First Prize: Clarinet, and Double Bass, Paris Conservatory

This is written for his son,Georges E. Moleux.

Georges E, Moleux was the Principal double bass of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for many years . In addition to winning First Prize in Double Bass at the Paris Conservatory, he also won first prize in clarinet. I was a member of the New England Conservatory Concert Band when I was a kid in High School. I went to Brookline High School from 1947 until 1951. I had begun the clarinet with Normn Carrel(whose real name was Cohen) who had been the Principal in Houston for several years and came back to Boston to teach at the New England Conservatory. He had the most beautiful sound I have ever heard and he taught me his sound and I think his great love for the instrument.(Norman was also a very gifted cartoonist, having written several excellent books of cartoons, mostly of clarinetists in trouble< I am searching for those books) It was Mr Carrel(as I called him) who suggested that I play in the NEC Concert Band, which met every Saturday morning and was filled with all of the clarinet students of the Conserstory , who were all better than I was, by far. Many were to be big names. in that band, which Mr Moleux organized like the Garde Republican Band in Paris, more like an orchestra, with 40 clarinets, 20 firsts and 20 seconds, as violins are in an orchestra. And we played orchestral repertoire, for the most part. At one of the first rehearsals, we were playing Le Coc D’or Overture by N. Rimsky Korsakov. I saw some smaller notes on the page and played them. Big Mistake, as I told that ths was the Cadenza to be played by only one clarinet. Terribly embarrassing, but you know, I got to play that part many times as principal clarinet in many orchestras.
It was at one of the rehearsals that he told the band about his two first prizes. Then as we looked in wonder, he solfegged (sang the musical syllables) of the Flight of the Bumblebee, at the correct presto tempo. I never did that, nor have I heard anyone else do that, ever.
So, that was what I knew about Mr. Moleux. He was treated as a god by that band of professionels-to-be, and it was a fine and building experience for all who played, included the dumb kid who played along with the first clarinet in the Cadenza.
Looking for the Biographical material on Georges Moleux, it is really almost impossible to find anything of real importance. His is simply name on literally hundreds of recordings , as he recorded with the finest String Quartets of the day when they used Double Bass, the Budapest Quartet is but one, and he was the couble Bass of the very famous recording, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, of the Stravinsky Octet and L’Histoire du Soldat, still a definitive recording. I know that while I was a student at the Conservatory he married a bass student. He was also the teacher of many other students, one of them being Buell Neidlinger, recognized as the finest Jazz bassist, who also played for several seasons with the Boston Symphony.

To get an idea of the virtuosity of Georges Moleux, remember that Serge Koussevitsky, the Conductor of the Boston Symphony was himself a virtuoso Double Bassist, who toured the world prior to becomeing the Director of the Boston Symphony. Certainly as the person who undoubtedly auditioned his replacement, he would have picked a virtuoso. That was Georges Moleux.

Ispentlast evening looking for biographical refrences for Georges E. Moleux, and finally just constructed what you see above. Very little is to be found andI guess it was because he was very busy, he payed beautifully, was a great teacher, with a wonderful sense of humor. Perhaps someone will use this little piece as a reference.

And keep practicing.
sherman

Mozart Trio K498, on the C Clarinet

As the years have past, I have noticed the clarinet in my hands, more and more. It became important as a youngster. In the service in the 50s, I used to spend many hours practicing in the basemant of the band rehearsal room, mostly long tones, mostly standing. One of the duty sargents came in one day a little “out of it” and asked me to show him my hands while I played. I did and he felt for the hardness above both thumbs which held the clarinet.
He said, “very good”, as it was important to develop those muscles and even more important to practice everything standing. I followed his advice and for many years played endlessly while standing. I learned to consider sitting and playing somewhat of a weakness, and never ever rested the clarinet on my knee while playing. (this actually changes the pitch of the middle B, as it wil alway be higher held off the knee) That was my thing , and I cannot remember ever feeing fatigue from playing standing.

As the years past I began to experience a slight pain in my left hand. This particular discomfort finally became painful enough to really get my attention. I found that I had what is known as DeQueurvains syndrome.(named after the surgeon who discovered it in 1895) Ilearned that there was a relatively simple procedure which would cure this really awful pain and tenderness. I saw a plastic surgeon at the Montreal General and told me that for whatever reason , by making a small incision about an inch below the left thumb, almost painless, no anesthetic , a scar would be formed within, and as it healed, the scar tissue would provide enough room for the tendons to move freely. While it was a concern, all turned out quite well and as he said, “you are cured” and truly, I was. No more braces and straps to support my wrist, no more left hand blips. (there is one on one of my records, of the Brahms Trio, but only one.
So, life went on and I continued playing many many concerts in and around .

