Clarinetist Nicolas Baldeyrou is known for his playing expertise, creative arrangements and videos. He also maintains a studio of aspiring professional clarinetists. When asked about the challenges of instruction as a result of the current environment, he had this to say:

The biggest change is that I’m not able to play with them and accompany them when online. I love to play the accompaniment – on piano or clarinet – but it doesn’t work well with the online “delay.” I miss the direct contact with students and find it more difficult to inspire and motivate them. That’s the reason I do the video projects with them, with very challenging parts and new things to master like playing with earphones and a click track.

Nicolas assigns his students extended techniques that require a lot of time on task including double-tonguing, circular breathing, and slap-tonguing. He also introduces students to new styles of playing and repertoire to keep them moving forward. Nicolas’s personal daily practice routine includes the Jeanjean Vade-Mecum and new repertoire daily. He also learns all of the non-clarinet instrument parts for the imaginative videos he records. “The Françaix concerto was really tough, especially with the flute parts!”

Boris advises his students to be patient, continue to work hard, and stay focused on your goals despite these circumstances. “Believe in what you believe in. Learn new things from people who inspire you most. Reach out, stay connected and remain positive. Embrace this extra time we have all been given.”

What changes should we expect in schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? Schools play a major role in the future of music teaching and performing. Most of us got our start in a school setting where we learned how to play and perform music. A decrease in

music enrollment in school settings will have significant impact. Dr. Lauryn Evans is superintendent of the North Kitsap School District in Washington state and serves on a statewide task force to address how music instruction might look going forward. She provided these thoughts about possible changes in the North Kitsap School District:

If we are open in any manner, I would anticipate that we’d see a move to chamber or small ensembles and no more large group rehearsals and performances for some time. If we are completely online again, this will present a significant challenge to our performing arts classes. Right now, our instrumental music classes are struggling to continue. Teachers are orchestrating small group and individual music study. I am unsure how sustainable this is for the long term. Statistics show that the academic core is taking students longer to work through, giving less time for the “elective” classes such as

2021 Composition Competition: Bass Clarinet and Piano

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

The ICA seeks previously unperformed works for bass clarinet and piano, 10-15 min. in length.

The deadline is December 20, 2020; the winner will receive a $1000 prize and a performance of the work at ClarinetFest® 2021.

For details, please visit www.clarinet.org or contact Scott McAllister, coordinator ([email protected]).

clarinet.org


PEDAGOGY

music. I think the arts will struggle to maintain student interest with the lack of the large performances that are typically the highlights of any music program.

Although no one can predict the future, we do know this: how we experience music has changed and will continue to do so, maybe permanently. Lisa Urkevitch, at the College Music Symposium in May 2020, noted that this time can be an era of opportunity in which individuals are “…moving more quickly, becoming entrepreneurs, creating companies, sharing new sounds and ideas, devising useful platforms, [and] elbowing into the room. Extraordinary opportunities lie before us.” v

CONTRIBUTORSBoris Allakhverdyan, Principal Clarinet,

Los Angeles PhilharmonicNicolas Baldeyrou: Radio France

Orchestra Philharmonique, Conservatorie National Superieur Music and Dance, Lyon

Dr. Laurynn Evans, Superintendent of Schools, North Kitsap School District, Washington

Kirk D. Moss, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Music & Theatre, University of Northwestern – St. Paul

Rachel Turgoose, RMTMusic.com, Reed Geek representative

REFERENCES Spahn, Claudia, and Bernhard Richter.

“Risk Assessment of a Coronavirus Infection in the Field of Music – Second Update of 19 May 2020.” Translated by Scott Swope and Kirk Moss. Risk assessment. Accessed June 4, 2020. www.mh-freiburg.de/en/university/covid-19-corona/risk-assessment.

“The Enduring Value of the Arts in the Age of Social Distancing.” The Hub, April 29, 2020. www.hub.jhu.edu.

Walsh, James D. “The Coming Disruption.” The Intelligencer. May 11, 2020.

Urkevich, Lisa A. “Our Rebirth: Reshaping the Music Discipline after the Covid-19 Pandemic.” College Music Symposium, May 1, 2020. https://symposium.music.org.

Elliott, Hannah. “Forget Baking. During Covid-19, You Need to Learn How to Have a Conversation.” Bloomberg News, May 13, 2020.

RESOURCESFor updates and a copy of the complete

coronavirus study for instrumentalists and vocalists: www.mh-freiburg.de/en/university/covid-19-corona/risk-assessment

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org) conducted a study titled “Identifying Airborne Transmission as the Dominant Route for the Spread of Covid-19.” This study is ongoing and updated frequently. www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2020/06/10/2009637117.full.pdf

The National Association for Music Educators is supporting a study on the effects of COVID-19 and the return to the rehearsal hall. The study examines aerosol rates produced by wind instrumentalists, vocalists and actors, and how quickly those aerosol rates accumulate in a space. Go here for the latest information: https://nafme.org/nafme-supports-arts-coalition-study-effects-covid-19/.

Higher Ed Music Lessons in the Time of COVID-19 (Facebook Group): This group is for sharing strategies, successes, failures, platforms, etc. that we encounter or develop in our work as studio teachers in the academy facing the challenge of teaching during a pandemic.

Music Educators Creating Online Learning (Facebook Group): a repository and help center for online music teaching.

Covid response updates from College Band Directors National Association that include instructional models for applied lessons and chamber ensembles, mental health awareness, research based guidelines for safe rehearsals: www.cbdna.org/covid19

Covid response updates in an online forum (guest login required); sponsors of safe instrumental rehearsal research ongoing: www.americanbandmasters.org; http://band-chat-2020.freeforums.net

The National Association of Music Merchants offers free access to a large amount of COVID-19 information including how to properly clean instruments and mouthpieces, and suggestions for maintaining a successful online instruction business: www.nammfoundation.org/projects/namm-foundation-covid-19-resources

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThank you to the ICA for allowing me to serve as Pedagogy Chair for the past two years. I have learned much and am grateful for the wonderful collaborations with colleagues from all over the world who contributed to my research. Thank you to Caroline Hartig for the opportunity, to Diane Barger for recommending me, to Rachel Yoder for her high level of professionalism, and to Al Corley for his editing expertise and inspiration. It has been a pleasure to serve.

* * * * *

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In the June issue of Pedagogy Corner, David Howard’s name was printed incorrectly. I apologize for the error.

ABOUT THE WRITERPaula Corley is a Texas music educator whose passion is clarinet. She is the “mayor” of Clarinet City (www.clarinetcity.com), pedagogy chair for the International Clarinet Association and the clarinet

instructor at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin. The author of two books for developing clarinetists, Paula has appeared at over 40 music conferences throughout the United States. She is a performing artist and clinician for Vandoren and Buffet Crampon, and is featured in the “Play Wind” app developed by Buffet Crampon Paris.

See www.clarinet.org/tco for our ongoing "Clarinet in the

Time of COVID" article series.

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PEDAGOGY

Ernesto Cavallini was born in Milan in 1807. At the age of 9 he started to study at the Milan Conservatory with Benedetto

Carulli. He graduated in September 1824. In 1827 he was highly praised for a performance of his Concerto in E b Major in one of the foyers of the Teatro alla Scala.

Cavallini worked at the Teatro Re in Milano, in the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and towards the end of the decade performed at La Scala several times as both soloist and orchestral musician. He was appointed first clarinet of the La Scala orchestra in 1831. In 1839 he appeared with great acclaim in Venice, Bratislava and Budapest. Two years later he played in Milan with the virtuoso cellist Alfredo Piatti; soon afterwards he played in Paris. Cavallini travelled then to London. In 1844 he undertook a new concert tour, visiting Geneva, Paris and London. In Brussels he gave a concert at the home of the composer Fétis. In 1846 he returned to Milan and performed his Capriccio “Fiori rossiniani.” Cavallini left Italy in 1851 on a long tour that took him to Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, and finally, Russia. He reached St. Petersburg in 1854, where the czar appointed him soloist of the newly founded Imperial Theatre, and in the same year he began to teach at the conservatory.

In 1862 Cavallini took part in the premiere of La forza del destino, whose famous clarinet solo had been written expressly for him by Giuseppe Verdi. In 1869 he returned to Italy, performing

and teaching at the Conservatorio in Milan, and died in 1874. His technical and interpretive gifts are described in many press articles and reviews: in 1842 the Gazzetta Musicale di Milano declared: “Cavallini is the Paganini of the clarinet,” and the Revue de Paris dubbed him “the best clarinetist of the universe.”

The Concerto No. 1 in E b Major for clarinet and orchestra was premiered by Cavallini himself at the Teatro alla Scala di Milano on July 5, 1827. According to Martinotti,1 this concerto is not structured after the typical scheme of a classical concerto: the Allegro at the beginning has the character of an introduction with wide concertante cadenzas of the soloist, the Adagio cantabile is an expressive Romanza in operatic style and the Allegro is a theme with virtuoso variations. The composition is dedicated to his “friend Giuseppe Cattaneo.”

The work belongs to the form of an operatic fantasy. It is in fact, in spite of the title, structured in only one movement

and is based on the reworking of a theme by Joseph Weigl.2 The composition begins with an orchestral introduction with a martial character. After the magnificent introduction the clarinet soloist starts at bar 20 performing arpeggios moving up and down in a typical recitativo character (Example 1).

In this Italian recitativo style the rhythmical figure based on dotted eighth notes followed by a 16th note is important. In the Italian style these 16th notes are played slightly later and faster and I suggest the performer to follow this tradition during the execution of the upbeats in the recitativo parts. In bars 25 and 26 the atmosphere becomes cantabile and lyrical. I recommend to perform this part with a smooth sound, “singing” the triplets.

During the whole composition the soloist alternates between assuming the roles of an opera singer and a virtuoso violin player like Paganini – do not forget that Cavallini was considered “the

by Nicola Bulfone

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PEDAGOGY

Paganini of the clarinet!” This is typical for that period.

At bar 30 the theme appears for the first time (Example 2).

This is a theme composed by J. Weigl, here presented in the tempo of Adagio in 4/4. Here a smooth articulation is needed; 16th notes not too fast and grace notes clearly pronounced. Upbeat of bar 38: with elan, play the couplets of 32nd notes molto crescendo and clearly articulated. The next upbeat of bar 39 should be played in a very singing manner, molto cantabile with a sound contrast, suddenly really smooth.

In the following two bars the schema is repeated in the same way. At bar 42, with the upbeat, the character becomes resolute, starting with a crescendo and accelerando until bar 44, turning from here to a calm tempo with lyrical accents on the first note of the groups of four 16th notes. The upbeat of the fermata (cadenza bars 48-49) creates the tension with a crescendo and rallentando in a very rubato style. I recommend at bar 49, at the end of the fast notes, to start the arpeggio with a poco esitando, slowing down and then accelerating to the top note, performing the grace notes in any case very quickly. Go then firmly fast down through the chromatic scale arriving to a trill that I like to start slightly lengthening the first note. The cadenza ends with emphasis, freely ad libitum.

A following Più mosso played by the full orchestra leads to the real tempo of the theme by Weigl: Andantino. I suggest to show a great difference between the grace notes, to be played fast and lightly, and the smoothly staccato 16th-note upbeats. I would avoid performing accents in any case on the trills, instead playing them in a melodic way, without disturbing the natural flow of the melody.

The first variation is often executed too fast (Example 4). It is a typical triplet variation in a tempo Più mosso. This tempo must be related to the theme (Andantino). The triplets should be performed in an elegant way, really grazioso. The editor – probably – suggests to reinforce the dynamic in the first part of the second repetition turning at the end of the variation to the mezzo piano of the beginning.

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5


PEDAGOGY

After a brief orchestral interlude the second variation starts; the tempo of the 16th notes remains the same as before (Example 5).

The 16th notes should be executed in a light staccato leggero. Each repetition ends with a surprising and humorous figuration that we can find in some Paganini violin concertos. This effect you can emphasize doing a big crescendo ending with a fortissimo in the low register.

During the following 25 bars, the orchestra plays an interlude remaining in same character of the second variation, a march with fast scales and dotted rhythms leading through a modulation to a melody in F minor. The episode ends with a very short cadenza of the clarinet, a scale descending “ad libitum” and directly leading to an Adagio in the key of Eb minor (sounding pitch). In the first part of this slow movement the character is very dramatic (Example 6).

The clarinet has a virtuoso part which should be played firmly with determination. In the second part the atmosphere becomes more peaceful and “cantabile” in a dynamic of piano and mezzo-piano and in a slightly faster tempo. The key changes also to Gb major. In this part that is more fluid I suggest to change suddenly the color of the timbre, playing with a very sweet sound contrasting with the prior forte and

marcato character. After that we go back to an Adagio where the clarinet plays a short part in fortissimo again with a dramatic and operatic character ending with a Più mosso and dolce.

Through a short modulation we reach the third variation: Allegro (Example 7). The oboe of the orchestra plays the theme by Weigl, while the solo clarinet

accompanies the melody with an Alberti bass characterized by very wide leaps in staccato eighth notes. The character is really joyful and striking. From a review published in 1847 by the Museo di Scienza e Letteratura of Naples:3

Alle note basse massimamente nessuno potrebbe negare una quieta sonorità; ed esse son talvolta fatte servire con bello artifizio come basso fondamentale alla melodia per acuti svolta, per modo che quasi si crederia esser posto un clarino a cantare ed un altro ad accompagnare.

[No one could refuse to admit that his low notes have a calm sonority; and these are used with a surprising effect as fundamental bass to the melody done by the high notes, so that you would believe that one clarinet sings and another accompanies.]

Be careful at the beginning of this variation, because the clarinet plays an upbeat of a quarter note while the solo oboe has three eighth notes, starting one eighth note before the soloist.

Technically it’s a matter of coordination, breath control and embouchure. As a

Example 6

Example 7


PEDAGOGY

preparatory exercise I suggest to play the eighth notes grouping them in pairs of legato notes with accents in the low register. During the following bars the orchestra

leads through an interruption in a forte dynamic with a march character to the fourth variation, featuring rapid arpeggios ending with ascending staccato scales

Example 8

Example 9

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PEDAGOGY

(Example 8). This Più presto, con brio should be realized with brilliant virtuosity in a very fast tempo and fortissimo dynamic playing the alternated scales and arpeggios with a very outgoing personality.

This part of the concerto is very idiomatic for the clarinet and effortless for the performer: take risks!

In the coda the character becomes very magnificent, nearly celebratory during

a long “Rossini-crescendo.” From bar 229 the soloist presents with elegance a marching theme, very rhythmic and in a traditionally slightly slower tempo (Example 9).

From bar 241 the soloist begins to play a sequence of 16th notes arpeggiando with clear articulation. I suggest at bars 244 and 248 to play the articulation of the pair of legato notes very marcato

going down through the descending scale. After the Più mosso of bar 249 we reach a rallentando which I suggest to emphasize.

From bar 256 the orchestra plays the clarinet-theme of bar 229 again while the soloist performs in a lively tempo as accompaniment a sequence of 16th notes in wide leaps that you can emphasize with energy and a clear articulation (Example 10). The coda ends in a very virtuoso way with 32nd notes ascending with strong effect (Example 11).

The crescendo should be of course emphasized. Technically speaking, the movement of the fingers must be reduced as much as possible, opening and closing the holes with the lowest pressure on the keys, remaining in a rounded shape. These flexible movements of the fingers will be supported by a rich air flow and a stable embouchure.

The Italian publishing house Eufonia published for the first time after the Bertuzzi publication of 1845 this concerto revised by Davide Pedrazzini. The Concerto No. 1 by Cavallini is an important addition to the Italian repertoire of the 19th century, to be reconsidered and performed by the young generations of clarinet players.

I would like to thank very much the Edizioni Eufonia and my friend Prof. Silvio Maggioni for giving me the permission to reproduce some parts of this published concerto for the examples added to this article. v

ENDNOTES1 Sergio Martinotti, Ottocento Strumentale Italiano

(Forni, 1972), p. 301-302.2 Joseph Weigl, 1766-1846, was an Austrian opera

composer. He studied under Mozart and Salieri and became Kapellmeister at the court of Vienna in 1792 and from 1827 to 1838 was vice-Kapellmeister.

3 Andrea Martinez, “Ernesto Cavallini, Suonator di Clarino,” Museo di Scienza e Letteratura Napoli Vol XI (Naples: 1847), p. 387-392; republished in Gazzetta Musicale di Milano (1847) p. 265-268.

Example 10

Example 11


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ClarinetRichie Hawley

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CRYSTAL® RECORDS, 28818 NE Hancock, Camas, WA 98607 USA, phone 360-834-7022, email: [email protected] by phone, mail, or online at www.crystalrecords.com • Many more woodwind recordings; Hear sound samples at www.crystalrecords.com

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MICHAEL EDWARDS: CD735. Clarinet Sonatas by Saint-Saëns, Ladmirault, & Bjelinski. Martinu Sonatina; Rabaud Solo de Concours. “Clar-inet fanciers will find a treat here.” Fanfare.

CDs $16.95. FREE US shipping; $7 Canada; $14 other foreign (mention this ad).

TRIO INDIANA: James Campbell, Eli Eban, Howard Klug, Clarinets (clarinet faculty, Indiana University). 2 CDs – CD734: Music by Defaye, Schickele, Kulesha (with David Shea, clarinet, guest), Kibbe, and Fox. CD736: (with Alfred Prinz, Mitchell Lurie, & Min-Ho Yeh, guests). Music by Prinz, Heiden, Uhl, and Weill. “Marvelous group...lovely ensemble of ravishing sounds.” American Record Guide.

LARRY COMBS: CD731. Principal Clari-net 30 years, Chicago Symphony. Rosza, Sonatina & Sonata for Clarinet Solo (written for Larry Combs); Rochberg & Schuller Trios for Clarinet, Horn, & Piano. “a showcase for Larry Combs...impressive virtuosity” Fanfare. With Gail Williams, horn.

MELVIN WARNER: CD332. Weber, Fantasia & Rondo, Grand Duo Concertante; Stravinsky, 3 Songs from Shakespeare; Penderecki, 3 Miniature; Martino, Set for Clarinet; Spohr, Six German Songs; Wm. O. Smith, Five Pieces. “One of the finest clarinet recordings I have yet to hear.” Audio Magazine.

MITCHELL LURIE: CD301.Brahms Clarinet Sonatas 1 & 2; plus RICHARD LESSER: Kessner, Danc-es (Clarinet, Guitar). Lurie was principal, Chicago & Pittsburgh Symphonies; and prof. U.S.C. over 50 years; Lesser was prin-

cipal Israel Phil. 35 years. CD737: Lurie plays Halsey Stevens, Con-certo for Clarinet & String Orch; Lesemann, Sonata; and Muczynski, Time Pieces.”One of the world’s most famous clarinetists” Fanfare.

TASHA WARREN: CD739. The Naked Clarinet, Unaccompanied Clarinet: Rozsa, Sonati-na; Tower, Wings; Ran, Music for an Actor; Dzubay, Solus II; Yehuda, Three Preludes; & Larsen, Dancing Solo. “Sheer virtuosity” International Record Review.

LAWRENCE SOBOL: CD808. Hovhaness, Saturn, for Clarinet, Soprano, & Piano. Also Hovhaness Magnificat for Chorus, & Orch. “Saturn is a beguiling hymnal...freshness and vitality.” Classic CD Magazine.

ENSEMBLE ISOLA: principals Gran Canaria Philharmonic (Spain)– Radovan Cavallin, clarinet; Jose Zarzo, horn; Victor Parra, violin. CD771: Trios: Brahms, Reinecke, Duvernoy. CD772: Czerny; Jenner; Duvernoy. “Delightful , virtuosic.” Gramophone.

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WEBSTER TRIO: Leone Buyse, flute; Michael Webster, clarinet; Rob-ert Moeling, piano. 3 CDs – CD717: Music by Libby Larsen, Sirota,

Brandt, Toensing, & Schonfeld. CD356: Fauré Dolly Suite; Saint-Saëns, Tarantella; Debussy, Petite Piece, Syrinx; Bizet, Jeux d’enfants. CD357: Dvorak, Slavonic Dances; Debussy, Pe-tite Suite; Brahms, Hungarian Dances; Gottschalk, Four Pieces.

ABOUT THE WRITERNicola Bulfone is clarinet professor at the Udine Conservatoire (Italy), and is active as a soloist and in the orchestra of the Theatre of Trieste. He has been solo clarinet in the Udine Philharmonic

Orchestra, in the Orchestra Sinfonica del Friuli Venezia Giulia and founding member of the Associazione Filarmonica del Friuli Venezia Giulia. He has played clarinet, bass clarinet and basset horn in a number of other orchestras including the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra and the Teatro la Fenice Orchestra. Bulfone has played as soloist with ensembles including the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra of Bratislava, the Sophia Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica del Estado del Mexico. Nicola Bulfone plays Wurlitzer Reform Boehm clarinets. His recordings include a Naxos album of all the 30 Caprices by Ernesto Cavallini. Learn more at www.nicolabulfone.it.

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The few compositions for bass clarinet and orchestra almost fit on one sheet of paper, but a pearl can be added: Ophelia’s Tears by Nicolas Bacri.

Ophelia’s Tears (2019) was a composition commission from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, dedicated to bass clarinetist J. Lawrie Bloom and in memory of the British composer/conductor Oliver Knussen (1952-2018). It is about 15 minutes in length and is published by Alphonse Leduc/Music Sales, Paris. The world premiere took place on February 20, 2020, at Symphony Center Chicago by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti.

The performance was well-received. Howard Reich of the Chicago Tribune noted, “The openly emotional writing for the bass clarinet ... surely defied musical fashions of our noisy age.” Lawrence

A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review said, “The clarinet is Bacri’s favorite solo instrument and he clearly knows how to exploit its capabilities in a resourceful and distinctive way. ... If any bass clarinet concerto has a chance at making it into the regular repertoire this is likely to be the one.”

Nicolas Bacri is an accomplished composer with an enormous broad erudition (arts, philosophy, history, society, politics...) that is reflected in his compositions. As soon as you enter his apartment in Brussels you immediately notice the wall cabinet with at least 10,000 CDs and piles of books everywhere: not a “man cave” but a “composer cave.” In addition to historical composers, he also knows all living composers and their repertoire today. Bacri’s oeuvre contains more than 150 opus numbers, of which the clarinet plays a prominent role in 33 compositions. I would like to refer the reader to www.nicolasbacri.net because his curriculum is already a book in itself.

As a composer, Nicolas Bacri first had an orthodox modernist (post-serial structuralist) period, gradually returning to melody and to tonality. He has written two fascinating theoretical works Crise and Notes etrangères in which he explains his vision on the evolution of the music of the second half of the 20th century. In Crise the composer Nicolas Bacri denounces the stranglehold of neo-serialist ideology on 20th century music. He tries to show what this “modernist orthodoxy” was and what harmful effects it had on many musicians and how this music was widely received.

In his theoretical work Notes étrangères, Nicolas Bacri reflects on his current position as a composer and makes the following statement:

My music is not neoclassical, it is classical,for it retains the timeless aspect of classicism:

the rigor of expression.My music is not neo-romantic, it is romantic,for it retains the timeless aspect of

romanticism: the density of expression.

Nicolas Bacri’s Ophelia’s TearsConcertante Elegy for Bass Clarinet and Orchestraby Stephan Vermeersch

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J. Lawrie Bloom premieres Nicolas Bacri’s Ophelia’s Tears with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra


My music is modern, for it retains the timeless aspect of modernism: the broadening of the field of expression.

My music is Postmodern, for it retains the timeless aspect of Postmodernism: the mixture of techniques of expression.

By choosing melody and tonality, Bacri has by no means opted for convenience; on the contrary, in the language of the contemporary it is relatively easy to make an impression, even to overwhelm you.

Bacri’s music is not “conservative” because of its interpretation of traditional values, because his interpretations are always personal, expressive and authentic, using a familiar-sounding musical language, but what is “said” is always new. His compositions have thematic and coherent material, which always creates a catchy atmosphere – hence his great preference for the symphony and string quartet. But his entire body of work testifies to a composer with vision, a must to listen to.

THE COMPOSITION: OPHELIA’S TEARS, OP. 150 (2019)Although the clarinet has a prominent place in his oeuvre, Nicolas Bacri was initially not so keen on writing a bass clarinet concerto. He thought it was not obvious (not appealing enough) to compose a full-fledged concerto for the bass clarinet with its acoustic qualities (compared to, for example, the cello). But a compromise came in the form of the symphonic poem – a concertante elegy for bass clarinet and orchestra. Ophelia’s Tears has three continuous parts: tragedy, madness and death. It is based in part on Bacri’s earlier work Ophelia’s Mad Scene, Op. 146, for soprano and clarinet. The inspiration comes from the character Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Tragedy: her position as a woman in that zeitgeist, her dominant father, her love for Hamlet and his rejection. A prelude (Adagio maestoso - Dolcissimo cantabile) and then a fugue (Doppio movimento). The first part contains themes that recur throughout the piece.

Madness: Ophelia becomes mad: Hamlet killed her father and she

experiences oppression by the patriarchal society in which she lives. The thematic materials are further developed, creating a kind of synthesis of the tonal and atonal music of Nicolas Bacri: an emotional roller coaster of guilt, truth, self-pity and feigned cheerfulness.

Death: Ophelia dies from drowning – suicide? A melodic low bass clarinet line represents death, elements of the first and second parts return dramatically and it ends with the bass clarinet in the low register in a dream state imagining Ophelia’s soul taking off.

Ophelia’s Tears does not demand great virtuosity from the soloist, but you have to master the lyrical expressivity with the fingertips, and this requires a grandmaster on the bass clarinet.

THE SOLOIST: J. LAWRIE BLOOMJ. Lawrie Bloom has been a clarinetist and bass clarinetist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1980 at the invitation of Sir George Solti. He is a great promoter of the bass clarinet and is well known and appreciated in many music environments.

J. Lawrie shares the following about Ophelia’s Tears:

When in 2018 Maestro Muti offered to commission a piece for me, Nicolas Bacri was always my first choice. I had played chamber pieces, and heard many other works of Nicolas and I thought his lyric approach would be fantastic for a bass clarinet piece.

I met Nicolas in February 2019 in Paris and played the solo clarinet version of Ophelia for him, and many other things. We talked at a deep level for quite some time and went our separate ways.

Quite soon after he began to send me fragments of Ophelia’s Tears, the new piece. By April it was complete with his caveat that if I wanted something changed, let him know. I never asked for changes other than adding a breath or starting a crescendo earlier or later.

Muti was clearly pleased with the piece when I played for him before orchestra rehearsals and the

audience and my colleagues were more enthusiastic than could even have been imagined.

Nicolas has written a magnificent piece for us, and it will get many performances, I’m sure. v

* * * * *

[See also “The Clarinet Compositions of Nicolas Bacri” by Kristine Dizon in The Clarinet Vol. 47/1 (December 2019). Ed.]

ABOUT THE WRITERStephan Vermeersch is recognized as a versatile performer, improviser and composer of classical, contemporary, world and electroacoustic music with many crossovers to other cultures and art

forms. He is president of the European Clarinet Association (2013) and was International Representative on the board of the International Clarinet Association (2014-2017).

J. Lawrie Bloom and Nicolas Bacri

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INTRODUCTION

While research has been done on clarinet multiphonics achieved through special fingerings and voicing manipulation, very few resources address an

alternative technique for producing multiple sounds in clarinet performance – singing while playing. Singing while playing has been researched more extensively in brass pedagogy, but the few resources that address this technique in clarinet performance are limited in scope, and no research has examined the separate, but closely related technique of humming while playing. Both singing and humming while playing utilize the vocal folds to produce a second sounding pitch but differ in how the airstream is used and the chamber in which the vocalized pitches resonate.

In order to accurately explain the physiological differences in the production mechanisms for these two techniques and to describe how each technique produces a unique aural effect, a research study was devised that recorded nasalance and intraoral pressure from one subject (the author) performing several tasks demonstrating each technique. Nasalance is defined as the ratio of nasal acoustic energy to total nasal and oral acoustic energy, while intraoral pressure is defined as the “quantifiable measure of force exerted on the surface area of the oral cavity.” The quantitative data were used to help explain the physiological differences between singing and humming while playing, while spectrograms and sound intensity measurements were taken from the recorded audio of the tasks and examined to help describe how each technique produces a distinct acoustic effect.

These data were then analyzed to create two resources: a method for clarinetists to learn how to produce each technique in performance, and a resource for composers who want to know the technical limitations and acoustic differences between

each technique. This research study was conducted as part of the author’s D.M.A. dissertation, which can be referred to for further information, including more in-depth analysis and the resulting method for performers and resource for composers.

PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANICS

SINGING WHILE PLAYINGThe primary physiological difference between standard playing and singing while playing is simply that in the latter, the vocal folds are allowed to vibrate. The additional vocal sound generated by the vocal folds then resonates in and exits through the oral cavity, as the nasal cavity is sealed by the closed velopharyngeal port, which is the space behind the soft palate. The velopharyngeal port is considered closed when the soft palate and the pharyngeal walls, or the back walls of the throat, form a seal. The energy required to produce this technique, however, is greater than with standard clarinet playing – it requires two sound sources to utilize the same air stream, and the clarinetist must learn how to allocate enough air pressure to cause both the reed and the vocal folds to vibrate and produce sound.

In addition to this pressure allocation problem, it is also likely that simply inducing vocal fold vibration in singing while playing is more difficult than in normal phonation. This is due to the fact that while subglottal pressure levels, or pressure levels below the vocal folds, in phonation are typically between 0.49 kilopascals (kPa) and 0.98 kPa when excluding atmospheric pressure, the intraoral pressure levels present in standard clarinet playing can be up to six times higher than the upper end of this range, according to the data from this research study. This means that not only must the clarinetist allocate enough pressure to cause both the reed and the vocal folds to vibrate, but they must also learn to produce vocalized pitches within a much higher-pressure environment than they would in normal phonation.

Humming and Singing While Playing: Analysis of Two Distinct Vocalization Techniques During Clarinet Performanceby Jeremy Ruth

2019 ICA Research Competition Winner


Additionally, the possible vocal range for singing while playing should theoretically be smaller than if the performer was singing without a second sound source due to the phonation threshold pressure – the minimum amount of pressure needed to phonate – needing to be higher as the sung pitch increases. This means that not only must the clarinetist use more air pressure than in standard playing to ensure that both sound sources can vibrate, but they must also be prepared to add additional air pressure to account for the higher pressure demands of higher sung pitches. Because of this, the upper end of a performer’s vocal range should theoretically be smaller in singing while playing.

HUMMING WHILE PLAYINGHumming while playing is physiologically closely related to singing while playing in one significant way: both humming and singing while playing require the vocal folds to vibrate and act as a second sound source. Beyond this, the physiological mechanisms used to produce the humming while playing technique share much more in common with the circular breathing technique than with singing while playing. As in circular breathing, humming while playing utilizes an open velopharyngeal port, with the tongue and soft palate coming together to store air in the oral cavity and seal it off from the rest of the vocal tract. The air stored in the cheeks is then used as the air source to generate the clarinet sound while the rest of the vocal tract is free to operate independently of the oral cavity.

Humming while playing is identical to circular breathing up to this point, but differs in how it uses the rest of the vocal tract after the tongue and soft palate seal off the oral cavity. In circular breathing, the clarinetist inhales fresh air through the nasal cavity while expelling the stored air in the oral cavity through the instrument to maintain reed vibration. In humming while playing, the clarinetist does not inhale while the air in the oral cavity is expelled, but instead pushes air out through the nasal cavity while placing enough air pressure on the vocal folds to induce vibration. The result is a hummed

pitch that resonates in and exits through the nasal cavity.

One notable difference in theoretical limitations between humming while playing and singing while playing relates to the possible vocal range available for each technique. Unlike singing while playing, which requires the clarinetist to divide the total air pressure in one air stream between two vibrating sound sources, humming while playing separates the air source used to generate the clarinet sound from the air source used to generate the vocal sound, allowing the clarinetist to devote all of the available air pressure from the latter source to producing vocal pitches. This means that humming while playing should theoretically offer a higher upper vocal range limit than singing while playing.

The author chose “humming while playing” as the preferred nomenclature for this technique for multiple reasons, but this choice was primarily based on the physiological mechanisms described above. As Richard Miller points out, the term “humming” can be used to refer to any “vocal sounds emitted through the nose, rather than through the mouth,” which includes the /m/, /n/, and /ŋ/ sounds. The /ŋ/ sound, as in the word “king,” is particularly relevant here, since production of it entails sealing the oral cavity from the pharyngeal cavity with the soft palate and tongue, using the nasal cavity as a resonating chamber, and utilizing the nostrils as the exit portals for the vocal sound. Because of the striking similarity in physiological mechanics between /ŋ/ humming in vocal pedagogy and the related vocalization technique in clarinet

performance, “humming while playing” was chosen as the preferred nomenclature. The label also creates a clear distinction between this technique and “singing while playing,” which is far more similar to traditional singing since it uses the oral cavity as a resonating chamber and allows the vocal sound to exit through the mouth.

METHOD AND EQUIPMENT FOR RESEARCH STUDYThis research study consisted of one professional clarinetist (the author of this study) performing 59 performance tasks, during which intraoral pressure, nasalance, and audio data were recorded simultaneously. The first three performance tasks contained no vocalized pitches, but only the following played pitches: E3, G4, B4, C6, E6, G6, and C7. These tasks were used as a baseline against which all subsequent tasks could be compared. The three tasks were played at soft, medium and loud dynamics, respectively.

The remaining 56 tasks were divided into eight groups of seven tasks each. Every group contained one task for each of the played notes listed above, and each task consisted of the subject playing and holding one note on the clarinet. In the first group, the subject played as loudly as possible while attempting to hum a chromatic scale as loudly as possible from the lowest to the highest possible hummed notes in his vocal range. The second group used the same outline as the first, but with the subject now humming the notes as softly as possible. The next two groups were identical to the first two, but with the subject playing every task as softly as possible while humming either as loudly

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or as softly as possible. The final four groups followed the same layout as the first four, with the only difference being that instead of humming while playing, the subject was now singing while playing.

The subject’s mouthpiece was modified by embedding a 1.3 mm (inner diameter; 1.5 mm outer diameter) stainless steel tube in a thin layer of epoxy resin on top of the beak of the mouthpiece, as shown in Figure 1.

The steel tube was then connected to a gas pressure sensor connected to an interface. The interface was connected to a laptop, and intraoral pressure changes were recorded in kPa at 1 millisecond (ms) intervals for the duration of every performance task using data-logging software.

Nasalance data were collected using a nasometer headset strapped to the subject’s head, as shown in Figure 2.

ANALYSIS

NASALANCEAfter initially examining each individual task’s average nasalance value, overall average nasalance values for all tasks utilizing each technique were calculated, as well. This resulted in overall average nasalance values of 27% for standard playing, 27% for singing while playing, and 76% for humming while playing, as shown in Figure 3.

This provides clear evidence that humming while playing uses nasal acoustic energy to produce the hummed pitch, exceeding the baseline average nasalance value for standard playing by 49%. In contrast, singing while playing produced identical average nasalance values to standard playing. This shows that after accounting for microphone contamination, singing while playing does not generate any nasal acoustic energy and helps to confirm the explanation of the physiological mechanisms behind each technique.

INTRAORAL PRESSUREIntraoral pressure can be altered by adjusting the volume of air used or by changing the resistance to the air stream exiting the mouth. Because different played pitches on the clarinet can offer different levels of resistance, the intraoral pressure levels are expected to shift somewhat from one pitch to another. By examining intraoral pressure across techniques on the same played pitch, some of the differences and difficulties involved with the production of each technique can become more apparent.

Of particular interest in this study are any notable changes in intraoral pressure during humming while playing. Any time the clarinetist transitions from the primary air stream, as in standard playing, to the air stored in the oral cavity, as is typically used in the circular breathing technique, this likely produces an intraoral pressure change. Since smoothly making this transition is often regarded as the most difficult element of circular breathing to master, any data gathered showing changes in intraoral pressure during humming while playing should help explain possible

Figure 1. Mouthpiece with stainless steel tube embedded in epoxy.

Figure 2. Subject wearing the nasometer headset used in the study.


changes the performer should make to aid in the execution of the technique on different played notes throughout the range of the clarinet.

After determining the average and peak intraoral pressure values for each task, the two values were compared. The peak intraoral pressure levels during humming exceeded the average levels from the same tasks by an average of 1.99 kPa, showing a

greater difference than that found in either singing or standard playing, as shown in Figure 4.

This would seem to correspond to the transition from the main air stream to the air stored in the oral cavity, and can be attributed to an increase in embouchure pressure as the clarinetist makes this transition. This also shows that it is possible to maintain a played pitch

without a perfectly smooth transition, although the clarinetist should still aim to minimize any changes in intraoral pressure, as it will help create a more seamless shift between air sources.

SPECTROGRAMSSpectrogram analysis was one of the primary audio analysis methods chosen since musicologists sometimes use this method as a way to visually represent the overall acoustic effects produced in a recording. A spectrogram shows the frequencies present in a task and the relative intensity of each frequency over time. If a single pitch is played, the spectrogram should show the fundamental frequency and any of its strong overtones, as shown in Figure 5.

The frequencies in Figure 5 appear as very clearly defined horizontal lines – any other played pitch will be represented in the same way, but with the horizontal lines placed at the corresponding fundamental and overtone frequencies for that pitch.

One of the primary differences between the humming while playing and the singing while playing spectrograms directly relates to how distinctly the two simultaneous pitches appear. The tasks utilizing humming while playing overwhelmingly generated spectrograms that show a clear distinction between the frequencies of the played pitch and the frequencies of the hummed pitch, as shown in Figure 6.

The additional frequencies present in Figure 6 correspond to the hummed D3, with the overtones fading at roughly 3000 Hz. It is important to note that the frequencies of the played pitch and the hummed pitch are both present without appearing to interfere with each other. This contrasts sharply with the way most of the singing while playing spectrograms appear.

Figure 7 again shows a loudly played G6, but with a D3 being sung loudly, rather than hummed loudly.

The frequencies for the played G6 are again clearly present, with the overtones fading at roughly the same point as in the hummed task. Additionally, the fundamental of the sung D3 and its first overtone appear fairly clearly on the

Figure 3. Overall average of nasalance values for all pitches.

Figure 4. Mean difference between peak and corresponding average intraoral pressure.


spectrogram, just as in the hummed task. However, while the subsequent overtones

for the hummed task continued to appear fairly consistently up until they began to fade at 3000 Hz, the sung task shows an entirely different effect.

After the first overtone at roughly 262 Hz, the overtones from the sung D3 fade significantly. Rather than appearing to be a separate and independent acoustic event from the played pitch like in the hummed task, the sung pitch appears to combine with the played pitch to create a distortion effect that is visible in the additional frequencies surrounding the played pitch. At both the fundamental frequency and all of the overtones present on the spectrogram for the played G6, several strong nearby frequencies are also present.

This is noteworthy because it shows how the singing while playing technique primarily creates a distortion effect modifying the played pitch, rather than generating two distinct pitches. While the fundamental and first overtone of the sung pitch are clearly visible, the intensity of many of the frequencies surrounding the played G6 frequencies appear to be stronger than the lower frequencies from the sung pitch. This means that the overall acoustic effect produced is that of a distorted clarinet pitch blended together with a somewhat less clearly defined sung pitch. The vast majority of singing while playing tasks produced this effect, in contrast to the distinct played and hummed pitches with minimal interference found in the humming while playing tasks.