Then later, I started to have pain in my right hand. First, I started criticizing thumb rests, and I was quite critical of most of them, for they are not made for sore wrists. There is only one thumb rest which is ideal and that is the one on my Amati C Clarinet. It is perfect, located correctly and really quite helpful, but it wasn’t enough. I think I had the same condition in my right hand, and really did not feel like repeating the same procedure. Still there was a solution and that is the clarinet neck strap. Using that, with the Amati C clarinet and playing the C, which is smaller, weight is diverted from the right hand as you use the strap and it must be said that the Amati thumb rest with its angled strap attachment is very well thought out. This, I really recommend.. I have two Amatis, the C and a full boehm Bb, which is also excellent, thought much too heavy for me.

So last Sunday, we played the Mozart Trio K498, using the C clarinet. The part is almost as simple as is the Bb part, and the sound is superior, as is the tuning. Amati is a strangely unsung instrument, little advertised, perhaps even scorned by some, but they seem to know what they are doing. There is only one thmb rest which is ideal and that is the one on my Amati C Clarinet. It is perfect, located correctly and really quite helpful, but it wasn’t enough. I think Ihave the same condition in my right hand, and really do not feel like repeating the the same procedure. Still there was a solution and that is the clarinet neck strap. Using that, with the Amati C clarinet and playing the C, which is smaller, weight is diverted from the right hand as you use the strap, and removed from the right hand, resulting inmuch less strain and worry

So last Sunday, we played the Mozart Trio K498, using the C clarinet.(Sara and Donald Pistolesi, friends for many years played the Trio with me, Sara ,on her new viola and Donald playing the piano part on a digital piano,sounding excellent) . The clarinet part is almost as simple as is the Bb part, and the sound is superior, as is the tuning. Amati is a strangely unsung instrument, little advertised, perhaps even scorned by some, but they seem to know what they are doing. Thank you, Amati, beautifully made in Czechoslovakia.

keep practicing. It’s never too late.
stay well, sherman

Aaron Copland: As it Fell Upon a Day, and The Sextet for Clarinet, String Quartet and Piano

When Copland was studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the early twenties, one of his assignments was to compose a piece for flute and clarinet. He came upon a poem by the 17th century English poet Richard Barnefield and decided to add a voice part to the Boulanger assignment. Copland explained: “The poem had the simplicity and tenderness that moved me to attempt to evoke that poignant expression musically.” As It Fell. . . had its premiere in Paris in 1924.

This short work is considered Coplands first serious piece of composition. In 1965, upon Coplands retirement as head of composition at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood, I was asked to participate in his retirement concert, performing both the “As it Fell” and the “Sextet for Clarinet String Quartet and Piano” which is Coplands own reduction of his second or “short ” Symphony ,originally composed for Orchestra.

Upon my question to Mr Copland, as to the reason for the Sextet, he responded that he could not get his Short Symphony performed, and so, made the Sextet as an arrangenet,suiitable for performance. Also on the program was Vitebsk, Study on a Jewish Theme, for Piano Trio, this work from the somber earlier work of the composer.

As a clarinetist, these two works have followed me around for the past 45 years, and for good reason. The Sextet has truly haunted me, That first performance was successful, but because my performance ,though adequate, was nervoudly played and I played sharp, which proved to be embarrassing for as long as I have played the clarinet. I have a great love for this piece, and having coached it with the composer himself and Mazzeo, my teacher, it became very important for my career and I have played it continuously since, just about every chance I get. It is a short lovely work of barely 15 minutes and has some of the most difficult ensemble playing, severe tuning problems because of strings constantly written in extreme registers . It is relentlessly rhythmic, and in truth, it works much better in the conducted synphonic version, and is seldom performed as a sextet because of these difficulites. There are many more instruments used as soloists in the symphony, and so the interdependance is shared by an orchestra and of course, always conducted. In perhaps a couple dozen performance of the Sextet, there have been few that I can say were perfect or totally accurate. Close, bu I have no cigar. There have been exciting performance, for it is truly an exciting creation, no matter what slight accidents may occur.I can still remember driving with my wife Linda, on the Taconic Parkway, either going to New York City or back to Tanglewood, the two of us singing those canons and stretti, sometimes blowing the horn in 7/4 time as it is in the piece, causing a hell of a racket! (It was wonderful) I have had numerous requests for asking someone to conduct the Sextet. Perhaps I should have, or considered it, but never did. If one gets the opportunity, take advantage and play this wonderful piece, but,take good care.

“As it Fell Upon a Day is much less challenging, with only the flute and clarinet being smewhat problematic, but the Soprano needs to be able to sing in a simple, though perfectly in tune manner.