IRMSOne of the most widely used intensity measurements, often generally labeled as “sound intensity,” is the root mean square measurement of sound pressure, or IRMS, which provides an average intensity value over time. IRMS measurements from tasks utilizing the same played, hummed, and sung pitches at different dynamic levels were examined to compare their intensity levels and determine if there were any major differences in overall intensity between techniques. The results showed that while the intensity levels of many of the individual tasks tended to fluctuate, the total intensity output ranges of singing and humming while playing are both quite similar to the intensity ranges for standard clarinet playing, often deviating from baseline levels by 2.0 dB or less. The intensity ranges for singing and humming while playing tend not to have upper limits that are quite as high as in standard playing, however.

RESULTS

METHOD FOR PERFORMERSOne of the primary purposes for this research study was to create a method that would allow performers to learn each of the techniques studied using all of the data gathered. While this method is too large to be included here, it can be found in the author’s DMA dissertation or

Figure 5. Spectrogram of loudly played G6 with no vocalization.

Figure 6. Spectrogram of loudly played G6 with loudly hummed D3 and intensity contour.

Figure 7. Spectrogram of loudly played G6 with loudly sung D3 and intensity contour.


freely downloaded at jeremyruth.com. It focuses on first isolating the physiological mechanisms used in the production of each technique and working through them in a step-by-step process. Particular emphasis is placed on practicing the challenging elements illuminated in the data analysis from the study, such as smoothing the transition between air sources in humming while playing. Range limitations from the study are utilized for the exercises in the method, and the exercises become progressively more difficult in various ways to help prepare the performer to use the techniques in different contexts.

RESOURCE FOR COMPOSERSAnother primary purpose for this research study was to produce a resource that composers could utilize when writing for each technique. While the author’s dissertation should be consulted for more detailed guidelines, the following recommendations regarding vocal range, playing range, dynamic range, duration and effect are the main points from that analysis:

• Humming while playing allows the player to utilize their full vocal range, while singing while playing is limited to roughly one octave.

• Both techniques can be utilized throughout the full range of the clarinet, but humming while playing becomes much more difficult in the altissimo register.

• The dynamic range of each technique is comparable to that of standard playing.

• Singing while playing is limited in duration only by the length of time a player can expel air in standard playing, assuming that the player does not attempt to circular breathe, while humming while playing is limited to short bursts equal to the length of time that the performer can expel air from their sealed-off oral cavity.

• The overall acoustic effect produced by each technique is vastly different since singing while playing creates a distorted clarinet sound, in contrast to the two clear, distinct pitches produced by humming while playing.

CONCLUSIONBoth singing and humming while playing are challenging advanced techniques that use vocalization to create unique acoustic effects involving the production of multiple pitches simultaneously. Beyond their obvious connection through vocalization, however, these two techniques differ greatly. Not only are the physiological mechanisms used to produce each technique quite different, but each technique comes with its own unique set of possibilities, challenges, and limitations. As with any technique, and particularly with techniques such as these that offer so many different combinations of acoustic possibilities, the exploration and discovery of ways to incorporate them into future compositions can only add to the musical palette available to composers. The author hopes that this research not only provides useful information for composers who wish to use these new colors on their canvasses, but also helps the performers who want to learn how to play their works. v

ENDNOTES1 William Haislet, “The Art of Multiphonics: A

Progressive Method for Trombone” (DA diss., University of Northern Colorado, 2015), 6; Ronald Caravan, Preliminary Exercises and Etudes in Contemporary Techniques for Clarinet (Oswego, NY: Ethos Publications, 1979), 30.

2 Nasometer II: Model 6450, Informational brochure (Lincoln Park, NJ: KayPENTAX), 2; Micah Bowling, “Intraoral Pressure and Sound Pressure During Woodwind Performance” (DMA diss., University of North Texas, 2016), 7.

3 Alexander Lerch, An Introduction to Audio Content Analysis (Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press, 2012), 73.

4 Jeremy Larkham Ruth, “Humming and Singing While Playing in Clarinet Performance: An Evidence Based Method for Performers and Resource for Composers” (DMA diss., Arizona State University, 2019).

5 Jamie L. Perry, “Anatomy and Physiology of the Velopharyngeal Mechanism,” Seminars in Speech and Language 32, no. 2 (2011): 84.

6 Ingo Titze, “Voice Research: Lip and Tongue Trills – What Do They Do for Us?,” Journal of Singing 52, no. 3 (January/February 1996): 51.

7 Kenneth N. Stevens, Acoustic Phonetics (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998), 35.

8 Ibid.9 Joshua T. Gardner and Eric C. Hansen, Extreme

Clarinet (Cedartown, GA: Potenza Music, 2012), 10.

10 Richard Miller, “Sotto Voce: What Does

Humming Accomplish,” Journal of Singing 52, no. 3 (January/February 1996): 49; Jamie L. Perry, “Anatomy and Physiology of the Velopharyngeal Mechanism,” Seminars in Speech and Language 32, no. 2 (2011): 84.

11 Miller, “Sotto Voce,” 49.12 All pitches, including sung and hummed pitches,

are transposed up a major second to correspond to written B-flat clarinet pitches. Octave designations correspond to E3 being the lowest note on the clarinet.

13 Vernier Software and Technology (2019), Logger Pro (Computer program), Version 3.9, retrieved February 9, 2019, www.vernier.com/products/software/lp/.

14 Since the nasometer is designed for use with speech and not clarinet playing, it is likely that when certain tasks are played particularly loudly or sound exits the clarinet through tone holes closer to the headset, the upper nasal microphone could pick up the clarinet sound, which would produce a higher nasalance value than is actually being produced by nasal acoustic energy. While this means that the nasalance measurements may not be precise ratios of the actual nasal acoustic energy to the total acoustic energy, the nasalance data should still show clear differences between tasks with generally high nasalance levels and tasks with generally low nasalance levels, along with any overarching trends between task groups.

15 Bowling, 7.16 Gardner and Hansen, 10.17 Stephen McAdams, Philippe Depalle, and Eric

Clarke, “Analyzing Musical Sound,” in Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects, ed. Eric Clarke and Nicholas Cook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 157-161.

18 Lerch, 73.

ABOUT THE WRITERJeremy Ruth is a clarinetist and educator based in Phoenix, Arizona. He currently serves as a faculty member at Estrella Mountain Community College, the East Valley School

of Music, and Harmony Project Phoenix, in addition to regularly performing around the world as both a soloist and a member of the Ambassador Trio. Jeremy’s performance and research interests are wide ranging, but he has a particular interest in contemporary music, performance art, and exploring new extended techniques for the clarinet.

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Deborah Check Reeves1 and Nophachai Cholthitchanta2 recently reviewed a variety of attempts to fix certain weaknesses of the Boehm-system clarinet developed by

Hyacinthe Klosé and Louis-Auguste Buffet. These fixes tend to focus on 1) the use of the left thumb key as both a register key and the tone hole for (written) Bb

4, 2) alternatives to the left hand first finger (L1) keys for the throat tones, and 3) the side keys used for trills (operated by R1). Two patents issued by the U.S. Patent Office in the 1920s to James Dean Mackey show further interest in these issues in the United States.3 Although his second patent has been cited four times in other patent applications, the only one involving the clarinet was by Oscar E. Christensen in 1946.4 If Mackey built models for either of his clarinet mechanisms, their whereabouts are not known and his ideas do not seem to have been pursued commercially. Nevertheless, the patent documents reveal a radically innovative but inherently logical approach to clarinet fingerings.

James Dean Mackey (1889-1968) grew up on a farm near Marietta, Ohio, where he learned to play his father’s boxwood flute.5 Although he never finished high school, Mackey pursued a lively interest in music throughout his life – performing, arranging music for his dance band, and making at least seven different woodwind instruments, from a Boehm-system bassoon to a “stratosphere piccolo” a fifth higher than normal. From 1919-1921 Mackey lived in Columbia, South Carolina, where he established an engraving company and played for silent movies in the Columbia Theater. In August 1921 he married Nellie Koon and moved to Parkersburg, West Virginia where his wife taught school and he founded the Mountain State Engraving Company with his brother-in-law. In 1926 Mackey moved to Newark, Ohio, establishing the Newark Engraving Company, which provided both traditional and photoengraving services. Mackey continued to play flute in bands and the Licking County Symphony Orchestra through the 1950s. In April 1964, he exhibited many of the woodwind instruments that he had made at a local bank (Fig. 1).6 Mackey died of a heart attack on December 20, 1968.

In the mid-1970s, after the death of his widow, Mackey’s flutes were given to a flute player in the Indianapolis Symphony. His Boehm-system bassoon is in my possession, but the locations of the other instruments are not known. When I interviewed Mackey’s daughter, Elizabeth Postlethwaite, and two of Mackey’s three grandchildren in June 2019, no one could recall ever seeing clarinets built on his patents. And while a scrapbook Mackey had assembled in the 1960s included photographs or drawings of some of his other instruments, it contained no further information about the clarinets.7 So the only evidence we have comes from the patent documents.

Mackey filed his first patent application for improvements to the Boehm-system clarinet on May 25, 1921 (Fig. 2).8 The patent describes a mechanism by which the throat tones of the clarinet are controlled not by the traditional keys for the left hand first finger (L1) and the left thumb register key, but remotely by the four fingers of the right hand. The mechanism involves a set of five tone holes for

James Dean Mackey’s Clarinet Patentsby Will Peebles, Western Carolina University

Fig. 1. Mackey at age 74 with instruments that he made. He is playing a rackett of his own design. Behind him are his Boehm-system bassoon (on diagonal), another bassoon and flutes of various sizes.18


written pitches throat G#4 up to C5 that are

covered by keys sprung to be open.When the left thumb hole is closed

for the low register, the ring key engages a bar that closes all five of these tone holes. When the left thumb is raised as if to play G4 on a Boehm clarinet, all five tone holes will open, producing C5. Now the player can control these five tone holes using the same right hand fingerings as for the notes an octave lower (Fig. 3). When all three right-hand fingers are down, all five holes are closed and G4 is produced (○/○○○/●●●).

U.S. Patent 1,424,253 was awarded on August 1, 1922, for this ingenious mechanism. Mackey does not specifically mention or illustrate a register key because, unlike the Klosé-Buffet mechanism, his does not require the Bb

4 tone hole to double as the register vent. His statement that “those parts which have been omitted [from the patent] can be readily supplied by reference to any standard form of Boehm clarinet” seems to indicate the continued use of the thumb key as a register key.

Mackey’s 1921 mechanism bears superficial resemblance to that patented in the 1860s by Antonio Romero,9 but it is unlikely that Mackey knew of Romero’s system as his work was not available in English. Romero used four tone holes (G4, G

#4, A4 and A#

4) that are controlled remotely by the right-hand ring keys. A#

4 is played “open,” while successively adding R1, R2 and R3 will produce A4, G#

4 and G4. The ring keys can be used either independently or in conjunction, such that G4 can be played with R3 alone, with R3 and R2, or with R3, R2 and R1 together, and G#

4 can be played with R2 or with R2 and R1. Romero divorced the function of the highest tone hole from that of the register vent (as seems to have been Mackey’s intention), but used two register vents with an automatic mechanism to switch from one to the other, at least on an example made by Lefèvre.10

The originality of Mackey’s initial patent is striking. First, he eliminated the throat-tone keys for L1 and the side keys for R1 so that the fingers never have to leave their “home” positions over the

tone holes. Then, by adding tone holes for B4 and C5, he ensured that trills above Bb

4 could be executed “in a far more expeditious manner than is possible in clarinets heretofore proposed.” Finally, and most significantly, he duplicated the first octave’s right-hand fingering pattern for the first part of the second octave. As a flute player, Mackey was familiar with the replication of fingering patterns at the octave, and the fact that clarinet fingerings start over at the twelfth may have bothered him enough to trigger his creative solution. But he wasn’t done.

On July 21, 1922, Mackey filed another patent.11 Mackey’s thinking had clearly matured, as had the quality of the patent drawings (Fig. 4). The new mechanism is more ingenious yet, and the fingering system shows truly “out of the box” thinking.

Mackey’s new design does without the separate tone hole for C4 and specifies a register vent (R) that is divorced from the tone hole matrix. The left thumb ring key functions in the same way as before, allowing the throat-tone holes to open as a group. But in the fingering pattern that

Fig. 2. Mackey’s 1921 patent application drawing.

First octave (low register) Second octave (“throat tones”)

Written LT L1,2,3 R1,2,3 R4 Written LT L1,2,3 R1,2,3 R4

C4● ●●● ○○○ C5

○ ○○○ ○○○B3

● ●●● ○●○ B4○ ○○○ ○●○

A#3● ●●● ●○○ A#4

○ ○○○ ●○○A3

● ●●● ●●○ A4○ ○○○ ●●○

G#3● ●●● ●●● G#3 key G#4

○ ○○○ ●●● G#3 key

G3● ●●● ●●● G4

○ ○○○ ●●●

Fig. 3. Comparison of notes that use the same right hand fingerings (1921 patent).

Fig. 4. Mackey’s 1922 patent application drawing.


controls these tone holes, Mackey goes where no other woodwind instrument maker has gone: an ascending series of pitches is now obtained by adding fingers down the instrument (Fig. 5). Richard Carte had employed a somewhat similar idea in his 1858 clarinet patent,12 but he used single fingers in succession to operate his new throat keys, while Mackey adds the fingers cumulatively so that most of the fingers are already down when the transition to the second register arrives.

At first, Mackey’s new fingerings may seem crazy – and they certainly are counter-intuitive – but there was a method to his madness. To understand their full significance, however, we must first examine another of Mackey’s innovations.

To simplify the low end of the clarinet, Mackey created a mechanism that automatically closes the tone holes under R2 and R3 when the left-hand F#

3 key is pressed. But now there are two new overlapping keys for R2 and R3 that control normally closed keys over the F3 and F#

3 tone holes, respectively. Thus the familiar Boehm clarinet fingering (●/●●●F#

3/●●●) opens these closed holes to produce F#

3. To descend from F#3,

raising R3 (●/●●●F#3/●●○) produces F3

by closing the F#3 tone hole, and then

raising R2 (●/●●●F#3/●○○) produces E3

by closing the F3 tone hole. Here again, Mackey introduces fingerings that are backwards from the traditional way in which woodwind fingering systems work. But what he gains from this is significant: the Boehm clarinet’s pairs of keys for E3 and F3 are no longer needed! So instead of four keys for each of the little fingers,

L4 now operates only the left F#3 key and

the C#4 key on the upper joint, while R4

operates only the G#3 key and a duplicate

F#3 key.As handy as this new mechanism is

in the low range, it is in the transition to the second register that it has its most revolutionary effect. Moving from B4 to C5 (as shown in Fig. 5) now requires only the addition of the left thumb (on the register key and ring key), plus R2 and the F#

3 key for L4. This is far easier than the traditional “break” of the clarinet, where the position of the left thumb and seven of the fingers must be changed at once. The cumulative effect of these innovations is to allow a continuous chromatic compass that requires the movement of only one or two fingers for every chromatic step except for B4 to C5 and C6 to C#

6.13

Two other patents for innovative throat-tone mechanisms show continued interest in solving the problems Mackey was trying to correct. In 1924 Geoffrey Herbert Child was issued a patent for a mechanism that, like Mackey’s, eliminates the G#

4, A4 and A#4 keys and reduces the

number of little finger keys to two each.14 Control for G#

4, A4 and A#4 is assigned to

the right-hand fingers in a manner similar to Romero’s. But Child’s mechanism is considerably more complex than Mackey’s, involving as many as six parallel rods, two new keys above L1 for trills to B4 and C5, and another new trill key for L2. Child also covers R1 with a plate and adds a second plate for the same finger that controls both F3 and Bb

4! In the June 2020 issue of The Clarinet,

Deborah Check Reeves describes a mechanism (simpler than Child’s) that was

patented by Thomas and Robert McIntyre in 1962 and produced commercially by Thibouville frères.15 Like Romero’s, the McIntyre system employs a grouping of four keys for G4, G

#4, A4 and A#

4, but these are controlled by the fingers of the left hand: L3 opens the G#

4 tone hole, L2 opens the A4 tone hole, and L1 opens the A#

4 tone hole. The McIntyre system retains three of the Boehm clarinet’s familiar R1 side keys and all of its little-finger keys. The McIntyres’ patent application does not cite Romero, Mackey or Child.16 Although reviewed favorably at the time as “the clarinet of the future,” its unfamiliar fingerings, heavy mechanism and difficulty of adjustment led to the eventual eclipse of the McIntyre clarinet.17

Mackey does not seem to have pursued his patents commercially nor, apparently, has anyone else. In view of the logic and simplicity of the fingering patterns, the possibility of locating the Bb tone hole in its acoustically correct position, and the potential to find a more acoustically advantageous placement of the register vent(s), perhaps his time will come.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone with further interest in or knowledge of Mackey and his musical instruments. Please send any questions or information to [email protected].

I am grateful to Al Rice, Deborah Check Reeves, Shannon Thompson, Greg Oakes and Rachel Yoder for their helpful suggestions regarding this project. v

ENDNOTES1 Deborah Check Reeves, “A Prescription for the

Clarinet’s Sore Throat: Throat Bb Mechanisms as Illustrated Using Clarinets from the Sir Nicholas Shackleton Collection,” in Arnold Myers, Eleanor Smith and Heike Fricke, eds., Proceedings of the Clarinet and Woodwind Colloquium 2007, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, 2012, 159-172.

2 Nophachai Cholthitchanta, “Stubbins S-K Mechanism Clarinet,” in Arnold Myers, Eleanor Smith and Heike Fricke, eds., Proceedings of the Clarinet and Woodwind Colloquium 2007, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Collection of Historical Musical Instruments, 2012, 181-190.

3 William J. Maynard included a brief discussion of Mackey’s patents in his “Patents: Searching to Eliminate the ‘Break,’” The Clarinet, Vol, 2/2 (February 1975), pp. 4-9.

4 U.S. Patent 2,506,489, issued May 2, 1946. 5 James Dean Mackey published a series of

Written LT L1,2,3,4 R1,2,3,4 Comments

C5 ●R ●●●F#3

●●○ See discussion of new fingerings for E3 and F3.

B4○ ●●● ●○○ Or use ●R/●●●F#

3/●○○ for trill to C5 or C#5.

A#4○ ●●● ○○○ Use the register key for trill from Bb4 to C5?

A4○ ●●○ ○○○

G#4○ ●○○ ○○○

G4○ ○○○ ○○○

Fig. 5. Fingerings for G4 through C5 (1922 patent).


humorous recollections of his youth as Us Fellers (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Company, 1953); the story of the flute is on p.178.

6 For a more detailed biography, see my articles “James Dean Mackey: Maverick Instrument Maker of Newark,” American Musical Instrument Society Newsletter, vol. 49/1 (Spring 2020), pp. 5-7; and “James Dean Mackey and His Boehm-System Bassoon,” The Double Reed, vol. 43/1 (2020), pp. 50-68.

7 Interview with Elizabeth Mackey Postlethwaite, June 12, 2019. The biographical information in this paper is from this interview and from the scrapbook.

8 U. S. Patent 1,424,253, issued August 1, 1922.9 Eric Hoeprich, The Clarinet, New Haven: Yale

University Press, 2008, 186-187.10 See Reeves (2012), p. 169, for photos and a

description of this mechanism.11 U.S. Patent 1,585,594, issued May 18, 1926.12 Maynard, p. 5. Carte’s patent is British Patent

1858, February 9, No 245.13 This can best be seen in my version of the

full fingering chart based on Mackey’s patent application but reformatted for clarity (available upon request).

14 U.K. patent GB 214,348 on April 24, 1924.15 Deborah Check Reeves, “Historically Speaking,”

The Clarinet, Vol. 47/3 (June 2020), pp. 22-23. 16 U.S. Patent 3,015,981, issued January 9,

1962. The McIntyres cited an earlier patent by Christensen (U.S. Patent 2,183,423 issued on December 12, 1939), but in this one Christensen did not cite Mackey’s patents.

17 Reeves (2020), p. 23.18 Newark (Ohio), Advocate, April 2, 1964, p. 15.

ABOUT THE WRITERWill Peebles teaches bassoon, music theory and gamelan at Western Carolina University. He received his masters and doctoral degrees from Michigan State University, where he

studied with Edgar Kirk, Richard Beene, Barrick Stees and Robert Williams.

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Composers and theorists began working with music involving microtones (notes that fall between the 12 notes traditionally constituting an octave) as early as the 11th century.1

Division of the octave into 24 equally-spaced intervals, called “quarter tones,” can be traced back to 1823 and music theorist Heinrich Richter.2 Since that time, many composers have written music that calls for quarter tones, enough that a standardized system of notation for quarter sharps and flats (called Stein-Zimmerman) has evolved and is incorporated into notation software like Finale and Sibelius (see Fig. 1).

WHY MAKE THIS INSTRUMENT?With instruments like strings, voice or trombone, placement of pitch is not limited by the structure of the instrument, but rather by the performer’s practice and listening skills. For typical woodwind instruments, however, the discreet fingerings that determine the notes in the octave are already set. In order to play quarter tones on the clarinet, specific fingerings must be used that produce pitches halfway between each of the originally intended notes. Since the clarinet was not designed for these quarter-tone notes, however, there are some limitations. Quarter tones from the lowest E3 on the instrument to the A3 a fourth above it are not possible due to the lack of fingering options available with the pinky-key-activated pads. The

same range of notes in the next register, B4 to E5, range from awkward to extremely impractical to play with any degree of facility (see Fig. 2).

Because of these limitations, composers writing quarter-tone music for the clarinet have either had to avoid these ranges of the instrument or devise new instruments that are able to play the notes.

PAST SOLUTIONSFor composers wishing to write in a true quarter-tone language, avoiding such large portions of the clarinet’s range can be a troublesome limitation. Another solution is to create an instrument capable of playing the quarter tones in those ranges, eliminating that constraint. Composer Alois Hába (1893–1973),3 as an example, specified a quarter-tone clarinet designed in 1924 by the Grazlitz-based Kohlert company4 for his Suite for Quarter-Tone Clarinet and Quarter-Tone

The Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinetby Gregory Oakes

Fig. 2. Ranges of impossible or impractical quarter tones on the clarinet

Fig. 3. Fritz Schüller’s quarter-tone clarinet from 1937Credit: Creative Commons

Fig. 1. Stein-Zimmerman symbols for quarter sharp, three-quarter sharp, quarter flat, and three-quarter flat


Piano No. 1, Op. 24 (1925). While this instrument provided a full range of quarter tones, the added keys required learning a new set of fingerings, a potentially daunting task for a clarinetist.

Fritz Schüller’s now widely-seen 1937 dual bore design was, in effect, two joined clarinets tuned a quarter tone apart with a common set of keys controlling both (see Fig. 3).5 A valve at the top directed the air through one of the two bores. The advantage of this design is a complete set of tone holes for each quarter tone on the instrument. It was bulky with a complicated key mechanism, however, and some quarter tones could be better produced on a standard clarinet without the extra complication. Ultimately, this design was not popular enough for it to escape novelty status.

THE QUARTER-TONE EXTENDED CLARINETBuilding upon the lessons from previous attempts, the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet is a modified Buffet R13. The extra keys, added by Lohff & Pfeiffer of Copenhagen, Denmark, extend the possibilities of the existing clarinet without changing the fundamental workings of the original instrument. All of the original keys are in their normal places and function exactly as they always have. The addition

of five new tone holes on the bottom joint facilitate the quarter tones for the previously unavailable notes (see Fig. 4).

Although the keywork may look complicated at first, the method of playing each new note is quite straightforward. There are only two added keys for the fingers to operate: a right-hand pinky key and a right-hand thumb key. The pinky key opens one or both of the lowest two tone holes depending on what other keys are down. If the E/B is pressed, only the hole on the bell opens (labeled 1 in Fig. 5), creating the E/B quarter sharp. If the E/B key is left in its open state, the next hole up is allowed to open (labeled 2 in Fig. 5), creating the C/F quarter sharp.

The remaining three added tone holes are controlled by the right-hand thumb key. When pressed, it also allows tone holes to open based on what other keys are pressed. If the F♯/C♯ is pressed, the hole labeled 3 in Fig. 6 opens to create F three-quarter sharp. If no other keys are pressed, the tone hole labeled 4 in Fig. 6 opens for a G quarter sharp. Finally, if the G♯/D♯ key is pressed along with the thumb key, the tone hole labeled 5 in Fig. 6 opens to create D three-quarter sharp.

It’s important to note that the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet still uses all of the traditionally-learned clarinet technique,

so it can still be played exactly as a typical Boehm system clarinet. The fingerings that composers and performers have already employed for other ranges of the instrument are still the ones that this instrument utilizes to create quarter tones through the rest of its range. And there are only two new keys that operate in context with what other keys are already being pressed, allowing the performer to press a single key to raise any of the five lowest notes on the instrument (and their respective clarion notes a twelfth above) by a quarter tone. The simplicity of the performer’s experience will allow for quick adoption of facile quarter-tone technique through this previously troublesome portion of the instrument.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITSAs an added bonus, the new tone holes in positions where none existed before have created other possibilities beyond quarter tones. Their inclusion with some multiphonics has already shown to change them in helpful ways, specifically bringing certain dyads better in tune. With time and experimentation, there may well be multiple other multiphonics that benefit from the new tone holes. Like any new creation, the full capacity of the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet has yet to be realized.

Fig. 4. Added tone holes on the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet

Fig. 5. Right hand pinky key (highlighted for clarity) and the two tone holes it controls

Fig. 6. Side and back views of the right-hand thumb key (highlighted for clarity)


BUT IS THERE ANY MUSIC WRITTEN FOR IT?Pieces need not have been written specifically for the Quarter Tone Extended Clarinet in order to benefit from its advances. Much of the awkwardness of quarter tones in the middle of the staff becomes much easier with dedicated keys and tone holes. Besides the pieces of Alois Hába, there are few for this kind of instrument for the clear reason that quarter-tone clarinets aren’t a common thing. There are, however, nine composers that the author has commissioned to write for the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet, and more are signing on to the project as it begins to gather momentum. Two of these composers’ works will be featured on a recital to introduce this clarinet at the 2021 ClarinetFest® in Fort Worth. That will be the first opportunity to see and hear this new instrument in action, so be sure to come listen and stay around afterward to check out the Quarter-Tone Extended Clarinet in person. v

ENDNOTES1 E. Michael Richards, “Chapter 2 – Single

Sounds,” The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century, accessed 29 January 2020, https://userpages.umbc.edu/~emrich/chapter2-5.html.

2 Julian Rushton, “Quarter-Tone,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001).

3 Eric Hoeprich, The Clarinet (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 293.

4 Richards, The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century.5 Ibid.

ABOUT THE WRITERGregory Oakes is professor of clarinet at Iowa State University, principal clarinet of the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, and a soloist who specializes in avant-garde and extended-

technique music for the clarinet. He is a Buffet and a Vandoren Performing Artist.

www.rodriguezmusical.com 470-545-9803 [email protected]

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2021 Young Artist Competition

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

Coordinator: Diane Barger – [email protected]

Application Deadline: Sunday, April 1, 2021.

Repertoire:• Introduction et Rondo, Op. 72, for

clarinet and piano – Charles-Marie Widor (Heugel/Leduc)

• Sonata for solo clarinet, Mvt. 1, Lyrique and Mvt. 4, Final – Ida Gotovsky (Molenaar)

• BlingBling for clarinet and piano (all) – Scott McAllister (www.lydmusic.com)

Prizes:First prize – $2500 USD and a professional

clarinet to be announcedSecond prize – $1000 USDThird prize – $500 USD

Visit www.clarinet.org for full competition rules and application details.

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Alban Berg is known for bringing a certain “humanity” to the atonal and twelve-tone methods of composition. He would come to learn the theory of his teacher Arnold Schoenberg but was never afraid to break the rules to

achieve his desired result. Vier Stücke is unusual in his output. Written in 1913, the four pieces are very short, with the longest being only 20 measures.

Many Romantic composers wrote miniatures, including Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin. Later, Debussy, Ravel, Bartók, and all of the composers of the Second Viennese School would continue in this genre. Vier Stücke is an example of aphoristic (small-scale) composition, as it tends to avoid obvious melodic development or repetition, providing a stark contrast to the large formal structures of the late Romantic era. At first, Berg thought this would be the only possible way to write in an atonal style, but he would soon disprove this with his own landmark opera, Wozzeck (1914-22).

Berg began studying with Schoenberg in 1904. Before this, he had minimal musical education. After Schoenberg moved to Berlin in 1911, he communicated often with Berg, especially to tend to his needs in Vienna. Berg was desperate to please his teacher but did not always succeed. In fact,

Reexamining Articulation in Alban Berg’s Vier Stückeby Eric Schultz

Arnold Schoenberg’s Portrait of Alban Berg (detail, 1910)

Vier Stücke may have contributed to Schoenberg’s general disapproval. Berg’s previous work, Fünf Orchesterlieder nach Ansichtkartentexten von Peter Altenberg, Op. 4, is similar in length to the clarinet pieces. Reacting to both, Schoenberg expressed his dislike and demanded Berg write on a larger scale. Berg’s Drei Orchesterstücke, Op. 6, is a clear response to this criticism, perhaps also inspired by Schoenberg’s Fünf Orchesterstücke, Op. 16.

In 1915, communication ceased between Schoenberg and Berg for a while after a personal rift.1 It was a painful period for Berg, as Schoenberg’s other student Anton Webern was allowed to address his teacher by the familiar, more equal German “you” form, du. Berg was not offered this privilege until years later, as his relationship with his teacher was repaired. Schoenberg even dedicated his Violin Concerto to Webern, and while Berg dedicated four works to his teacher, including Vier Stücke, Schoenberg never gave Berg such recognition. Further, studying with a Jewish teacher would become problematic for Berg later in life as anti-Semitism rose in Germany, Austria, and beyond. Eventually, Berg’s work was placed on the Nazi list of entartete Musik, or “degenerate music.”

Many excellent and varying analyses have been written about Vier Stücke, most notably relating the pieces to the traditional four movements of a sonata. In fact, in an analysis published by The Clarinet over two decades ago, Dennis Nygren argues that the first piece suggests a sonata form, and the last a rondo.2 Nygren is not the first to comment on the possibility of a Ländler3 hiding in the third movement. Some scholars assert the work as the most


atonal of Berg’s output,4 while others argue that the piece is actually tonal at times, and even attempt to show functional harmonic progressions.5 For example, the second piece can be analyzed in B-flat, with an augmented triad as tonic to purposely blur the tonality.6 The opening thirds are strikingly reminiscent of Schoenberg’s Sechs kleine Klavierstücke, Op. 19, No. 2 (1911), also exactly nine measures and with

opening major thirds which are usually avoided, especially by Schoenberg. As a listener, it forces one to reconsider what a major third should sound like outside of the context of tonality.

One feature that is rarely discussed, and critical for performers to consider is the use of the marking quasi Flatterzunge. Performers often discuss this marking as if it is interchangeable with the effect

Flatterzunge, a marking which Berg also uses in Vier Stücke. There are a few reasons to reconsider this tradition. For one, why would a composer as meticulous as Berg use two different markings for one effect? Perhaps a better argument, however, can be found in Figure 1.

From the marking espressivo, the rhythm in the clarinet part becomes incrementally shorter in duration, a rhythmic technique Berg uses often in his music. From eighth notes, to triplets, 16ths, sextuplets, 32nds – why wouldn’t the next rhythm be exactly as marked – eight equal divisions of each quarter note within a broader triplet gesture? This would make 24 notes in the space of two beats, as illustrated in Figure 2.

This is quite different from a stagnant fluttertongue effect if one takes this approach to performance, especially given the ritardando following an already very slow ganz langsam tempo, which would allow for the audible distinction of each separate note while continuing to slow all the way up until the molto accelerando in the next measure. By the end of the ritardando, the tempo should be exceedingly slow, allowing for clear and distinct articulation.

Because of the use of the word quasi, and the obvious rhythmic diminution technique employed here, there is a strong case against the traditionally performed fluttertongue effect, replacing it with a controlled use of the tongue that allows for articulation as marked while continuing the broader slowing of the music.

Berg writes a considerable amount in his scores. Performers may come to different conclusions as to how to interpret markings, but we owe it to a great composer like Berg to pay just as much attention to his words as to his music. v

ENDNOTES1 Douglas Jarman, “Berg, Alban,” Oxford

Music Online, 2001, doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.artice.02767.

2 Dennis Nygren, “The Chamber Music of Berg,” The Clarinet Vol. 13/3 (1986): 26–31.

3 Mosco Carner, Alban Berg: the Man and the Work. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1983: 121.

4 Theodor W. Adorno, Alban Berg, Master of the Smallest Link, Translated by Juliane Brand and Christopher Hailey, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994: 77-78.

5 Christopher Lewis, “Tonal Focus in Atonal

Figure 1: Use of rhythm and expressive markings in Alban Berg’s 4 Stücke für Klarinette und Klavier, Op. 5/I, mm. 3-7

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Figure 2: Proposed alternative notation for Op. 5/I, m. 6


Music: Berg’s Op. 5/3,” Music Theory Spectrum 3 (1981): 84–97, https://doi.org/10.2307/746136.

6 James Perone, “Tonal Implications and the Role of the Symmetrical Hexachord in Alban Berg’s Four Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Opus 5, No. 2,” Interface 16, No. 1-2 (1987): 49–54, https://doi.org/10.1080/09298218708570487.

ABOUT THE WRITEREric Schultz is assistant professor of woodwinds at Coastal Carolina University. As the first prize winner of the 2019 American Protégé International Competition, he

will be performing in a solo recital at Carnegie Hall next season. As an expert on contemporary articulation techniques, Schultz has been invited to perform and present at several international conferences, including the College Music Society conference in Vancouver and the International Clarinet Association conference

in Ostend, Belgium. He has commissioned and premiered the music of composers such as Liliya Ugay, Chiayu Hsu, Carlos Carrillo, Iván Enrique Rodríguez, Omar Surillo, and Tony Solitro. He has performed with The Chelsea Symphony in New York City and is the founding clarinetist of the Victory Players contemporary chamber ensemble. Schultz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University.



www.clarinet.org

2021 High School Solo Competition

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

Coordinator: Kimberly Cole Luevano [email protected]

Eligibility: Competition participants must be 18 years old or younger as of June 30, 2021.

Deadline: April 1, 2021.

Repertoire: • Set for Clarinet by Katherine Hoover

(movements 2 and 3 only)• Sonatina, Op. 29 by Malcolm Arnold

Prizes:First prize – $1,000 USD Second prize – $750 USD Third prize – $500 USD


www.clarinet.org

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Mariam Adam and I are the clarinetists of Chineke!, Europe’s first professional orchestra whose members are primarily Black and minority ethnic musicians. Chineke! was founded by double bassist Chi-chi

Nwanoku O.B.E. in 2015, and its motto is “championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music.” Chineke! has performed at the Brighton, Cheltenham and Salisbury festivals, Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the BBC Proms, and toured the U.K., Germany, Belgium and Italy while serving as associate resident orchestra at London’s Southbank Center. Prior to the COVID-19

pandemic, Chineke! was scheduled to make its first North American tour performing in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Ottawa; and later make its Edinburgh Festival debut ending with its sixth recording, an album of chamber music by Black composers. Bringing all of our artistic strengths and experiences to the table, Mariam & I share an appreciation for Chineke! serving as a crucible replete with opportunities to meet other world-class musicians and develop further collaborations beyond its own creative borders.

We’re often greeted with questions related to the work of the ensemble and asked to speak about our roles in expanding the reach of classical music. As friends and colleagues we often discuss our thoughts and experiences in hopes of encouraging, enlightening and celebrating the many advancements being achieved.

BERGINALD RASH: Your career has been varied and multifaceted from being a founding member of Imani Winds to half of the AdZel Duo to principal clarinet of Chineke!. In the U.K. and Ireland we would call this a “portfolio career” which is so greatly benefited by creativity, tenacity, and ambition. How did you find or make your way?

MARIAM ADAM: I am fortunate to have made some pivotal decisions in my life that led to what is now my career path based in Europe. The first was attending the Aspen Music Festival over 20 years ago now where I met a few musical angels: Valerie Coleman, the founder of Imani Winds; Myrissa Lai, who invited me to Europe; Stephanie Zelnick, who is my now AdZel Duo partner; and pianist Irene Ziglina who encouraged me to move to New York City for grad school.

BR: I am heartened by your humility in acknowledging the guidance you received early on in your career and education that encouraged you to not only continue on your artistic path but dream and envision more. I think that’s a huge part of just “making it” in this career, being around others who encourage and inspire, guide, and mentor. I too feel very fortunate that when I first started playing clarinet I had a teacher, F. Edward Knakal in Virginia Beach, who encouraged me throughout my formative education. I don’t think we can overstate the importance of having someone in your corner to do that.

MA: Absolutely. I think the biggest barometer of my career has been being able to be open to new ideas musically, the desire to keep learning and being at the right place and the right time.

IN DISCUSSION:THE CLARINETISTS OF CHINEKE!by Berginald Rash

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The Warehouse (London, U.K.)


BR: I agree. Timing is everything, serendipitous and ephemeral. I certainly wouldn’t be living in Dublin and playing with you and my many other friends and colleagues in Chineke! if it weren’t for timing and the fortunate confluence of events, from my undergrad at Florida State University to my master’s at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and second master’s at NYU–Madrid. It’s amazing and wonderful how those things come together and lead down a path hitherto unknown. Case in point: you’re in France!

MA: Exactly! Moving to France was a result of wanting a change that would help me grow as a clarinetist in the country that has birthed some of the leading wind instrumentalists. I felt I was in a place in 2016 to move on from what was a tremendous experience with Imani Winds, to pursue growth and learning (and eventually grow a family!) in France. A wonderful surprise was being a two-hour train ride away from the Chineke! Orchestra and ensemble which I affectionately call my new family. The collaboration with the members of Chineke! has been a rewarding experience that has encouraged me to be active in Europe in expanding the vision of musicians of various backgrounds.

BR: What an incredible journey! You’ve helped foment the roots of one of America’s most beloved chamber music groups, Imani Winds, and now you’re further extending and building on that strength, experience, and knowledge in the clarinet section of Chineke! No doubt you’ve got other more personal projects in the works.

MA: I’m definitely trying to bring my experiences to this side of the pond. A couple of projects now include a festival in the French vineyards as well as one in my hometown of Monterey, California. I love meeting new musicians and composers with whom I collaborate to produce new works for chamber music, a genre that continues to be at the focal point of my musical passion.

BR: I love your creative energy and have been very inspired by you and the rest of our Chineke! family. I’m currently working on a few projects, one I’m especially excited about – my debut album, Dathanna: Hues & Shades, with Irish harpist Fiona Gryson. I’ve also had the pleasure of joining the London-based chamber group Decus Ensemble, founded by Uchenna Ngwe, that champions the works of African and Black British composers, and in the summers I have the pleasure of playing principal clarinet in szene12, a Dresden-based opera company conducted by Matthew Lynch that specializes in the reimagination and experimentation of classic opera.

How do you see the music world changing or evolving from when you set out to today, and where would you like to see it heading?

MA: I think I’m the most in awe of the resources students have today. Before, one traveled far and wide to gain an ear from a renowned teacher or to listen to a certain ensemble; now it’s at your fingertips 24/7 on the internet, much thanks to YouTube. I think this has had a significant benefit for people’s ability to be open to new concepts in contemporary music,

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Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall (London, U.K.); (left to right) Burt Mason, Paul Philbert, Robert Olisa Nzekwu, Nermis Mieses, Samson Diamond, Mariam Adam, Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, Eric Lamb, Berginald Rash, Nicola Hicks


interpretation, image and information. The age of information has been a boon and a burden in some ways, but I see many many students using this to their advantage to advance in their craft at a much faster pace than before. This does lead to a plethora of talent sometimes that has to be carefully guided even at the professional level.