I still remember Copland hearing me playng the opening clarinet solo: “you have a very big tone” It was not a compliment. I was too loud. He was a very gentle man.The many stretti and canons in the sextet, always syncopated and written across the bar line, make it a challenging work Always request advanced and experienced players. Though the individual parts appear simple, the ensemble becomes quite complicated. If you have the time to get it together, it is a great piece.

keep prcticing and stay well.
Happy Holidays,

sherman

Full Boehm and Mazzeo Clarinets

Subject: Mazzeos Answer was excellent, for him and for me

Year past, many players in the Boston area played everything on the Bb clarinet, utilizing a Full Boehm instrument. I don’t remember anyone sounding poorly on their full boehm instruments . Gino Cioffi, my teacher for a while ,used Full Boehm minus the low Eb, and sounded gorgoeus, (in the true sense of gorgeous much of the time), or even most of the time. The exception were when the orchestra, notoriously sharp in Boston at the time, would leave him clawing and a bit flat. But no matter where the pitch was, Cioffi never pinched or felt anything but righteous about his pitch. That of course, is the only way to fight a pitch problem, for any change in the embouchure or whatever and the sounds suffers. The idea of playing everything on one clarinet was well founded for it alleviated many problems, specifically those of switching from one clarinet to another, quite quickly on occasion. Cioffi would worry about his articulated g# key and would pull on it with his other hande before any solo passage in which it was employed. The odea of playing all on the Bb, full boehm with the low Eb was imported from South America, at least in the New England area at that time in the 50s and 60s. Guigui Efrain, a clarinetist from Argentina was playing around Boston at the time. He played all on a one piece Buffet full boehm instrument, with a crystal mouthpiece of his own design, actually made by one of the pomarico brothers, the one living in Argentina. (the other brother settled in Italy).
At that time Rosario was the Bass clarinetist with the Boston Symphony . It is my feeling that his design for his Mazzeo System clarinet was based upon the bass clarinet and its various difficulties in rapid passages.
The basic idea of that clarinet, if it is not already well known by many readers was that the throat Bb with its many problems, and various solutions was eliminated and replaced by the most correct fingering which is the A, plus the third trill key on the right hand side of the clarinet.
He designed a simple articulation which lifted the third trill key when any one or all of the fingers on the right hand were engaged. The trill key with the A key made the perfect throat Bb. It was extremely simple to achieve as virtually any finger on the right hand when placed would open this key. For every simplified motion there is always an additional action. You could not place any fingers down without getting that open trill key.Hence, you could not place any fingers down except fopr those which were actally assigned to produce notes, so the supposed shading or tuning which almost every clarinetist used were impossible, and for some that made the Mazzeo System Clarinet simply out of the question.
For some, that was the turnoff, why give up all of the unconscious finger movement you had used ? For me, it was not the problem. I found that it was much less complicated to use the fewest fingers to shade, for much of that shading had been habit, for extra movement which didn’t do all that much it took only the acceptance of the premise and it was both over and a new experience, knowing every movement you make playing the clarinet. Simply, I accepted his idea ansd incorporated them into my playing, It was neither long nor difficult. The other innovations were relatively simple.The middle b to c# was articulatd, eliminating any roughness in playing legato lines such as Bolero(in the opening solo). You will remember that the bell was straighter and lighter, making the middle B quite bright initially , but becoming much more even and in tuneas one got used to playing it naturally, instead of louder and with more resonance.Making changes in the embouchure to accomodate uneven sounding notes became a thing of the past and as a result, my playing became much more secure. There was also a covered thumb which became another way of smoothing ones technic. While I had a set of Selmer Centered Tone full boehms Mazzeo clarinets, I was able to perform with more surety. So, the full boehm with the Mazzeo system was my ideal clarinet.
What transpired upon the passing of Rosario Mazzeo was also the passing of his invention and innovation, the Mazzeo Clarinet. It had always been best in full Boehm though much more simplified models were introduced in order to please more players, but it was the wrong philosophy for the Selmer Company.Ideally, when the patens rn out, another or a few other manufacturers should have adopted the system. But,they did not, and as players had more clarinets to try, they did not include this wonderful invention. They are and were not extra keys, superfluous and easily out of adjustmnent. My clarinets simply never gave me any diffciulty whatsoever. I was playing eight services a week as Principal in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, One christmas week we played a childrens concert with both the Coc D’Or by Rimsky Korsakov with its clarinet candenza and Peter and the Wolf. Between ten and twelve noon, we played that program three times for children.But with time, These clarinets became out of style. The Mazzeo Clarinet is completely finished now, and the full boehm is coming right after it.
They are excellent instruments, faciitating all kinds of playing, but in actuality they provide more musical options for the clarinetist. For me, seeing but 6 rings on a clarinet is weird and incorrect. With that extra ring, your worries are greatly diminished.After Rosario left us, I myself became restless and play clarinets made of different materials.

But do not think that the currenb plain boehm is better. It is just much easier to buy,to make and is in profusion.Doesn’t make it right, or best.The fraternity of clarinetists, teachers find it in vogue at present.
Years and years ago, Larry Combs told me my clarinet looked like a Christmas tree. Being scrutinized by the others choosing reeds st the Van Doren shop on rue Lepic, I heard the question (in French), “Cor Anglais”? The meaning was clear. Regardless of what you play, keep practicing.
stay well, sherman

Berlioz and Beethoven wrote music to be played offstage,however, this is ridiculous, (but saves money.