BR: I completely agree. We live in an age of information with access to great scholarship and pedagogy at the click of a button or the swipe of a finger. In a way the advent of technology has democratized education and access to it to an even greater extent, assuming one has access to the internet. I think another way the music world is evolving is the increased role the artist plays in arts development and production, the creation of work for themselves and the cultivation of work as both artist and curator. Artists today have to wear many more hats than are necessarily taught or provided; finding relevance and staying in touch with the zeitgeist is a constant challenge. Classical musicians today have to essentially market and hustle in the same vein as pop artists. I think that’s new and further links it to social media as well.

MA: Indeed, and I would like to see more people/women of color in positions of artistic leadership: directors of music and art schools, concert series, performing art venues, etc. I feel that sometimes even if you don’t go on to be a performer, you can find admin positions that might even help expand the minds of underserved populations with a voice and unique perspective that speaks to new audiences. I hope that classical music can soon have a connotation of accessible, understandable and relatable music for the whole population.

BR: And perhaps not just expanding the minds of audiences or would-be audiences but also those who develop and build audience bases. In much the same way the ICA has representatives around the world to connect people interested in the clarinet through pedagogy, scholarship, performance, etc., classical music would benefit from such ambassadors. There’s work to be done on both sides of the stage, and having people from diverse backgrounds leading the charge in positions of leadership is a very healthy path towards doing that. In providing access – a seat at the table – to diverse audiences, populations and artists, we’re committing ourselves to doing just that. We’re just now beginning to see, with the rising popularity and awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement in the arts sector, orchestras and chamber ensembles actively seeking feedback from diverse artists, musicians and audience bases, and using those relationships to further develop authentic representation across the board, on the podium, and in the ensemble.

Artistically, what is something you’re passionate about? MA: I love the mixing of genres of music in a comprehensive

way that respects authenticity while leaving room for tradition and interpretation. For me music – even contemporary experimental music – should have some sort of story, feeling, or dialogue with the listener. I have always liked the idea, especially in recitals, that the audience is on a journey with me through all the music; it’s important to make the live music experience relevant and that’s something I’m passionate about. That has led to my desire to want to have my own chamber music festival and to curate concert series that collaborate with everything from food, visual art and spoken word to puppetry and nontraditional settings.

BR: That sounds very exciting and reminds me of my work with the non-profit chamber music ensemble, Vivre Musicale, which focused on bridging the gap between the emerging artist and the professional through interdisciplinary collaboration. Helping highlight and guide emerging artists through the milieu of career development has been an artistic passion of mine. I love your idea of bringing all of these sensory experiences together to further enhance an electrifying concert experience. Concert curation is one of those arts skills I believe every musician needs for success in the 21st century.

Knowing the mission of Chineke! and being so instrumental is its growth as a principal player, how would you describe the purpose of Chineke!?

MA: The mission of Chineke! is quite parallel to the mission of Imani Winds. Over the years with Imani Winds we saw a lot of growth in the types of audiences who came to classical music concerts as well as the number of professional musicians of color. This is quite in step with “championing change and showing diversity in classical music.” We spent a lot of time helping concert venues cultivate these audiences, not just at the adult level but with young children all the way through university. This is the kind of ground work that is needed, and it has to have the support of the community and government alike. It’s many early mornings at schools, pre- and post-

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concert cocktails and meetings with administration and sponsors, and Q&A with young audiences that contribute to consistent change in our industry. Chineke! has had the added benefit of having the support of a nation that has shown it’s ready to recognize the changing face of classical music.

BR: I appreciate your acknowledgement of the grassroots work that has to be done at every level of artistic engagement. There are tangible rewards in that beyond an increase in numbers; there’s the expansion of ideas and the connection with others unlike ourselves. I also appreciate your recognizing that in order for such initiatives to be successful they require support from the community – both the one being served and the one providing a service. For me the biggest difference between Chineke! and other ensembles with whom I’ve played is the immediate feel of family and camaraderie I experienced. I can’t tell you how awestruck I was by the beauty and vitality of the group. For me it was magical.

MA: It is definitely a visually stunning ensemble! Chineke! strives to make classical music played by musicians of color known, but to also expand the audience to those who perhaps wouldn’t “normally” come to such concerts. I feel the high level of musicians and the variation of projects have made Chineke! a well-known entity that I’m quite proud to be a part of.

BR: I would also add that a huge part of its mission is to normalize and encourage the existence of ensembles, namely orchestras, that reflect their communities. There’s a huge push for that globally, to see ourselves reflected in the media we consume, and Chineke! is committed to seeing that come to fruition within classical music.

How would you say the unique mission of Chineke! is relevant globally to the wider music world and specifically to clarinetists?

MA: Chineke! couldn’t have come into existence at a better time. There is a socio-conscious wave that is sweeping through Europe. I believe music is a portal to people’s sensibilities and need for entertainment and escape. As a clarinetist I have seen that it’s possible to make an impact on an audience with a simple thing like the well-known opening of Rhapsody in Blue – often people just want to recognize something so that they can feel comfortable in being exposed to new things.

BR: I couldn’t agree more. Clarinetists the world over can be inspired by the work being done by Chineke! and its expansion of visibility for all of us who love this art form. I think Chineke! stands as a testament to what can be done when we make room and offer others a seat at that table. It is similar to how Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Porgy and Bess propelled the notion of jazz music as concert music – not merely borrowing the compositional language of jazz and jazz idioms, but fully channeling the genre and presenting it as truly relevant in its own right.

Can we talk about our clarinet equipment? I’ll go first. I’ve recently joined the artist roster of the Devon & Burgani

clarinet family. I play on their exquisite Fluency model A & B-flat grenadilla clarinets with gold keys; Vandoren B40 13 mouthpiece; Vandoren leather ligature with metal insert and Vandoren pink gold ligature and recently added the Ishimori Kodama II ligature and their pink gold ligature to my arsenal; for reeds I rotate through Vandoren Rue Lepic (black box) and D’Addario Evolution (yellow box) 3 and 3.5 reeds.

MA: Since living in France, I am a Selmer Paris Artist playing on Selmer Privilege clarinets, though I previously played Luis Rossi rosewood clarinets (still in my heart and soul, those babies!); Vandoren B40 13 mouthpiece, and I’ve previously used a Ramon Wodkowski mouthpiece and Clark Fobes mouthpieces and barrel. I have been a fan of wrapping with string instead of using a ligature, but often in the interest of time I use a Rovner Versa. For reeds, I move between Vandoren V21 3.5+ and V12, and occasionally Pilgerstorfer. v

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Learn more about Chineke! at www.chineke.org.

ABOUT THE WRITERBerginald Rash is a freelance clarinetist and educator based in Dublin, Ireland, where he’s collaborated with RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and RTÉ ConTempo Quartet and served as an 1848 Scholar and teaching fellow at the Royal Irish Academy of Music where he completed a recital artist diploma. He has served on the faculty of PRIZM Music Camp and International Chamber Music Festival and has given a master class with Vivre Musicale at

Truman State University. Berginald has collaborated with members of such orchestras as the Atlanta Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and Frankfurt hr-Sinfonieorchester. He is a Devon & Burgani artist and has played with Chineke! since their inaugural concert as both principal and second/bass clarinet, and with that group made his debut at the BBC Proms, Snape Maltings Proms and Ghent Festival. Learn more at www.berginaldrash.com.

Mariam Adam is an internationally known chamber musician, soloist, music advocate and educator originally from Monterey, California. A founding member of the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds, she has maintained an active touring career with performances at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Beijing Arts Center and the Hollywood Bowl among others. Since moving to France in 2016 she has performed with Eric le Sage, Francois Salque and Xavier

Philippe; has been a featured artist at the Folle Journee, Colmar Festival and Radio France Festival; toured with actor Gaspard Proust, the Jerusalem Trio and Le Cercle; and soloed with the Singapore Symphony, Appassionata Ensemble and Orchestre de Pau. Mariam is a Selmer Paris artist and has been performing with Chineke! Orchestra and Chamber Ensemble as principal clarinet since 2016. Learn more at www.mariamadam.com.


INTERVIEW

Derek Bermel is a New-York-based composer and clarinetist known for his eclectic compositional style and dynamic performances. He has been commissioned

by ensembles including the Pittsburgh Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Alarm Will Sound, eighth blackbird, JACK Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and many others. Bermel currently serves as artistic director for the American Composers Orchestra and is active in a variety of other roles at workshops and festivals throughout the world. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, the Alpert Award in the Arts, and two Grammy nominations: best soloist with orchestra for his clarinet concerto Voices with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and best instrumental composition for Migration Series. After studies at Yale and the University of Michigan, Bermel’s musical explorations took him to Amsterdam and Paris to study with Louis Andriessen and Henri Dutilleux, and beyond, with travels to Ghana, Brazil and Bulgaria influencing his compositional language. His most recent recording is Migrations, featuring the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, Luciana Souza, Ted Nash, and the Albany Symphony under Maestro David Alan Miller. Bermel has been composer-in-residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and most recently with the Seattle Symphony, where we met in the summer of 2019 to talk about his life and work.

RY: So did you originally start out as a clarinet major, or composition, or…?

DB: I started playing clarinet when I was about 7 and I began composing after my grandmother gave me a beat-up piano when I was 11. My clarinet teacher in high school was Ben Armato who played in the Met Opera Orchestra. He was a very rigorous teacher – my main influence on the clarinet. Then I went to Yale just before Keith Wilson retired, so I studied for two years with him. But at that point I was already transitioning to composition, I was singing in an a cappella

group and starting to write more. I still didn’t really have a handle on what I was doing compositionally; I was trying a million things. Playing in rock bands and stuff like that.

RY: And were you doing jazz too at that point?DB: Oh yeah. I had taught myself to play piano

by imitating Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk – who was a huge influence on me compositionally, harmonically probably my biggest influence. I played with jazz combos and big bands in high school, and in college I played in a synthesizer band. Even in my 30s, years later when I had come back to New York, I played in a band for years.

RY: What band?DB: I played as a keyboardist in several bands but

mostly I played with my own group called Peace by Piece, which made two albums and then split up. We played all the clubs downtown, some of which are still there – the Bowery Ballroom, the Mercury Lounge – and a lot of clubs which aren’t around any more. That band broke up around the time that I got the Rome Prize; I think it had run its course.

RY: So that was before you went to Michigan then? DB: No, that was after. I went to Michigan in

the ’90s. And at Michigan I did some jazz. I actually got to know wonderful jazz musicians like Gerald Cleaver and Craig Taborn, and those are long friendships that have lasted. I did a lot of improvising. Ed Sarath was running the jazz program, which was fledgling, but some excellent people came through. And Detroit, of course, had a great jazz scene – James and Regina Carter were there – And many came through the University of Michigan… Rodney Whitaker, Marion Hayden, Reggie Workman…

RY: So you weren’t obsessed with the earlier clarinet stars of jazz.

DB: Oh sure, when I was a kid I listened to Benny Goodman, great player; Johnny Dodds, I love his

by Rachel Yoder

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Derek Bermel


INTERVIEW

sound; but I didn’t really listen to the clarinet for jazz per se, because I was more interested in the saxophonists for jazz. There were just so many superb saxophonists – of course Charlie Parker and John Coltrane – but Dolphy was particularly an influence for me. He truly had a compositional brain, like Monk, as did Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman. I was drawn to players who were composers at heart. Also Latin music. I loved Horace Silver and Jobim, and Paquito D’Rivera – he’s become a friend and we’ve played together so that’s exciting. I got to know Wynton Marsalis in the early 2000s. He commissioned a piece from me which I wrote for his band plus orchestra; it’s called Migration Series, based on the iconic paintings by the Harlem Renaissance artist Jacob Lawrence, and the recording was released this past year on Naxos. I’ve always been interested in the hybrid tradition in America that’s existed since the start, this compositional lineage that starts early in classical music with Joplin, Gershwin, Copland and Still, and in jazz with Mary Lou

Williams, James P. Johnson, Duke Ellington – especially Ellington – and continues today. These two traditions have always been intertwined in American music and I think it’s one of the things that makes our musical signature distinctive.

RY: That’s the piece that was nominated for a Grammy this year, right?

DB: Yes, that was a nice surprise! I was lucky to work with a great orchestra – the Albany Symphony and Maestro David Alan Miller – who have a long history of championing American music. Plus an all-star cast: reed player Ted Nash, singer Luciana Souza, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra led by James Burton III, and the brilliant producer Silas Brown.

RY: And you performed yourself on the CD as well?

DB: I improvised one of the interludes. The piece has five movements and three improvisations which act as connectors, each featuring a different soloist or group of musicians. Every member of the jazz ensemble gets a moment to shine.

RY: Tell me about your studies in Amsterdam.

DB: I was studying with Louis Andriessen there in ’95-’96. I studied with Louis and then once a month I would travel to Paris on the Thalys train and take a lesson with Henri Dutilleux. It was an interesting year, because they were two very different teachers. They were almost opposite kinds of personalities.

RY: What do you think you took away from each of them for your own compositional standpoint?

DB: Well, Louis was a notes-and-rhythms kind of guy. He would get into the notes and say, “I think you should take this part out…” He was hands-on. Dutilleux was a much more conceptual and abstract kind of teacher. He would find poetic and literary references and he was very big-picture, so it was stimulating to experience both approaches. Now, it wasn’t that Louis couldn’t be big picture or that Dutilleux (I could never call him Henri!) couldn’t get into the notes, but he preferred not to.

RY: Do you have clarinet repertoire, like standard rep or composers that really inspire you as a composer or performer?

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DB: Well certainly Messiaen was a huge influence on me, and not because of the Quartet for the End of Time – I came to know that later – but I loved the orchestral work first, and also these large ensemble pieces and large piano pieces. Actually the work that made me want to be a composer was the Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus; its sound just struck me like a lightning bolt. I heard it when I was 12 or 13 and couldn’t get it out of my head. I remember thinking to myself, “I don’t know exactly what that guy does, but that’s what I want to do” – which was composing, to be a composer. Messiaen’s music speaks to a lot of young composers, as does Stravinsky’s, because it’s direct and powerful. Bartók was also very important to me, and of course all those composers also wrote great clarinet music. But what pulled me toward the music wasn’t really the clarinet.

RY: It strikes me that the composers you mention are known for developing their own compositional language. It seems like you’ve done that too, with the variety of influences in your writing, especially for clarinet, like the different types of extended techniques you use and things like that.

DB: Well, I’ve always felt that it’s important to allow yourself to gravitate toward the music that you love and to move deeper into that music. Or maybe it’s literature, or linguistics or science – wherever you need to dig, to dig there. If I loved a particular style of music, I always tried to create a situation that allowed me to research it, learn it firsthand, whether it meant traveling to West Africa or Bulgaria or Brazil – it was a desire to get closer to the music and to explore the context in which that music was being made.

Of course my composing has been influenced by my clarinet playing –

that’s probably what caused me to concern myself primarily with melody and line. A composer is usually either a harmonist or a contrapuntalist foremost, either vertical or horizontal. I’m a contrapuntal composer at heart.

RY: So you’re not thinking so much about coming from a chord progression or something like that, but more from a gesture standpoint?

DB: I think primarily of gesture and the counterpoint of gestures – of line – with harmony being a natural outgrowth.

RY: I wanted to ask about your clarinet concerto Voices, which got the Grammy nomination in 2009 and which has been performed quite a bit. What was the genesis of that work?

DB: That piece came out of listening to Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy improvising together. Take a composition like What Love, in which the clarinet and double bass play an extended duo break; you hear a conversation, an argument. When I listened to the recording I nearly fell off my chair; I thought, “I want to do this, but with an orchestra.” I was fascinated by the musical drama; so much meaning was communicated without words: intent, focus, mood. My father was a playwright and a translator, and my mom was an editor, so I grew up in a theater household, a literary household. I saw every Shakespeare play before I had finished high school. Even though I wasn’t involved in theater as an actor or anything, that knowledge seeped into my compositional palette and I absorbed it into my musical language. In Voices the first theme you hear is not a series of notes but a musical gesture in the clarinet, which is then taken up by the orchestra who replies – it’s a call

and response. I even wrote out words when I sketched it.

RY: So Voices, the title, is in reference to this conversation going back and forth.

DB: Yeah, and in reference to the different ways that the clarinet – and the orchestra – can sing or speak or shout. And also the adaptation of what was essentially an improvised framework into a classical format, a sort of translation. With Voices I tried to create a conversation between two human beings. When composing it’s important to take a giant leap, maybe even an impossible one! If the proposition is interesting enough, the spot where I land might be interesting, even if it’s different than the place I had initially set out to explore. In that way, we composers are a bit like scientists.

RY: So with Voices and a lot of your music, I notice you have a lot of glissandi in the clarinet, even in the low register. How do you technically accomplish all these smooth glissandi that you do?

DB: It’s probably a natural outgrowth of playing jazz and improvising, feeling the freedom to make any sound. When I was a kid I used to take detours, playing anything and everything; my mom would yell at me from the other room, “What are you doing?” I used to improvise when I practiced, as a way of being expressive – or maybe just blowing off steam! I’ve always been very interested in the sounds the human voice can make – that goes for all types of sounds, whether it’s speaking or singing or grunting or yelling or crying. I’ve always wanted to break outside of the 12 pitches. Much of the music I enjoy is not based on the so-called “classical” tradition and therefore uses all the in-between pitches and in-between inflections that aren’t part of our theoretical and practical training.

RY: So do you use a softer reed so you can bend the pitches a lot, do you use your fingers to accomplish half-holing and stuff like that?

DB: It’s a combo of lip, and fingers and breath also, control of breath. Ben

“You have to continually create opportunities in order to keep doing what you love.”


INTERVIEW

Armato once told me that at one point he changed all his students’ embouchures to be loose like mine. I said, “That sounds like a terrible idea!” [Laughs] But I think Ben felt I had been able to access a certain kind of freedom, one that allowed me to tune more easily than if my lip had been locked into position.

RY: So what do you play on? DB: The mouthpiece is Bob Scott. I have

tried Fobes and I like some of them too.

RY: What strength reeds do you play on?DB: I almost always use 3.5.

RY: What kind of clarinet do you play on?DB: I have two R-13s that are almost

identical serial numbers. They’re both from the ’80s. I’ve tried some other clarinets. If I was doing any orchestral or large ensemble playing, I might venture toward another model, but I just don’t have much need or time to try all the new ones. I try the new reeds – I use Vandoren reeds. I have a Bonade ligature. And I have a Selmer bass clarinet with a nice juicy low C. To be honest, 90 percent of my time is wrapped up in composition in one way or another, so unfortunately the clarinet often gets squeezed. But I do love to play.

RY: So what’s a typical week for you? Do you have teaching commitments and other regular responsibilities or is it just kind of different all the time?

DB: It is always quite different! I’m artistic director of the American Composers Orchestra, so I spend a good deal of time on programming. My schedule shifts, depending on what’s going on. Now I’m starting to write an opera with Sandra Cisneros, so that’s going to be very different.

RY: Is that a first for you?DB: Yeah. Well, I wrote a music theater

piece with Wendy S. Walters that veers toward opera, but this’ll be my first bona fide opera. At ACO I do a lot of mentoring, reviewing scores, and programming; sometimes it involves public speaking. I enjoy it because it’s

a way of giving back, helping steer an institution that’s serving composers, especially emerging composers. Since I don’t have an academic job, teaching the composers at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, during the summers, is a great way to connect with the next generation. Sometimes I perform there as well, and occasionally work with the clarinetists. And I play regularly with Music from Copland House; I was a founding member of the ensemble. Every year I play a number of concerts with them, sometimes more standard American repertoire, but quite often including new works as well. And at the Copland House I run a program called CULTIVATE; we invite six emerging composers every year to have new pieces workshopped with the ensemble. That’s a lot of fun.

RY: So you work a lot with the younger generation of composers and clarinetists; what kind of advice do you give them on being successful in the 21st century?

DB: It’s a gig economy. Sadly it’s becoming more that way. The teaching jobs are rarer and less secure and less well paid, so finding institutions to support oneself is tougher in this generation than it was in the last one. The institutions that have supported me the most have been the American Composers Orchestra and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. But those were either part-time or temporary gigs. So I’m in the gig economy too.

You have to continually create opportunities in order to keep doing what you love. Make time to seek your muse and recognize that what you love to do most may not be the most profitable aspect of your career. But eventually it will be valued because your life’s work will be seen as an aggregate. And most importantly, something that Ben Armato told me: find a way to make a contribution that feels meaningful and satisfying to you.

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In the end, our artistry is part of a larger humanity.

It’s a tough life because artists tend to internalize and take professional hits personally. Not that other people don’t do this as well – but when you show your work, you feel as though you’re revealing an intimate part of yourself. When it’s dismissed or criticized, it can feel like you’re being rejected as a person. It’s hard to separate those two things. This is one of the hardest things about being an artist; it’s intensely competitive, yet the competition feels very personal.

RY: People will want to know about your solo clarinet pieces, Thracian Sketches, Theme and Absurdities… Do you have any advice for performers about how to perform your clarinet works?

DB: I look for freedom in performances. Freedom of sound, freedom to play up the theatrical impulses in the piece. In new music there’s a common assumption that one has to be a slave to the written page, an overly inflated attachment to the importance of notation. Notation is just a guide. When I listen to performers playing my music, my main concern is that they have a bigger idea about what they want to do with the piece. If they’re simply reading notes and rhythms, they’re not yet communicating with the audience. The music needs to jump off the page, the circle must be made complete – composer, performer, audience.

Certainly it’s always helpful to study styles. If I or any composer indicates

a style, the performer should educate themselves about that style, get their own sense of it. That extra work should make playing it feel more personal for them too. Whether it’s jazz, Latin or Bulgarian music, if I reference a style, I hope that the performer will do some research! But most importantly I want their unique personality to manifest, to come alive. Sometimes a performer will apologetically ask, “Oh… do you mind if I do this?” and it seems like such a tiny thing – almost comical. I’ll say, “Of course you can do that!” I don’t write music for machines. I want to hear the soul of the performer.

RY: You performed Gnarly Buttons with John Adams conducting, tell me about that.

DB: Oh it was fun! Well, in a way it was payback, because John had conducted my concerto Voices with the LA Phil a few years before, so he asked me to play Gnarly Buttons, and I was happy to do so. Spending time with someone like John is inspirational and an experience from which one comes away transformed.

RY: Do you remember any comments from John about the piece or how to play it or anything like that?

DB: Well, of course it’s beautiful, the last movement is so gorgeous and needs to be expressive, but John doesn’t want a whole lot of changes to his music, stretching time and rubato and all that; he wants what he writes, and the notation is pretty clear. You know, John has worked with some of the

world’s great soloists so… I don’t think he needed me to do it as a clarinetist, I think he just had the idea that it would be interesting for the audience to experience two composers up there performing together – him conducting, me playing. I’ve also played Bill Bolcom’s Clarinet Concerto quite a bit. Bill was my teacher, he’s very dear to me, and he’s a good friend. I played a lot of his music and I adore that piece; he and I have performed the second movement several times together, clarinet and piano.

RY: His stuff’s very theatrical as well.DB: Oh yeah, and jazz-based. That second

movement is very much based in gospel music, it’s beautiful. I just recorded a CD of William Albright’s music with Music from Copland House and on that CD is his Clarinet Quintet. It’s a brilliant piece; I hope more people will play it when the recording comes out. I’ve also recorded John Musto’s and Aaron Copland’s clarinet quintets with the Copland House. One can be a composer one’s whole life – and many people are – without being a performer, but making music with colleagues is like nothing else; it’s transcendent. I just finished recording a disc of my music with the JACK Quartet. What great musicians; nothing can top that feeling!

RY: Is that what keeps you coming back? You’ve said you keep getting away from the clarinet and then you just keep coming back.

DB: Yeah, because it’s a way of connecting. It’s such a special sensation to make music together, very different than being present as the composer while they play your music.

RY: One of my questions for composers when approaching a new piece, especially if it’s pretty difficult, is how important are the difficult things.

DB: You can’t know until you ask. This is one of the central conundrums and challenges of composing: how to convey one’s ideas on paper in a way that communicates what’s most important, that connotes where there’s freedom and where there’s not. Sometimes it takes

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years of struggle to arrive at the best notation. Which is why I’m always so grateful for more performances. Because each opportunity to attend, or listen to a recording, is a new chance to make revisions, even tiny ones. And once the composer has written the piece, it is the player’s responsibility to turn it into music, to bring it to life, even larger than life. v

ABOUT THE WRITERSeattle-based clarinetist Rachel Yoder performs in a variety of solo, chamber and large ensemble roles, including with the Seattle Modern Orchestra and Odd Partials clarinet/electronics duo. She is

adjunct professor of music theory and clarinet at the DigiPen Institute of Technology and editor of The Clarinet journal.

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CLARINETFEST®

Join us June 30th through July 3rd for a unique four-day, action-packed holiday weekend at the Omni Hotel and the Convention

Center in Fort Worth, Texas, for ClarinetFest® 2021!

World-class artists will be performing with premier collaborative musicians in the area, including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Orchard Ensemble and the United States Air Force Band of the

West. The Artistic Leadership Team is committed to creating a global showcase while specifically featuring Texas, Central and South America, and the Caribbean for this conference. International Clarinet Association members are invited to submit performance proposals for ClarinetFest® 2021.

The Artistic Leadership Team has created two new features. The Clarinet Learning Community at ClarinetFest®

is structured to organize and feature all pedagogy clinics, seminars, lectures, workshops and master classes, and the Showcase Stage is a special addition to feature young student performances. Details can be found on the ClarinetFest® 2021 page of the ICA website. International Clarinet Association members are invited to submit proposals for the Clarinet Learning Community at ClarinetFest® and the Showcase Stage.

We are pleased to be able to host the Third Annual Guido Six International Clarinet Choir Festival. Attendees of ClarinetFest® 2021 are invited to participate in any of six conference clarinet choirs: Middle School, High School, College, Festival, Professors and New Horizons (older adults). Attendees are encouraged to register in advance for planning and logistics purposes, but walk-ins are always welcome.

The Omni Fort Worth Hotel is offering attendees onsite lodging ranging from $135 single/double to $145 triple/quad per night and features several dining options onsite with many additional

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Call for Proposals – ClarinetFest® 2021ClarinetFest® 2021 will take place June 30-July 3 at the beautiful Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas. The Artistic Leadership Team – Mary Alice Druhan, Jennifer Daffinee, Jody Webb, Cheyenne Cruz and Gary Whitman – looks forward to presenting a wonderfully diverse and comprehensive program.

International Clarinet Association members are invited to submit performance proposals for ClarinetFest® 2021. The ICA would like to specifically showcase its members from Texas, Central and South America, and the Caribbean for this conference. The Artistic Leadership Team is also committed to creating a diverse and inclusive showcase of the global community.

The Artistic Leadership Team has created the Clarinet Learning Community at ClarinetFest® to feature pedagogy clinics, seminars, workshops and master classes, and the Showcase Stage to present young student performances. International Clarinet Association members are invited to submit proposals for the Clarinet Learning Community and the Showcase Stage.

The deadline for ClarinetFest® 2021 proposal applications is September 15, 2020.

Please find more information and submit proposals through the Acceptd portal at www.clarinet.org under the ClarinetFest® 2021 page. Please note there is a $20 application fee to submit a proposal. Performing in an evening concert is by invitation only. Evening concert performers are invited by the Artistic Leadership Team often in consultation with the ICA and with ClarinetFest® sponsors. General questions can be sent to [email protected].

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

Call for Honorary Membership NomineesIn accordance with the International Clarinet Association by-laws (Article V, Section 6), a special category of Honorary Membership has been created for persons of “unusual distinction.” The International Clarinet Association board of directors invites the general membership to nominate living individuals for Honorary Memberships from the areas of professional service, teaching, performance and/or lifetime achievements. Nominators should include a brief biographical sketch of the candidate along with further information as specified below. There is a limit of one nomination per person. Nominations must be postmarked no later than December 31, 2020, and sent to:

Christopher NicholsSecretary, International Clarinet Association

314 Lighthouse RdWilmington, DE 19809

Email: [email protected]

Nominations for Honorary Memberships should include:

1. Printed name of the nominator 2. Nominator’s address, phone and email address 3. Name of nominee

4. Nominee’s address, phone and email address 5. Biographical sketch of nominee 6. Supporting documentation of nominee’s qualifications

ICA ANNOUNCEMENT

dining and entertainment options in the 35-block Sundance Square district of Downtown Fort Worth (www.sundancesquare.com). There is hotel parking available plus additional garage and street parking throughout Sundance Square to accommodate attendees. Learn more about the city of Fort Worth at www.fortworth.com.

The deadline for ClarinetFest® 2021 proposal applications is September 15, 2020. Please find more information and submit proposals through the Acceptd portal found at www.clarinet.org under the ClarinetFest® 2021 page. The maximum time allotted for any performance or presentation is 25 minutes. Please note there is a $20 application fee to submit a proposal. Performing in an evening concert is by invitation only. Evening concert performers are invited by the Artistic Leadership Team often in consultation with the ICA and with ClarinetFest® sponsors. General questions can be sent to [email protected]. v

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REVIEWS

MUSICMichele Naglieri. 24 Studi in tutte le

tonalità for clarinet. Edizioni Eufonia, 2020. €18.00

Michele Naglieri is the principal clarinet of the Petruzzelli Theatre Orchestra in Bari, Italy, with which he has performed the Debussy Rhapsody and Mozart Clarinet Concerto. He is active in

chamber music and orchestral performance beyond the Theatre Orchestra – including as an extra player in Rome’s Santa Cecilia Orchestra. He studied clarinet and composition at the Milan Conservatory. His 24 Studi in tutte le tonalità (24 Etudes in all Keys) was composed over a three-year span. As Naglieri told me, he was inspired by two great Baroque composers, J.S. Bach and Antonio Vivaldi. In particular Nos. 1, 4, 8 (Fugue) and 22 (Sarabanda) have connections to J.S. Bach, especially the harmonic elements. Etudes 2, 3, 5, 16 and 17 are merely technical exercises for the fingers. In other numbers there are links to orchestral excerpts and concertos, including Götterdämmerung of Wagner, Mozartiana of Tchaikovsky and Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev. Studies 2 and 24 are chromatic and were inspired by Puccini’s Turandot. In general though, the language of these etudes is tonal and they could be accompanied by a second instrument. These medium-hard studies are very well conceived and tailored to the clarinet. Highly recommended!

– Luigi Magistrelli

Lauren Bernofsky. Solitude for B-flat (or A) clarinet and piano. Theodore Presser Company, 2019. $8.99

Lauren Bernofsky is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed around the world. Having studied at the Hartt School of Music, New England Conservatory and

Boston University, Bernofsky has taught at the Peabody Institute, Boston University and Interlochen Center for the Arts.

The publisher describes Solitude as “ethereal and meditative.” Although the 5-minute piece was originally written with B-flat clarinet in mind, a transposed part for A clarinet is included, allowing the performer to choose which clarinet they would like to use. Holding true to Bernofsky’s description, the “fastest” tempo within the piece is quarter = 52. Additionally, the range is extremely reasonable, staying within two octaves (low G to clarion G in the B-flat part; low G-sharp to clarion G-sharp in the A clarinet part). Although there are a couple of sections that feature hemiola between the clarinet and piano parts, the greatest technical difficulty found within this piece is the key signature. No matter which part the performer chooses, five sharps will occur for the clarinetist. Based on the above, I believe this piece would be great for a developing intermediate player to explore expression in playing and to develop the ability to perform within a difficult key signature. This would also be

a beautiful selection for a clarinetist just beginning to explore the A clarinet.

– Lee Seidner

Eric Ewazen. A Song from the Heart for B-flat clarinet and piano. Theodore Presser, 2018. $11.99

Eric Ewazen, professor of composition at Juilliard and one of the most often-performed composers today, has contributed a great deal to the clarinet repertoire, including his clarinet concerto

Ballade and his wind quintet Roaring Fork among many other works. His approachable tonal structures and his gift for the soaring melodic line make his music appealing to audiences and performers. A Song from the Heart, a languid 6-minute work for clarinet and piano, is a fine representation of his expressive aesthetic.

Originally written in 2011 for trumpet and piano, A Song from the Heart is a slow movement in A-B-A form. The relaxed piano accompaniment at the opening lays the groundwork for a tonal, mid-clarion range clarinet line. The middle section is quicker, with a high clarion and altissimo line soaring over cascading piano figures. The A section returns, and comes to rest with a solemn conclusion. The compositional differences between the two versions are primarily in the orchestration, with the clarinet line, compared to the trumpet, raised an octave about half the time. Ewazen never takes advantage of


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the clarinet’s rich chalumeau’s range; he is content on maximizing the altissimo register’s possibilities.

Ewazen’s A Song from the Heart is like one of those pieces omnipresent in the violin repertoire: a 4-to-7-minute stand-alone work tells its story succinctly and beautifully. The clarinet repertoire has only a small number of these single-movement works, such as the Cahuzac Cantilene and Bliss Pastorale. A Song from the Heart’s harmonic accessibility, plaintive melody, and length should make this a lovely choice for recitals and a useful teaching piece. Ewazen’s piece fills an important nook in our literature written by one of our most respected living composers.

– Osiris Molina

Josh Gottry. Ropes Course for solo clarinet. Gottry Publications, 2019. $7.00

Josh Gottry is an ASCAP award-winning composer who completed his undergraduate percussion performance degree at Northern Arizona University and his masters in composition at Arizona

State University. He has been on music faculties throughout the Phoenix region and has performed with professional orchestras, in musical theater and with chamber ensembles.

Ropes Course was commissioned by Olivia Meadows as part of a doctoral thesis project of unaccompanied clarinet solos that aid students in developing skills necessary to perform advanced clarinet works. This 7-minute work was composed in 2018-2019 and focuses on the altissimo register. Ropes Course provides quite the challenge for the performer. Gottry certainly hits the mark in exploring the altissimo register of the clarinet as it soars up to altissimo A. This piece provides numerous technical challenges in other registers as well. As the title implies, this piece takes the performer through a challenging obstacle course, but in a

way with more gratification than from the typical etude. The performer can follow the narrative within the piece to paint a picture for the audience. Ropes Course is recommended for an advanced player looking to expand their range and potentially shine in an unaccompanied moment.

– Lee Seidner

Fritz Kreisler. Kreisler for Clarinet: Five pieces by Fritz Kreisler arranged for clarinet and piano by Gustave Langenus and Erik Leidzén. Carl Fischer, 2019. $18.99

Violinist, composer and pianist Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) was born in Vienna and as a 10-year-old prodigy won first prize for violinists at the Vienna Conservatory. During his long

career he was a singular violin recitalist and soloist. In 1975, famed violinist and teacher Joseph Gingold stated, “Kreisler’s legacy is not the technical wizardry of Heifetz or the sumptuous tone of Elman, but the embodiment of all that was attractive, humane and endearing among the musicians of his time.”

That description of Kreisler’s playing can be equally applied to the many short recital pieces he penned throughout his life, many offered under false attribution to composers such as Francoeur (Sicilienne & Rigaudon), Pergolesi, Tartini and Vivaldi. Kreisler was certainly familiar with composers of renown; he spent several years in his early 20s rubbing shoulders with Brahms and Hugo Wolf, and had even earlier been a theory and composition student of Bruckner and Leo Delibes respectively.

In addition to Vienna, Kreisler spent considerable periods of his life in Paris and Berlin before finally settling in New York, home to his American spouse Harriet Lies. Two of the works in this collection, Caprice Viennois and Schön Rosmarin, date from 1910, 10 years after

his marriage to Lies and the first year clarinetist Gustave Langenus played in the New York Symphony. Langenus’s arrangements for clarinet of these two works, and The Old Refrain are completely idiomatic for clarinet and are of medium difficulty. Rounding out this collection are two arrangements made by Erik Leidzén (1894-1962), the prolific composer and arranger for organizations in the U.S. such as the Salvation Army and the Goldman Band. Miniature Viennese March is a delight to play, with its very proper rhythm married to yearning melodic ideas. Longer, and more challenging than the other works, is Tambourin Chinois. The fast tempo, extended articulated sections and a few demanding back-and-forth crossings between clarion and altissimo registers will let you test your mettle to Kreisler’s.

– Gregory Barrett

Josh Gottry. Oil & Water for B-flat clarinet and vibraphone. Gottry Publications, 2018. $12.00

Oil & Water was written for the Duo Rodina Songbook project which seeks to commission accessible works for percussion and clarinet duo. The title is intended to play on the contrasting

materials of the instruments, the wood of the clarinet and metal of the vibraphone, as well as the independent lines written within the piece for the two instruments. The work provides beautiful moments for the clarinet and vibraphone to blend. Although this is not a showstopper, the beauty of this piece is gratifying for the performers and very enjoyable for the audience, and can be utilized as a short palate cleanser during a recital. This piece is a wonderful addition to a hopefully growing repertoire of clarinet and percussion music.

– Lee Seidner

Josef Bönisch. Colours – Pieces for three clarinets. Musikverlag Bruno Uetz, 2018. €13.00


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Josef Bönisch is a German composer and flutist who studied at the Weimar Conservatory and the Leipzig University of Music. Colours is a fairly simple and straightforward work consisting

of five short movements: “Happy Time,” “Flick-Flack,” “Pink Lady,” “Reflection” and “Scherzo.” The first four movements are in common time with all naturals in the key signatures and accidentals written in. The final movement includes 6/8, 5/8, 3/4 and 3/8 time signatures but remains with naturals in the key signature. This work is a wonderful piece to have younger students learn how to play together within short movements that have contrasting styles but not demanding technique or range.

– Lee Seidner

Gabriel Fauré. Sicilienne, Op. 78, arranged for clarinet quartet by Melanie Thorne. Sempre Music, 2019. £10.95

Fauré, the greatest French composer of art songs, dear friend of Saint-Saëns and inspiration to members of Les Six lived a life marked by grit and eventual fame. Born in 1845, church music and

ancient modes were lifelong influences, yet until the ascendency of Debussy he was the most modern composer in France. He made innovative use of whole-tone scales in the 1870s and wrote in a flexible harmonic style that did not regard sevenths and ninths as dissonant. He made modulations to remote keys followed by abrupt returns and had no qualms with rapid alteration, by half step, of the third scale degree.

His famous Sicilienne, intended for a theatrical production, was written in 1898 after his reputation was secure and showcases his melodic style, interesting harmonic inflections and proof in his own

underwhelming belief that his abilities were best suited only for incidental music. Melanie Thorne’s arrangement, with bass clarinet to low E-flat, captures the ebb and flow of his score with thoughtful sharing of the melodic line among the instruments.

– Gregory Barrett

Brent Smith. A Stroll through Savannah for two clarinets in B-flat, violin, viola and cello. Score Vivo, 2019. $19.00 by electronic download.

Composer and clarinetist Brent Smith is a retired researcher and professor in the fields of chemistry and environmental protection. He is active in the North Carolina triangle region with the ensemble

CarolinaClarinet. His work, A Stroll through Savannah, is multi-sectional, of medium difficulty, mostly in an Allegro tempo and is nearly 7 minutes in duration. A slower cello cadenza bisects the piece and chorale and waltz sections contribute to the evocations of, in Smith’s words: “strolling around town, horse-drawn carriages, the hectic city market … and a generally ghostly, spiritual feeling throughout the town.” To clarinetists the overwhelming associations brought to mind may instead be with the Allegro precipitato movement from Prokofiev’s Quintet in G minor, Op. 39, for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double bass, due to the quote of melodic material and strikingly similar instrumentation, and with a quotation of the poco rubato theme from Sutermeister’s Capriccio for unaccompanied clarinet. I would embrace these connections and program all three works on the same program! I may be missing other references, so happy sleuthing.