Trying to think positively, I am reminded of the off-stage english horn in Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz. The off-stage trumpet in Fidelio also is a famous work that needs coordinating. Someimtes, we have played works with two conductors and of course, there are many a piece from the Renaissence or Baroque Eras which use different groups of players in different parts of the hall. And of course, there are many theater pieces from bygone days in which the stage is divided into three levels,present, future,and past, or present prior and after. All kinds of examples abound, but this is something I think is quite new, though reflecting the meanest aspects of Charles Dckens characterizations.
As many, I have played in the orchestra or the ensemble for many many theatrical productions. Full or chamber orchestra down to a small ensemble. All musicians especially wind players, find this work to be attractive and sometimes highly remunerative.Earlier I have written of accompaniment for an entire show limited to five or six players making the sound of almost an entire orchestra. The many ways we sample and record music and in that way, we compete with our very selves for playing assignments. Sampling is the most striking example of self-competition, the result down the line always being less “work” for live musicians playing live music in front of an audience.d The The latest experiment in New York theater is taking place in a tiny, L-shaped third-floor room with water-stained ceilings and dirty gray carpeting that served for decades as a dumping space for props The actors are onstage a floor below, The music is piped in and corrdinated by the conductor using a loystick and a tiny screen

It is music by remote control: an orchestra playing not from the traditional pit wedged between audience and stage, but from a distant room or even a separate building. It’s an approach that appeals to some producers because it allows them to sell high-priced tickets to more choice seats, or to use the old pit space for bigger and fancier stage sets — and because technology means they can. Is there something Dickensian aout this scenario? One may wish to think so.

Artistic communication comes through speakers and television monitors. It can be a challenge.

“At “Carrie,” the conductor that night, Paul Staroba, waited for a red light to blink by his piano keyboard to signal the start of Act I. “O.K., we’re gonna go,” he yelled. Just above the light was a 16-inch monitor showing a black-and-white view of the Lortel stage, where the grainy outlines of actors began to appear. The video quality was too poor to see the precise movements of lips, but the musicians upstairs had trained for weeks to know every beat of the singing without visual cues. The ensemble’s two keyboards and three guitars were barely audible, their sound pumped through speakers in the theater; only the cello and drums provided a road map to the score of “Carrie” in the old storage room.”

“All we can really do is hope that we sound good,” Mr. Staroba said during a lull between songs. “You miss feeling the actors breathe a few feet away from you, to sense where they will start and end each song. But doing this for eight performances a week, I think we get the music pretty precise with what the cast is doing.”

Still, glamorous it is not.

The $75 million musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” has the highest budget on Broadway, yet its 18 musicians have some of the grimest quarters in the theater district: the band has been split in half and plays out of two windowless rooms in the basement of the Foxwoods Theater. The “Spider-Man” musical supervisor, Kimberly Grigsby, conducts the guitarists, drummer and keyboard player in one room, with two small cameras attached to her podium; about 20 feet down the hall, the brass and string sections of the orchestra watch her image on small screens attached to their music stands.

Ms. Grigsby uses a joystick on her podium to pan cameras inside the theater to follow the flying sequences in the show and to zoom in on actors during certain scenes. While she said she missed working in a pit, which here was converted to fit a hydraulic system for some of the massive sets in “Spider-Man,” Ms. Grigsby said that sophisticated audio and video equipment “make the music feel and sound like it’s being played right by the stage.”

Theater critics and audience members have not made a fuss over the piped-in music of either show, but the union for New York theater musicians is sharply negative about the sound-mixing methods.

“There is no way the quality of the sound is as good over amplification speakers,” said Tino Gagliardi, president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians. “By not seeing a conductor’s head in the pit, or a pit itself, theatergoers may also be left wondering if the music is even live or whether it’s simply recorded.”

Mr. Gagliardi said he was especially appalled by the piped-in music last June for the televised Tony Awards; the band played nearly 50 blocks south of the Beacon Theater, which helped alleviate the crowding in an already crammed auditorium. (The Tonys will be held at the Beacon again this spring.)

Creating new orchestra pits for the “Spider-Man” and “Carrie” bands would have deprived the producers of ticket revenue because seats would have had to be sacrificed. Bernard Telsey, a producer of “Carrie” (which just announced an April 8 closing date), said that putting the show’s band in the mezzanine section was considered, but factors like lost revenue and acoustic challenges scuttled the idea.

So there we have it. We wre cramped, squeezed hidden, yet we must play our very best. Keep practicing, and stay well.
sherman

Principal Clarinets ,Boston, 60′s-90′s.

As many will know, this is a re-writing of a posting which had been inadvertently erased. I will restore now, with perhaps a few pertinent changes. During this time Gino Cioffi was Principal Clarinet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He had followed Victor Polaschek, a wonderful musician.In addition he was responsible for writing three etude books, one, rather simple, but musical, but the second incorporated many orchestral parts or parts from Pierrot L:unaire, the 20C masterpiece by Schoenberg, obe of the more challenging works of the repertoire. All of etudes are extremely musical.
Cioffi, was the best natural clarinetist I have ever heard. He played easily and unforced with literally a gorgeous sound, and had fingers as sure as anyine on either clarinet. He played a crystal mouthpiece, made by Obrien, a light reed and of course, played double lip. When he came from Europe he played with the mouthpiece with the reed on top. He took so little mouthpiece in, I often wondered if he took any but, he was the definitive natural clarinetist. Nothing ever sounded difficult. His only problem was that frequently, he played flat, or on the lower side of the pitch, sometimes quite flat. It was all of their fault. The pitch was very high, the strings brilliant, the hall was extremely reverberant. Well, frequently ,he sounded flat. But the section of woodwinds was high as well as were the strings. Cioffi played a set of Model 55 bore Selmers, full boehm, minus the low eb. Buffet also made him a special set, of which nobody has heard. But his grandon (of the same name) wrote me and asked if I knew a buyer for both his selmers and the set Buffet had made for him.
I had a set of Model 55s which included a crystal mouthpiece which I sold to a clarinetist in Germany. I asked for the mouthpiece and he sent it to me. It had something special about it. I sent it to Richard Hawkins for adjustment and he just loved the mouthpiece after he finished it, so finally, because I couldn’t get used to it, it is now in Hawkins possession, part of his cllection of crystals.
Crystals are great mouthpiece, with two or three considerations: You must have a proper one, you must have a duplicate, and you may not allow it to fall. None of the above is funny.
Cioffis performance as he aged, deteriorated. He didn’t have the greatest time either, and finally Leinsdorf announced that Gino Cioffi would no longer record with the BSO. Which must have been a terrible blow to him. (I have a friend who was playing in the BSO at the time)
Soon after, Cioffi confronted Leinsdorf during a rehearsal.It was terrible I am told, and he left soon after. He remains simply a great clarinetist.
Strangely enough, there were audtionfor sedond clarinet soon after. I auditioned, so I remember that there were many, and we finally got word that Harold Wright was upstairs in a small room. He played was awarded the job, turned it down and said he wanted first, which eventually became his for the next 20 years or so, during which time, there was a great stabilization of the woodwind section. Wright was a clarinetist who played all of the written dynamics, which had gone out of style with the previous group. So, pianissimo returned to the clarinet and Wrights was more beautiful than anyones, and his pitch was exact, his spirit and performance lyrical ,flexible and just gorgeous. He had studied with the fabled Ralph McClane,principal of the Philadeplphia orchesra.
This was of course, the glory period for the long playing stereo recording. More and more versions were released of all of the composers of symphony and the recording technic improved to the extent of the sound being more present on the recording than if one was listening in the hall.
The orchestras began to compete with themselves. Why take your car, fight the parking, and then go and barely hear a clarinet solo, when in the privacy of your own home, you could listen to it as if you were actually sitting next to the soloist. This competition provided many of the super loud sounds of many orchestral clarinetists and the agandonment of pianissimo, perhaps forever.
In any event, the pitch stabilized, as did the dynamics, and incidentally, everybosy switched to Buffet in Boston.
After the end of the previous century many more clarinets of high quality appeared and now all clarinets are employed by all of the different Principals, one supposes Leblanc is most frequently the clarinet of choice.
But the Selmer company have prduce many new models, the Recital being a fvorite and now the Signature and others, so a clarinetist no longer has to play one or the other. There are many which are better in tune, and manufacure.
Don’t stop practicing.
stay well, sherman

Leblanc L27 and and the Wolf

In recent postings I have mentioned my friend and accompanists passing and that first Leblanc clarinet, the L27. It had been at Arduinis in Montreal for a long time. Like many clarinetists in Canada (and the US, for that matter), I, we, had thought of the Leblanc clarinet, as simply a bad instrument, from the standpoint of tuning and manufacture, its reputation preceded any thought of even trying this instrument.
What first drew my attention was the inlay in the top joint, flush with the wood, which had the L27 on mother of pearl, or looking like that. The case was yellow looking and not attractive.
I asked if I could take the instrument to try, the permission given for “as long as I wanted”.
When putting the instrument together for the first time, I immediately noticed that the finger bed seemed fractionally smaller that What I had been used to , and not unpleasant. I don’t remember the mouthpiece I was using at the time, however it may have been either a Selmer or Van Doren, and, I had been experimenting with the LC 1 and LC 3 which were not yet in production. Larry Combs was then principal in the Montreal Orchestra. It must have been the late 70s, or somewhere around then. These LC mouthpieces had been worked on and they were very “big” in quality, and were very different. I had many of each. They also played a bit on the sharp side.
Any of the above conditions were not a consideration when trying this new clarinet, as the sound, or response, seemed to be more contained, and I thought the clarinet more resistant than my Selmers. I only had the Bb, but wasn’t doing much repertoire for A at the time. I started using this L27 for all my work in CBC radio broadcasts, the main reason being that the scale simply would not venture far from my tuning apparatus, which was a Korg 12, if I remember correctly. Each note played was eithin a couple of of cents of exactly 440 throughout the entire clarinet. These CBC bropadcasts were quite frequent and they had to be well in tune. If not, the breoadcast was terribly embarrassing and there was a big radio audience. I had been trained to play the parts perfectly and I worked into playing with no mistakes because there were no “retakes”. It was a concert always free and open to the public, but alays recorded wiht but a single testing prior to the recording and concert. I must say, it was a time of many concerts, rehearsals and I was playing all the time, which was great for consistency, as we all know.
This L27 became the clarinet Used all the time, for performing and for teaching. It was easier to play and much easier to play in tune. I could have purchased it at any time for 450$, but unfortunately for me, I didn’t It could have been the best clarinet I had ever had. But, I had had many.