– Gregory Barrett

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Adagio from Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, arranged by Catherine Wood for clarinet and string quartet. Alry Publications, 2018. $20.00

Catherine Wood is the ICA continent chair for North America, professor of clarinet at Brandon University (Canada) and a member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. She is a noted performer on piccolo clarinets, performing recitals all over the world, including several ClarinetFest® conferences. Her present contribution to the literature seems so obvious and practical; it is a wonder it is not in every clarinetist’s library.

Wood’s arrangement of the slow movement of the Mozart Concerto is a sensible adaptation of one of our most glorious pieces. It is in the original key and utilizes the A clarinet. The string parts are faithful to the original orchestral parts, and the clarinet part is logical, with a few measures brought down the octave to be more in line with current basset clarinet performance practice. There are two cadenza options written at the bottom of the second page comparable with other editions. One observation is that the clarinet part is devoid of all dynamic indications, while the string parts contain a representative, but not excessive, amount of markings.

Alry does a wonderful job with the engraving, laser-printed on clean white paper with a large, comfortable font. All the parts are two pages long, presented so no one has to turn pages during performance. This arrangement is perfect for chamber recitals, weddings and any number of occasions. Wood’s arrangement is an essential part of every music library.

– Osiris Molina

Franz Cibulka. Claroness – Capriccio for Clarinet Choir, edited and revised by Barbara Heilmair. Jeanné Music Publications, 2019. $35.00

Franz Cibulka (1946-2016) was an Austrian composer, clarinetist and conductor primarily known for his works for symphonic band. His prolific output of over 600 works includes many

chamber works for all combinations. His contribution to clarinet choir, Claroness,


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was first performed in its revised version at the 2015 ClarinetFest® with the editorial assistance of Dr. Barbara Heilmair, associate professor of clarinet and music history at Portland State University. She has devoted a portion of her research profile to curating and promoting the work of Cibulka, and the publication of Claroness is a strong step in promoting his work to American clarinet choirs.

Claroness, (a play on words combining “clarinet” and “baroness,” an Austrian noblewoman) is an 8-minute piece scored for E-flat, B-flat clarinets 1-4, alto, bass, contra-alto and contrabass, with an optional double bass/bassoon part. It is in one movement delineated in four sections: Allegro-Moderato-Allegro-Presto. In the first section, the low clarinets establish a syncopated, chugging ostinato that contrasts with the legato melody. The second section is a placid conversation between E-flat and first B-flat clarinet that leads to a return of the original Allegro material and culminates with a faster 7/8 section with a florid high clarinet push to the end.

This piece is idiomatic for all instruments, scoring the instruments in comfortable ranges that project well. Low clarinets seldom go over the break, and with the exception of E-flat clarinet, high clarinets do not go over altissimo D. The E-flat has the most delicate part in the work. The player needs sensitivity and fine intonation.

Claroness is a wonderful contribution for clarinet choir, suitable for university and community groups looking for a substantive piece with rhythmic vitality and contrasting lyricism.

– Osiris Molina

Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wely. Sortie in E-flat arranged by Melanie Thorne for clarinet choir. Sempre Music, 2008. $29.30

The sound of the clarinet choir is often compared to that of the organ, a quality that Melanie Thorne achieves in her arrangement of Sortie in E-flat by French organist and composer

Louis James Alfred Lefébure-Wély. Although Lefébure-Wély (1817-1869) was a prolific composer, with over 200 works for piano, chamber ensemble, orchestra and the theater, today his compositions are largely underperformed. Sortie in E-flat is a joyful and approachable 5-minute work that makes good use of the sonorous sound of the clarinet choir. In her arrangement, Thorne includes parts for E-flat sopranino, four B-flat sopranos, alto and bass (without extended range). The distinctive tone colors of the E-flat sopranino, alto and bass clarinets give clarity to the closely interwoven independent lines. Sortie in E-flat is of medium difficulty and would be an energetic concert opener.

– Zachary Dierickx

RECORDINGSThe GershWIEN Project. Markus

Adenberger, clarinet; Maria Radutu, piano. K. Penderecki: Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano; G. Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue, A. Shaw: Concerto for Clarinet; P. Sarasate: Zigeunerweisen; R. Schumann: Three Romances; F. Poulenc: Hommage á Edith Piaf and Sonata. All Sound Around. Total Time: 67:26.

Austrian clarinetist Markus Adenberger currently performs with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and teaches at the Global Summer Institute of Music hosted at Virginia Commonwealth University. In collaboration with Romanian pianist Maria Radutu, they bring us an excellent new album titled The GershWIEN Project.

Adenberger and Radutu give a wonderfully contrasting and energetic performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Three Miniatures, highlighted by exceptional articulation in the altissimo register in the outer movements and a contrasting somber tone quality in the middle movement. Adenberger maintains the same control and delicate phrasing in the collaborative rendition of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, while Radutu provides a coy playfulness to the solo piano portions that this reviewer wishes were present in the tutti phrases as well. The recording does not indicate who completed this arrangement, but it is quite compelling and would make a fine addition to a true duo recital. Franz Hofferer joins Adenberger and Radutu for a logical follow-up to Rhapsody in Blue, Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet. Adenberger demonstrates excellent technique and control in the virtuosic swing-influenced passages while still maintaining flexibility and freedom in the various cadenzas (including a confident double high C to end the piece).

The next two transcriptions on this recording are given delightful readings by the duo. Adenberger and Radutu offer a refined treatment of Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen highlighted by impeccable intonation, an impressive double high D in the middle of the performance, and a quick (albeit somewhat reserved) finale highlighted by sparkling articulation. Adenberger’s covered tone is an ideal fit for their performance of Robert Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 94. Although originally conceived for oboe and piano, this performance should convince any listener of the worthiness of the clarinet version, especially the way Adenberger explores the soft end of the dynamic spectrum and navigates the legato intervals between the clarion and altissimo registers. The blend of timbre and phrasing in the treacherous unison passages of the third movement is particularly commendable.

The last two works are both by Francis Poulenc, although one will be much more familiar to the clarinet community than the other. Radutu’s performance of Hommage à Edith Piaf features the perfect amount of rubato and tasteful balancing

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of melody and accompaniment, all while channeling the spirit of the famous actress and singer-songwriter. The final piece on the recording, Poulenc’s famous Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, features plenty of dramatic shifts in character, but is somewhat marred by an audible air leak that Adenberger does not sport in other pieces on this recording. It also sounds as though the microphones were placed differently for this piece. The performers sufficiently plumb the depths of extreme emotions found throughout this clarinet standard, further emphasized by hauntingly soft playing in the upper clarion register in the first two movements. Their rendition of the third movement features great technical facility from Adenberger, but perhaps more impressive is the clarity that Radutu emits from the piano in passages that are all too often marked by blurriness and excessive pedaling.

The production of this album is excellent, although there were a couple passages where the clarinet could have been a bit more present in comparison to the piano. The liner notes contain short biographies of the performers. The album spans from Romanticism to jazz and the entire spectrum of human emotion. This will be a welcome addition to any clarinetist’s library, especially those that regularly perform in a clarinet-piano duo.

– David Cook

Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonatas and Trio Performed on Historical Instruments. Marie Ross, clarinet; Petra Somlai, piano; Claire-Lise Démettre, cello. J. Brahms: Sonata in

F Minor, Sonata in E-flat Major, Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano. Centaur, CRC 3760. Total Time 79:55.

The clarinet compositions of Johannes Brahms are some of the most important works in the standard clarinet repertoire. The prominence of these works naturally has resulted in an abundance of recordings from a variety of perspectives. However, this recording is unlike so many that came before it because it seeks to be a true historical interpretation both in the materials used as well as the stylistic considerations employed. This approach extends to all the instruments used on the recording. The pianist Petra Somlai uses a New York Steinway from 1875; cellist Claire-Lise Démettre uses gut strings and no endpin as was the custom in Brahms’s circle; and Marie Ross uses an Oehler B-flat clarinet from the 1890s, and an A from 1905 coupled with a wooden mouthpiece and a reed made in the tradition of the time. One thing that is quite modern is the excellent recording quality and engineering by Dirk Fischer.

One of the most striking aspects of this album as a whole is what Ross describes as tempo elasticity. Essentially, the crescendo and diminuendo markings for Brahms are also connected to tempo. Speeding up during crescendos and slowing down during diminuendos serve to heighten the expressive palette and provide the needed flexibility for an offering that is truly romantic. To a modern performer, this approach is initially jarring, however that feeling is short lived. That suppleness brings some interesting elements to this recording. The clarity of the dense musical textures between the piano and clarinet are crystal clear in the Sonata in F Minor. Ross and Somlai both give each other total freedom to express their individual musical ideas with no hint of urgency. That fact gives this recording a sense of true chamber music played at the highest level. There are bold artistic choices, delicate interplay between the piano and clarinet, and utmost sensitivity.

The same excellence established in the first sonata is evident in the Sonata in E-flat Major. The playing from both Ross and Somlai is clear and polished

and the interplay between the voices is even more striking in this offering. Upon listening it feels like hearing Brahms for the first time; there is time and space for every compositional structure to shine through. The typical modern approach of letting the music speak for itself usually manifests in performances that are quite metronomic; this hyperexpressive approach actually feels more like Brahms and brings out colors and characters that are otherwise lost. But to be sure, the artistic choices made on this album are far from arbitrary – they are always connected to the larger musical framework and are well thought out and executed with refinement and flair.

This recording of the Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano can be summarized in one word: beautiful. The addition of Démettre on cello, particularly with the gut strings, brings a much more intimate and colorful quality to this work. There is none of the harshness that sometimes happens in modern presentations, but there is no lack of interesting ideas either. The phrasing is clear and intelligent, the interplay between voices is intimate and the composite is stunning in every way.

This album is of the highest quality and every clarinetist should listen before their next performance of these works. It is rare to find a recording of standard repertoire that is truly fresh and free from dogma while still honoring the style of the piece. This recording absolutely does that and more. It sheds new light on works that are so well known. I would be remiss to not give special credit to the clarinet playing of Marie Ross. While the album is so clearly about the pieces as a whole and isn’t meant to highlight any player individually, which is an incredibly positive attribute, still Ross can’t help but shine. The music is elegantly played with interesting ideas and breathtaking interplay between the voices, which would be impressive in itself. However, the fact that Ross is playing 120-year-old clarinets, with a wooden mouthpiece, and using the Oehler fingering system is nothing short of remarkable, and is a testament to her commitment to historical performance generally and this project specifically. She has proven that she is a true master of

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historical performance and instruments and is uniquely able to synthesize that knowledge into a modern presentation that informs and inspires modern performers and historical aficionados alike.

– Spencer Prewitt

Beethoven and Brahms. Alexander Bedenko, clarinet; Kyril Zlotnikov, cello; Itamar Golan, piano. L. van Beethoven: Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano; J. Brahms: Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano. Orchid Classics, LC 20037. Total Time: 62:14.

Pristine clarity characterizes the opening chords of the Adagio and spirited articulations of the Allegro con brio in this recording of Beethoven’s Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (taken from the Septet, Op. 20). The enthusiasm of a younger Beethoven’s playful sense of adventure and knack for witty, inspired exchanges bursts out of this recording with panache. The clarinet, cello and piano lines interweave adeptly without losing any of their individual sonority or particular resonance, offering pleasing contrast in a graceful dance.

The Adagio benefits from beautiful and careful phrasing as Bendenko and his collaborators trade melodic and supporting lines with élan and sentimentality. The stormy middle section is somewhat restrained but provides effective contrast and an edge of lovely desperation in Zlotnikov’s playing. In the Tempo di Menuetto, each member contributes to the tightly-wound, exciting energy of Beethoven’s writing with an elasticity and flexibility of sound. It can be difficult to

replace the brighter feel inherent to higher voices of the violins from the original orchestration, but the agility and resonance of Alexander Bedenko’s sound lends itself readily to the task.

The Andante con variazioni sparkles with a delightfully classical style highlighted by virtuosic piano lines and beautifully matched articulations from the Bendenko and Zlotnikov. The two seem to dance, moving as one and arriving at new ideas in lockstep underneath the piano. Bendenko’s sustained clarion notes in this movement can be a little bright but reflect the shimmering quality of a violin vibrato. A playful calando is marvelously executed with wit and taste, yielding to the Scherzo. This movement is notable for the beautiful ease and fantastic phrasing from pianist Itamar Golan and the vocal intuition of Zlotnikov’s lines coupled with consistent and nuanced support from Bedenko. The Andante con moto Alla Marcia – Presto confirms the ensemble’s cohesive interpretation, and the understated virtuosic ease of Golan’s triplet lines spill easily out of the fingers bringing the whole to an exciting finish.

In the first movement of Brahms’s Trio in A Minor, Bendenko provides a passionate push and pull of emotional phrasing with glowing warmth. The performers each succeed in finding a darker sound with more pathos and gravity that is highlighted by a light, ethereal quality in the pianissimos. The Adagio opens with a luscious quality to the clarinet line that is both satisfying and yearning in nature. Bedenko continues to show great flexibility in his expressive tone that matches easily across the registers in the soaring intervals Brahms often favors. This expansive concept of tone continues easily through the Andante Grazioso as the piano gurgles happily beneath the nostalgic lines of the clarinet and cello, almost inebriated with joyful memories. The un poco sostenuto that closes out the movement submerges the listener in a warm bath of sound. These contented qualities lend themselves well to the contrasting agitation of the final Allegro with grit and bravado in Zlotnikov’s opening lines.

Pairing these two trios, one from the beginning of Beethoven’s career and the

other from the end of Brahms’s life, is a classic construction that takes on a deep expressive meaning with the flexibility of tone and comfortable expression of style from the performers. Bendenko conveys the youthful enthusiasm of Beethoven and the graceful nostalgia of Brahms with a refreshing and evocative interpretation. His recording also boasts fantastic program notes describing historical and musical considerations from instrumentation to the composers’ different approaches to scherzos. This album is well worth a listen!

– Andrea Vos Rochefort

Winged Creatures. Anthony McGill, clarinet; Demarre McGill, flute; Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Allen Tinkham, music director. M. Abels: Winged Creatures; F. Danzi: Sinfonia Concertante for Flute, Clarinet, and Orchestra; C. Saint-Saëns: Tarantelle; J. Puckett: Concerto Duo. Cedille Records, CDR 90000187. Total Time: 59:03.

They say, “You can’t go home again.” The old adage is not true here! Winged Creatures is a collaboration of two internationally-recognized virtuosos and brothers: clarinetist Anthony McGill and flutist DeMarre McGill with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Allen Tinkham. The McGill brothers, former members of the CYSO, are the featured soloists on this recording of works for clarinet, flute and orchestra. Anthony McGill is principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic and DeMarre McGill is principal flute of the Seattle Symphony. Recorded in a single weekend

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in June 2018, I can only imagine what an impression these notable alumni made on these orchestra members.

The recording begins with the title track, Winged Creatures, by African-American composer Michael Abels. The purple liner notes include a list of donors for this work that was commissioned by Cedille Records, a personnel list for the CYSO, full bios for the soloists, conductor and ensemble, candid shots from the recording sessions and detailed information about each work. Abels shares that he was inspired by the McGills’ playing to compose a work about butterfly flight. The work features contrasting themes of flight: soaring and purposeful versus random and erratic. Abels, best known as a film composer, crafts quite a cinematic effect in this work. The two instruments weave together effortlessly. The McGills’ masterful interplay and impeccable tonal blend is achieved as they play soaring lines with immaculate balance and precision. The two soloists intertwine lines, blurring their tones to disguise their instruments’ individual characteristics. Anthony McGill’s tonal control and pure intonation in the altissimo range is marvelous. A neat moment occurs when Abels gives the soloists’ material from the exposition to the orchestra members in the recapitulation, a recognition that perhaps these young musicians will someday in turn become the soloists that the McGills are today.

The CD includes another result of a collaboration for the McGill brothers and the CYSO. Joel Puckett’s Concerto Duo was premiered by the McGills and the CYSO with Tinkham conducting in May of 2012. Puckett is also an alum of the CYSO, having served as composer-in-residence. Concerto Duo is dedicated to the McGills and their parents, and each of the three movements is dedicated to a different toddler. Themes of family and childhood abound. The music here is funky and jazzy alternating with lyricism. The soloists and orchestra are fully engaged for this full-length, 20-minute work. There is a jubilant effervescence from the group in the midst of the second movement lullaby when the toddler must be digging in her heels to avoid sleep. Coordination of the soloists and

accompaniment and preparation of the CYSO is well done by Tinkham.

Sandwiched between these two newer works are the 19th-century works by Danzi and Saint-Saëns. The soloists provide a wonderful master class in late Classical-era phrasing and voice leading in the Danzi. The third movement is a full technical display from the soloists, and they execute it with apparent ease. Anthony McGill’s articulation here is crystal clear and clean. Remarkably, DeMarre and Anthony McGill, at age 18 and 14 respectively, appeared in a “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” episode in 1994 playing the youthful Saint-Saëns’ Tarantella.

It is always a treat to hear Anthony McGill play. His velvety sound is so full of color and character. This recording provides a rewarding insight into music-making of a most special kind, two virtuoso brothers sharing music with youth providing inspiration for each other and all of us. Take a listen, you will thoroughly enjoy it!

– Gail Lehto Zuggar

Clarinet Connections: From Dixieland to Bopsieland and Also Alto: New Orleans Spot Gig+2. Don Suhor, clarinet; with the Amy Sharpe Trio; Gary Burghoff’s Mardi Gras Celebration Band; Topsy Chapman and the Pro’s; Wendell Brunious Jazz Band; John Eubanks Trio; Don Vappie Quartet. GHB Records, BCD 561/562. Total Time: 57:11 (album one); 56:12 (album two).

New Orleans clarinetist Don Suhor (1932-2003) has gained new attention

with this recent two-disc release of small ensemble sessions he recorded with friends over a 25-year period. It is the perfect showcase for his prodigious improvisational talent and commanding presence. The recordings are remarkable in that they showcase the influential players in Don’s past and document the breadth of his stylistic horizon, which effortlessly encompasses tunes and styles from early traditional New Orleans jazz through the swing era to bebop and beyond. In a very real sense, we have a history of jazz evolution here from the first half of the 20th century. But it is much more than a recreation of the literature and stylistic mannerisms of the legends from that time. In the fashion of all great jazz artists, Don has delivered a personal and highly effective voice that stands on its own while honoring the past traditions of the art.

A lifelong resident of New Orleans, Don learned the Dixieland repertoire in his teen years and mastered the intricacies of dense, improvised ensemble playing that is the hallmark of early traditional jazz performance. He proves that on this recording again and again, especially in songs where he is working with a trumpet, clarinet and trombone front line. There is no shortage of jazz musicians who can improvise well, but not all of them understand the rules of accurate voice leading and the placement of the right note within the ensemble at just the right time. This is a talent that comes from listening spontaneously while playing, from working with the same group of musicians for many years and by instinctively knowing where to be at every moment. Don is a consummate master of this style. He makes it easy for us to get lost in the music with his sinuous melodic lines and flawless ensemble counterpoint.

Don especially enjoys the intimacy and freedom of working as soloist with a rhythm section. The first eight tracks feature him in the Amy Sharpe Trio – clarinet, banjo and string bass. Don is given free rein to shine here. Sharpe’s banjo provides everything that is required and more – highly inventive single-note melodies, classic yet colorful harmonies, a great sense of improvisation and dependable time. Al Bernard is simply

https://open.spotify.com/album/681bWbBr3AZ2jkALfJkMFJ?si=PySbziNaTbCTPmn6O2CaTw


REVIEWS

the perfect bassist delivering flawless intonation and the ever-important solidity of the beat that is critical in every small ensemble. You never get tired of the sparsity of the group even in nearly 30 minutes of music.

Sidney Bechet’s signature tune, “Petite Fleur,” opens the first CD and immediately establishes Don’s New Orleans roots, linking him to a rich, defining tradition of great reed players. Its haunting, serpentine minor melody is presented perfectly here with a beautiful vibrato, lush, controlled tone and a pleasing fluency all the way to the top of the altissimo range, compelling the listener to relax and spend an evening listening to an accomplished master. What follows is a parade of some of the best of the 1920s repertoire (“Crazy Rhythm,” “Sweet Lorraine,” “Up A Lazy River,” “Just a Closer Walk With Thee”) interspersed with standard swing classics including Benny Goodman and Charlie Christian’s “Seven Come Eleven” and Gershwin’s “S’wonderful.” Along the way, Don exhibits his effortless improvisation that blends a strong traditional style expected in pre-World War II music with a uniquely modern post-1950 hot swing vocabulary. This combination of the traditional tunes fashioned in a new package works every time. This is yet another reason to buy and critically devour this collection.

The next five tracks employ a full Dixieland ensemble. “Basin Street Blues” includes the welcome addition of a drummer – Gary Burghoff, a fine musician and an accomplished actor who played Radar on the acclaimed M.A.S.H. television series. This “Basin Street Blues” is a clarinet feature complete with an extended cadenza and rock-solid rhythm. The full ensemble that follows includes legendary players of the style in the front line (Duke Heitger, trumpet and Lucien Barbarin, trombone) and vocalist Topsy Chapman with a piano, bass and drum rhythm section. Perhaps the best track of the disc is Joe “King” Oliver’s iconic “Dippermouth Blues.” Played by the Wendell Brunious Jazz Band with Wendell on trumpet, this tune swings hard. The 1923 solos and playing of Johnny Dodds and Oliver are referenced but

not duplicated. Personalized statements here border on bebop in nature while maintaining the energy and substance of the original. It is a tribute to these fine musicians that they can breathe new life into the foundational repertoire of jazz.

The second CD of the set continues the exploration into the flexibility and durability of early jazz. Much of this disc is from a wild impromptu wedding-party session that captures the energy of the event as much as the music of the Don Vappie Quartet. “Lady Be Good,” “South Rampart Street Parade” and the generic Mardi Gras march “Second Line” alternate with Duke Ellington standards “Take the A-Train” and “Caravan.” To complete the mix, the disc ends with Billy Strayhorn’s 1959 “Lotus Blossom” and “Ezz-Thetic,” an avant-garde tune that was first recorded by Don Ellis and Eric Dolphy with the George Russell Sextet in 1961.

Throughout all the diverse music included in this fine CD set, one thing is constant: Don Suhor was an outstanding and singular musician who mastered his instrument and should be included among the great jazz clarinetists. He is in complete control in all registers of the clarinet, is steeped in tradition yet has an individual voice, and he delivers consistently excellent and engaging solo work. Here is an album that synthesizes the best of jazz styles from 1920 through 1960.

The recording is balanced and high quality, which is remarkable as all but six of the 26 tracks were recorded in private sessions or on a gig. There also is an excellent 12-page booklet that was written by Charles Suhor – respected jazz critic, author (Jazz in New Orleans: The Postwar Years Through 1970), and Don’s younger brother – that personally documents the 55-year career of Don. It is an inside introduction to this brilliant jazz voice that is as effective in compelling us to sit up and recognize his talent as is the music on the discs. This CD set is a comprehensive tribute to a marvelously talented musician who successfully combined a respectful appreciation for heritage with a highly original brand of swing/bebop. It deserves to be in the collection of every jazz clarinetist and anyone interested in the mastery of our instrument.

[See also “Don Suhor: A Legend in the Shadows” by Charles Suhor in The Clarinet Vol. 46/3 (June 2019). Ed.]

– Jerry E. Rife

Stephen Hartke: Clarinet Concerto “Landscapes with Blues.” Richard Stoltzman, clarinet; IRIS Chamber Orchestra, Michael Stern, conductor. S. Hartke: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra “Landscapes with Blues,” The Rose of the Winds, Gradüs, Pacific Rim. NAXOS, LC 05537. Total Time: 59:39.

Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and numerous other awards, Stephen Hartke’s (b. 1952) musical influences span a wide range of composers and stylistic periods, from music of the Medieval period to the atonal and chance music of modern composers. Born in Orange, New Jersey, he grew up in Manhattan, encountering music at a very early age. Stephen Hartke is widely recognized as one of the leading composers of his generation, and his work has been hailed for both its singularity of voice and the inclusive breadth of its inspiration.

Richard Stoltzman’s musicianship and virtuosity are known to not only the clarinet community but also to the entire musical world. He is regarded as a captivating soloist, jazz artist and virtuoso of many musical genres. He gave the first clarinet recitals in the histories of both the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. In 1986, Stoltzman became the first wind player to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize. Recently he was awarded the prestigious Sanford Medal by the Yale School of Music and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Hartke’s Clarinet Concerto (2001) is an exciting work with a diverse range of styles, moods, rhythms and imagery. The first movement, “Senegambia,” is described in the program notes as being influenced by music from the West African nations of Senegal and The Gambia. West African music is highly polyrhythmic, incorporating cross-rhythms that are characterized by hemiola. Melodies are not based on a single line over harmony but instead rely more on call-and-response and improvisatory or declamatory styles. The opening immediately evoked the style of Stravinsky, who is one of Hartke’s influences. Based on a five-note ground bass with Stravinsky-like interjections combined with the call-and-response elements of the West African music, this movement is attention-grabbing to say the least. Stoltzman’s melody carries freely over the orchestra. In the role of griot (the storyteller or praise leader), he leads in the call-and-response, and also gives the impression of improvisation, soaring in and out of a complex cornucopia of sound.

The second and longest movement of the concerto is titled “Delta Blues.” The Mississippi Delta is sometimes described as the “land where the blues was born.” Many of the vocal lines were borrowed from field hollers, a type of song originally sung by enslaved African Americans. This style of singing is more of a cry than a song and is marked by swooping and abrupt changes in pitch. This movement begins in subdued and mysterious manner. The style is quite melancholic and laid back. Then unexpectedly, with a passionate and ardent display, Stoltzman performs a series of high energy altissimo “riffs” with the Stravinsky/Gunther Schuller contravening harmonic language in the orchestra. His technique is without measure and his execution is impressive and precise. This movement takes many twists and turns, the clarinet at times introspective and soulful, then strident and inflexible, evolving into a mournful wailing. Hartke states that some of the twists and turns of the clarinet writing were taken from the opening motive of Cool Drink of Water Blues by Tommy Johnson. Stoltzman’s skill and knowledge of jazz style and execution is expert and riveting.

The final movement is titled “Philamayork.” The composer states, “‘Philamayork’ takes its title from Albert Murray, a compound word he uses to denote the mythical cities of the North, where blues had gone and became a hard-driving urban music.” The movement begins with a dancelike, rhythmic groove and quickly becomes a faster and more energetic dance. A more relaxed blues style is effortlessly exhibited by Stoltzman finally leading to what Hartke calls “travelling music” to the end of the concerto. The close of this concerto is driving and exciting, culminating with a rhythmic and technical exhibition shown by the clarinet. Stoltzman’s virtuosic performance is immeasurable. I absolutely loved this concerto.

Highly commendable in this 2003 recording were the IRIS Chamber Orchestra and their soloists. Under the direction of Michael Stern, an internationally known conductor, this ensemble was spot-on and virtuosic in its own right. This group of performers are exceptionally skillful in their performance of the remaining works on the CD: Hartke’s Pacific Rim, The Rose of the Winds for string octet and Gradüs for chamber sextet.

I would highly recommend this album. The Clarinet Concerto is a stand out, but the additional three works are a bonus of quality musicianship.

– Lori Ardovino

Reflections. Richard Stoltzman, clarinet; Warsaw National Philharmonic, George Manahan and Jerzy Swoboda, conductors. D. J. Perlongo: Sunburst; K. Lay: Earth Caoine; G. Goodwin: Paraph for Clarinet and Orchestra; A. Iannaccone: Concertante for Clarinet and Orchestra; A. Stiller: Procrustean Concerto. MMC Recordings, MMC 2105. Total Time: 61:39.

Reflections is a CD release by the world-renowned clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. This recording includes five short works for clarinet and orchestra, all of which were recent compositions at the time of the recording (2004).

The CD begins with Sunburst by Daniel Perlongo, a piece that is full of

energy with brilliant orchestral colors. The writing features contrasting sections of beautiful expressive lines with almost jazz-like gestures that really pop. Earth Caoine by Keith Lay is a hauntingly beautiful work that is a sharp contrast to Perlongo’s piece. The clarinet line frequently contains descending glissandi that evoke a sense of pain and sorrow. This “wailing” character is set against an orchestral texture that is expansive and constantly changing. Paraph for Clarinet and Orchestra by Gordon Goodwin is a beautiful, more upbeat and optimistic work. With alternating lyric sections and aggressive syncopated staccato passages, the piece showcases Stoltzman’s ability to change character and styles seamlessly, creating a fun and engaging performance. Concertante for Clarinet and Orchestra by Anthony Iannaccone features a series of episodes for virtuoso clarinet and orchestra. The piece unfolds with different scenes driven by the solo operatic voice of the clarinet. Stoltzman captures the essence of each section beautifully and one does get a sense of a character moving through a story line in a musical drama.

The concluding work on this is CD is Procrustean Concerto by Andrew Stiller in two movements. The first movement features extreme contrasts and dramatic episodes. Lyrical lines and musical dialogues between the clarinet and solo instruments are interrupted by wild aggressive gestures in the orchestra. The second movement begins with a Chilean folk melody written with a very humble and simple accompaniment. Reminiscent of Ravel’s Bolero, the melody is repeated many times with instruments being added

https://www.amazon.com/Richard-Stoltzman-Reflections/dp/B01AOP6A8Q


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by Kip Franklin

Woodrow Wilson once said that “friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” Play Pretty, a brand-new recording from the Amicitia Duo (Diane Barger and Denise Gainey), wholeheartedly embodies that sentiment. The album represents the culmination of a professional and personal friendship that spans more than three decades. Moreover, the album has a tremendous personal depth as it celebrates not only the friendship between Barger and Gainey, but also the relationships they each had with their mothers. Three of the four works involve Barger playing E-flat clarinet to Gainey’s B-flat. Coupled with the fact that the duo performs newly-commissioned works by Scott McAllister, Alexis Ciesla and William Price as well as a significant work by Gerald Cohen, the scope of the album is truly unique.

The album opens with what is easily its most memorable work: Amicitia Suite. This Scott McAllister work was commissioned by the duo and was premiered at the 2017 ClarinetFest® in Orlando, Florida. The opening movement, “Play Pretty,” is the album’s namesake. It is inspired by the relationship Diane had with her mother, who would always tell her to “play pretty.” The melodic content of the movement is derived from Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony, specifically the melody “Goin’ Home.” The interplay between both Barger and Gainey is fluid and flowing, with impeccable intonation between the E-flat and B-flat clarinet in octaves. Pianist Mark Clinton

colors the texture with steady, heartbeat-like pulses and arpeggiations.

The second movement, “Schizo Scherzo,” is the most intricate and witty movement of the piece. In an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, McAllister incorporates snippets from notable clarinet solos of the orchestral repertoire including Till Eulenspiegel, Bolero, Rhapsody in Blue, Symphonie Fantastique, Dances of Galanta, Polovtsian Dances, Scheherazade, Daphnis et Chloé, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and more! All of these excerpts orbit around the third movement from Brahms’s Sonata in F Minor. As the title implies, the movement’s character is frenetic and humorous. Barger and Gainey’s playing is spot-on rhythmically and technically, making for a charming and exciting interpretation.

“Heavy D,” the third movement, is in dedication to Denise’s mother.

Throughout the movement, Barger and Gainey’s octave intonation is again impeccable, and the pacing of their dynamic swells is incredibly well-matched. The work alternates between passages in which the clarinets play a solitary melody in octaves, and passages in which they are divided into two independent lines in a more traditional melody and accompaniment style; one voice sings while the other supports, which no doubt reflects the mother-daughter relationship that inspired this movement. In both, Barger and Gainey’s inflections on the appoggiaturas suggest a sense of longing, both in the sense of melancholy and of fond remembering. The playing is delicate, precise, and tender.

“BFF,” an acronym for “best friends forever,” completes the work. It is a spectacular and sparkly movement full of rapid scale passages, trills and cascading arpeggios. The playing is nothing short of expert. At times Barger and Gainey sound as if they are challenging one another and at others completing each other’s lines. Ultimately the diverging parts join together in a single, unified melody. McAllister has managed to accurately personify both Barger and Gainey, whose personal connection to the work coupled with their exquisite artistry make it the highlight of the album.

Alexis Ciesla transcribed his Études Concertantes (originally composed for B-flat or bass clarinets) for E-flat and B-flat clarinet for the Amicitia Duo. Each movement is a short vignette that

AUDIO NOTES

resulting in more variations in colors and texture. Unlike Ravel’s work, the piece returns back to the simple opening melodic material after reaching its climax two-thirds of the way through the piece.

The CD liner note description of Concertante for Clarinet and Orchestra by Anthony Iannaccone says, “…the orchestra becomes, propulsive, then recedes. Like a passionate opera singer, the clarinet moves to center stage and imparts arioso-like melodies.” This description resonated with me as it really applies not only to every work on this CD, but to the

entire career of Richard Stoltzman. He has been a unique and powerful artistic voice for so many decades. In this recording, each piece features an experience that is special and stunningly beautiful. Each tells a different story, a different opera, where Stoltzman moves to center stage to say something meaningful and poetic. The playing is compelling with every moment filled with musical intention. Stoltzman’s tone is beautiful and skillfully controlled, especially in many of the highest tessitura passages. The lyrical passages sing and the technique is flawless.

This CD is very well recorded. There is an excellent sense of space, and the instruments sound natural and well balanced. The individual performances of Stoltzman and the principal players in the orchestra are truly superb. I don’t think I have heard Richard Stoltzman sound more beautiful, and the works selected for this recording really showcase his special talent and musical artistry. This is truly an outstanding CD that every clarinetist should have in their library.

– David Shea

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features one challenging aspect of clarinet playing: large intervals, arpeggios, staccato, chromaticism and swing style among many others. In total there are nine movements in the set. Throughout each movement, Barger and Gainey are able to achieve a totally homogeneous sound and cohesive interpretation. This work is evidence that these performers share a

special collaborative bond. Their rhythmic execution is so well done that listeners have a sense that the two parts are fused into one. All of the movements in this work have charm and stylistic coalescence that are easily conveyed, making for an enjoyable and fun listening experience.

William Price’s Sweet and Simple is a pastoral work that is highly contrapuntal.

Throughout the work, Barger and Gainey’s expert attention to intonation results in poignant resonances of perfect intervals. Similarly, the effects of unison elisions between the E-flat clarinet, B-flat clarinet and piano are particularly effective and striking. The blend of sound Barger and Gainey create is colorful and vivid. Pianist Mark Clinton is to be commended for his playing during his solo passages. In all parts, there is a sensitivity and delicacy to the playing. The interpretation is contemplative, thoughtful, lyrical and pensive.

The final work on the album is Gerald Cohen’s Sea of Reeds, a set of five songs based on traditional Hebrew texts. In a break from all the other works on the album, this is the only one to feature two B-flat clarinets as opposed to the E-flat/B-flat combination. The first song, “Hariu L’adonai,” is a jaunty rhythmic frolic that is incredibly effective due again to the evenly-matched forces and faultless intonation of Barger and Gainey. The second song, “Adonai Ro’i lo Echsar,” is

2021 Orchestral Audition CompetitionICA ANNOUNCEMENT

Prizes: First Prize – $1000 USD and a Chedeville mouthpiece Second Prize – $500 USD and a Chedeville mouthpiece


Solo:Mozart: Concerto, K. 622, Movement I, exposition only, unaccompanied

First Clarinet Excerpts:• Bartók: Suite from “The Miraculous Mandarin,” Rehearsal (13) to

5 measures after Rehearsal (15), and Rehearsal (22) to (25)• Borodin: Polovetsian Dances, No. 17: Allegro vivo after (B) to

6 measures after (D)• Mendelssohn: Scherzo from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”,

Beginning to (B)• Puccini: Tosca, Act III; (11) to (12)

• Respighi: Pines of Rome: Movement III, (13) to (15)• Sibelius: Symphony No. 1, Movement I: mm. 1-32; Movement III:

5 measures after (E) to 6 measures after (G)• Stravinsky: Firebird Suite (1919): Variation de L’Oiseau de Feu,

Rehearsal (9) to 5 measures after (18)

E-flat Clarinet Excerpts:• Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Movement V: Rehearsal (63) to

4 measures after (64)• Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks: Rehearsal (30) to (32) and

Rehearsal (40) to 9 measures after (40)

Coordinator: Todd Waldecker – [email protected]: The competition is open to clarinetists of all ages who are not employed full-time as salaried members of a

professional symphony orchestra.Deadline: March 31, 2021

Repertoire (visit www.clarinet.org for specific audition requirements):

retro-revival.com

clarinet.org


YOUR STAGE.YOUR PERFORMANCE.Program FacultyTodd Levy | John Bruce Yeh

Apply by December 1 | roosevelt.edu/clarinet

plaintive and somewhat doleful, which is contrasted by the syncopated and spry third song, “Dodi li va’ani lo.” The fourth song, “Y’varech’cha,” possess a childlike innocence with Barger and Gainey echoing each other’s melodies in canonic imitation mixed with unison singing. The work concludes with “Dayeinu!,” a capricious dance in mixed meter that is a fitting way to conclude an engaging album.

Barger and Gainey are in their element throughout every track. The tone from each performer is clear and refined, and furthermore the blend of sound they are able to achieve together is astonishing. It is clear that this duo operates with a single unified consciousness and awareness. All of the works presented on this disc are enjoyable and well-done, but the Amicitia Suite truly stands apart from others. It is imbued with such personality and flair that make a truly unique listening experience. Overall this album is very highly recommended!

Happy listening! v

www.precisionreedproducts.com

roosevelt.edu/clarinet


There is no question that this year has probably looked entirely different from what you had originally planned. With so much uncertainty, it can be difficult to maintain motivation and plan for future events. To

help clarinetists, we have created an online series of articles on our website called “Clarinet in the Time of COVID.” We hope these resources will help clarinetists prepare for teaching, performing and other activities in this new musical environment. Here are a few of the articles published so far in this series, which you can read at The Clarinet Online (www.clarinet.org/TCO):

• Online Piano Accompaniment for Clarinet Repertoire – A list of online resources for clarinetists to rehearse or perform with virtual accompaniment

• Studio Morale and Mental Health During Remote Instruction by David Cook – Important advice regarding mental health during online learning

• Tips on Equipment and Internet Setup for Online Clarinet Lessons by Peter Stoll – Everything you need to know about getting prepared and set up for online teaching

• Deep Cleaning the Clarinet by Katherine Breeden – Suggestions to deep clean your clarinet and accessories

• Teaching Younger Students During COVID by Moria Tunison – Specific advice geared towards remote instruction for younger students

• An Interview with Julianne Kirk Doyle by Joe Sferra – Ideas for the collegiate clarinet studio during the pandemic, including teaching, juries, recitals and building community

If you would like to submit an article for publication in our online “Clarinet in the Time of COVID” series, please email a draft to [email protected] to be reviewed by the editorial committee.

We hope this series will be a valuable resource, and we wish you all continued healthy and happy music-making! v

ABOUT THE WRITERJenny Maclay enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, educator and blogger. She is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician and has performed throughout Europe and North America. She welcomes an international audience of clarinet enthusiasts on her award-winning blog Jenny Clarinet.

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