KEN wolf, living in Brookline was my accompanist. He used to come and play a concerto with my orchestra and we would also have a concert of clarinet and piano. And I would go to Boston whenever I had the time. In the spring of that year we got a concert for the Medical School in Worcester, Mass, where he eas teaching . We had but a few rehearsals and played repertoire we had played for many performances. If we played a new work, it would be an early classical work, such as either of the Wanhal Sonatas. I would play clarinet and he would accompany on the Harpsichord. And we would play the second half usually consisting of two sonatas, a Brahms, and for this particular, that Sonata or Sonatine by Darius Milhaud(with Ken playng the piano). What keeps this concert in my mind was the consistent comments of Emily Wolf, his wife, who, while not a musician, was brilliant and had a fine musical critical ear. She kept on remarking on how fine the sound was, and the tuning between the two instruments. This was what really sold me on the fact that this Leblanc clarinet, that L27, was truly an excellent instrument.

Along those lines, I had a clarinetist in the Concordia Symphony Orchestra, a University community orchestra. He was studying at the University of Montreal and was not on a career path degree. He played beautifully, and naturally, I asked him what he played, and he responded, Leblanc. This furthered my impression of this instrument. “How bad can it be” went through my mind, for I had been thoroughly indoctrinated in the fact of Leblancs poor quality. While I did not buy that particular Leblanc, I have played practically nothing but Leblanc clarinets since. It was not a “worst” clarinet. It was and is most probably, the best of all the French clarinets, and much more consistent ,by far. Let’s see, I played a set of L7s, of which I have spoken before, a set of OPus, which were the best of the best, and am now playing an LL. currently in the case under my bed, with the Hawkins #1 mouthpiece witn the 3,5 Forestone reed on the mouthpiece. If I decide to practice, I will simply put it together and play it, as is.

Just a bit of a reminiscence of fun times gone by. Don’t you stop practicing.
stay well, sherman

What is bullying?

Hello reeders:

I recently wrote of a clarinet student who was bullied into buying or considering “a real mouthpiece”. This happened in a Graduate School.Was this bullying? read on.

With regard to the recent spate of articles and focus upon bullying, one has cause to investigate this rather repugnant term. While the word, indeed the practice is somehow thought of a rite of passage for growing young people, upon further investigation one discovers cases of suicides caused by bullying, having been spied upon with another , was driven to jump from the George Washington Bridge, leaving a note saying simply, “sorry”.

The young man happened to be attending a university in New York State and was a talented violinist. A person living in the room next door, set up a webcam and took a film of an encounter with another man.The person who set up the filming, meant no harm , as he stated later, however the damage was done. A man was dead. The second man is now on trial for invasion of privacy and various othe charges.Of course, the death of the man who was filmed, the film then shared with others in the dormitory, the snickering of those is all part of this fatal indignity. When an adult perpetrates this upon another adult,it is a crime, as it is now being tried. It can never ever be thought of as a passing phase in ones development.This is not one of the first incidents of the practice of bullying resulting in a suicide.
One might say, “oh, it never goes that far. It is an isolated incident”.
But where does this kind of an incident really start?

As a retired university professor with 35 years of teaching experience at all levels, and my wife, at a similar level,wish to say, it starts on the very first day of school. The very first time your son or daughter is teased or made fun of, depending upon the degree of teasing and the recipient of the practice, it is at the onset, an unprovoked assault upon the child.This practice is habitual in early school experiences and can proceed all the way to university, and yes, it can cause horrific results, as in the case of the university student mentioned above. It does with increasing frequency, and we are passing it off as a childish rite of passage.
We all wear a pink shirt or blouse to celebrate “bullying day”
The point becomes the pink blouse, not the childish bullying that causes a talented viollinist or mathametitcian or scientist to commit suicide. Or a basketball or hockey or football player. Or a clarinetist?
The focus must be on the act of teasing or shaming a young person who may be experiencing this truly damaging act for the first time.
It has to be called what it is, and it must be punished, or cutailed in some way as to limit this practice which we say, is rampant in many early schools. It does not stop there.And of corse, if unchecked, it can develop into a lifetime practice of increasing shame and fear and loathing that can result in worse than suicide.
It can and has resulted in bloody murder, even mass murder.

In Canada and in the US, there have been multiple cases of school children obtaining firearms from (usually) parents or relatives , taking them to school and selecting targets that caused them harm either real or imagined.
We read of these many examples and pass them off as somethng that occurs elsewhere, but never here in Cornwall or wherever we hang our hats.
Bullying in its final or earliest form is unprovoked assault, easily as heinous crime as any abuse, whether it be childe abuse in its many forms or just plain old “typical” bullying.
Unprovoked assault should get the perpetrator a stern warning initially, with a promise of time incarcerated. It can lead to a life of crime or tragic abuse, depending upon which end of it you are on.
So, please forget about those pinks shirts, as you already have, and let us as adults, realize that these assaults are what they are and try to curtail and finally stop them.

It must be done pre-emptively where it is easiest to stop and to notice.

Respectfully submitted,

sherman and Linda Friedland

keep practicing.

Part 2, of brands ,trends and clarinets

We know that Buffet and Selmer are in the limelight of clarinet suggestions or choices by students and/or teachers, who have always been quite important in the selection of a clarinet. There have arisen in the last thirty or 40 years, the graduate school for performers, people by many students and by many professional clarinetists who simply could not find a position in a symphony orchestra. Two things have affected that venue: one is the diminishing symphony orchestra. They are failing for lack of money or audience throughout the US,

This past economic crisis caused by the virtual failure of the bank regulation system or lack of it, and then the avalanche of failures throughout the US, and the world had its impact on the world of music, classical music, and of course, the Symphony Orchestra. So, back to the graduate performer program, which was a natural outgrowth of the lack of jobs for clarinetists, the failure of many orchestras and still the abundance of players, either advanced or professional, in need of a place to go, to tread water, and from this came the graduate performance program in universities throughout the US. For me , this is one of the sadder events in my memory. The time that it takes for a clarinetists to emerge, “ready” is a long stretch for most, and a horror story for those looking for professional work. The recording industry has helped(not) enormously, by sampling, simulation, enabling artists to simulate an entire orchestra by four or five musicians playing various keyboards. The competition the recording industry has added by the absolutely perfect recording dwarfing almost any actual performance in depth of sound, actually competes with live music. And of course, where to find a place to park usually ends the debate. Price for admission because of all of the above has helped and we, the professional clarinetists, either here, or on the march, helps make more of a mess, hence my sadness, and that of many of us.

So, one bandaid is the Masters in performance, the ARTIST diploma, or what have you in terms of “further study”. They seem endless , but offer little or no help in the quest for a place to play, a paycheck, some sort of benefits. All they seem to do in most cases is offer a place to “continue”, but not to stop and play the clarinet for your living.I find them basically repugnant(though I might edit that out)

And with “further study” have come the other clarinets. Because I was employed by a University in Montreal, Concordia, a large organization with 25,000 students, I was accorded special privileges by the local music stores, which consisted of trying any clarinet that came in and was not sold, which included every other decent well-made instrument.

The first of these in my experience was the Yamaha clarinet. Yamaha of course, makes everrything from motocycles to excellent grand pianos, and I first discovered Yamaha with the Yamaha model 64 clarinet. I took it home for an awfully long time, and it was a superb time to really trying a clarinet. Practicing it daily, playing in in performances and recording, and just having it)to try) for a long period of time. This was wonderful, and the only way to try a clarinet , really try one. I found the Yamaha 64 to be an excellent clarinet for intonation. The altissimo was made to be intune, ore than Selmer and much more than Buffet. The throat register was also much more even and the finish was excellent. The only fault (if you will) that I could find, was that it seemed to lack resistance. It was and I am sure, remains, an excellent reliable clarinet. I wish I had kept that instrument. Hoever there were many more to come. I susbsequently tried the 72, and the 82, in sets and they were just as good, having all of the same features as that first model 64, or 62. These clarinets have continued to minutely improve. All in all, the seem a better clarinet than almost any buffet, basically because that clarinet lacks consistency and therefore, cannot be reommended without a very good and sensitive technician to tweak and tune it

Perhaps my best esxperiences with playing new clarinets have come with the Leblanc clarinet. Currently I am playing n an older Leblanc LL, which I feel is,and was their finest clarinet. Previous, I first tried a Leblanc L27 with which I had a really great experience. There were simply no tuning problI kept it for more than a year and found it a superbly well in tune instrumentems for all the time and concerts I had and played that horn. Followi g that, I was able to purchase a set of Leblanc L7s from a person who originally played German system, or Orhler, (I never earned which), but he had had rollers installed on the little finger keys. Those also had an articlated g# and the seventh ring. That set was superb, and frankly I learned that all Leblancs that I tried or played were excellent. Of course, the set of Opus clarinets which I purchased from the principal in Kansas City were the best clarinets I had ever played. There was a card in the case stating that this set had been played, tuned and selected by William Ridenour who was at the time the clarinet authority at the Leblanc Company. These were better than any other Leblanc I had played as far as tuning ws concerned.

There was a hiatus of several years with the Selmer Recital. The Selmer representative brought one in and left it for me to try. This was the “fat” clarinet. It was slightly weightier, an absolutely splendid instrument, whicn had the flattest low F I had ever experienced. I never did get that vent key laterprovided, just played very solftly on that low f, which drove me crazy. But the rest of the clarinet was really quite beautiful and the A I subsequently received wasl also quite special. After experiementing with several different mourhpieces,I discovered that the Recial had a mouthpiece which seemed to be the same bore as the instrument, the C85. Naturally, I acquired many of them. They had three tip openings, the 105, 110, and the 120, which ultimately becme the one of choice. Excellent, even and beautifully sounding instruments were the Recitals When I retired from Concordia I gave the university my Recital set.

My final phase of playing and trying clarinets that were new on the market , was with the Ridenour Series of had rubber clarinets. All of these proved to have the finest tuning of any clarinet that had been massed produced and were made from hard rubber. I may have tried 30 or 40 of those clarinets over a five year period. For several years they were sold under the Allora brand by WWBW. For a while they were being sold for 595.00, complete with a mouthplece and two barrels. The tuning was the best thing about these instrument made from hard rubber, and the material does not or will not ever crack and is as stable a material as one can ever find. The one drawback to hard rubber is hard rubber. While it is dark and blends beautifully with all other instruments and works very well in chamber music situations, it is inherently a sweeter and more dulcet quality than is wood. Beautiful, but it simply does not project as well as a clarinet made from wood. I think that the arrival of the Lyric G1 made of grenadilla solves of of the projection problems that one may have with the hard rubber Lyrique. I tried the wooded Ridenour and still must recommend it as the finest wooden clarinet at the best price of any clarinet manufactured today. The one clarinet I tried over a period of time played most like my Bb Opus, perhaps better.

Aside from bells whistles,additional keys, bell drillings, barrel manufacture from exotic good looking wood, ligatures made form everything from leather, fabric, human skin, inhuman skin, the onlything left would be an incantation or spell on the inctrument, willing it against the evil spirits and personel managers and audtions. If there were any.

Stay well, keep practicing. Enjoy the music

sherman

Trends, brand names ; recent clarinet History.

Part One

While reading some of the comments from many of you concerning different brand names of clarinets,their various scales and other idiosyncracies I am reminded of my own experiences in the business of playing and teaching this lovely instrument for the past half century. Being somewhat a product of the New England Conservatory and Boston University during the 50s and 60s, the instrument to have and to aspire to and to own, was the Selmer Clarinet. Of course, times have changed, especially in Boston with first, the replacement of Gino Cioffi with Harold Wright, his passing and the evolution of the particular changing clarinetists in the Boston Symphony, the clarinet of choice in that city has changed to Buffet. Wright played Buffet and that seemed to become to be the trend in Boston.

Upon being discharged from the 4th Army Band in which I had enlisted,I returned to Boston, purchasing a setof Buffets. Then, upon purveying the performance jobs there, I was told that the only person with whom to study was the Principal in the orchestra, Gino Cioffi. I went and studied with Cioffi with my Buffets and he engaged in a year long sales campaign to get me to play his Selmer Bore 55, which was a full boehm, minus the low Eb. Cioffi, as I have written, was a marvelous clarinetist speaking little English but possessing absolutely the most facile technic I had ever heard .

Everything that he played sounded absolutely effortless. Most of his students odolized him. “Go-fors” were in abundance and all played the Selmer Model 55.Since the entire section of the Boston Symphony played Selmer, so went the entire city of clarinet students. There was no discussion and little help with any other clarinet.
Following a rather empty year of clarinet and instrument insurance sales, (yes, Gino sold both) The famous “hold up’a'your hand” story, promising a custom-made clarinet appears in one of the many Cioffi stories contained herein. It would have been funny, in retrospect it is giggly, perhaps a bit tragic.

His replacement by Harold Wright turned Boston and the Boston Symphony and the clarinet students on their ears. Wright had been a student of Ralph Maclane of the Philadelphia orchestra and a consummate performer, especially as to musicality and instinct. Richard Dyer , critic of the Boston Globe said of him“Although Harold Wright is a consummate virtuoso of the clarinet, you don’t so much listen to him as overhear him as he steals sound from silence; drawing us into a volatile private world of thought, feeling and dream.”

This is an accurate description of the quality he brought to the clarinet and to the woodwind section of the BSO. He also played the actual dynamics which were written in his part, carrying along the entire section with him. He was the most musical clarinetists ever heard and for 23 years was the glittering jewel in that woodwind section. And ,because he happened to play on another brand of clarinet, he carried his students along with him, and most every student in the area played Buffet. Wright had a very subtle degree of spirituality and gret intelligence and honesty in his playing. He happened to play a particular kind of clarinet, brand. But, he would have had the same quality on any instrument he chose to play. It was not the brand name of the clarinet that he happened to play, it was his interpretation of the music, the quality of sound was always that of a fine and sensitive musician.

The sound created by Gino Cioffi was all about Gino Cioffi, and it was very beautiful, however his musical parameters were quite narrow by comparison. It was always beautifully played and sounded that way, except when he played flat , which was sporadic, though quite noticable. This was Boston, and the pitch there was sharp in those years.

end of part one