Just a dog,but on July 1,in Quebec,danger lurks!

Stubborn yet smart, gullible yet loyal, he doesn’t have an I-phone, he doesn’t drive a car, yet we can always, always count on him. He is predictable and trustworthy, he loves routine and a secure environment, he asks for so little yet gives so much more in return. He adores children, especially our daughter, who he pulls on a sled on the coldest days of the year. Temperatures of -30 don’t affect him while he insists on climbing the highest snow mountains he can find as his “master” watches while freezing despite wearing three layers of clothing. He loves to sit in front of the pellet stove with his cat as he pulls clumps of ice from his paws in anticipation of his next walk. In the summer he loves Bar-B-Que’d hot-dogs and never complains if they are burned. He has made friends in the neighborhood who refer to him as “beau chien” and he is allowed to play in their backyards. He has a best friend “Romeo” who he looks for everyday just as a child does when school is over. We value him as if he was our son even though our boy golden retriever “Toffee” is just a dog.
Many Montrealers feel this way about their pets yet, every “Moving Day” (July 1st), over a thousand animals are abandoned largely due to restrictive no pet clauses in residential leases. This leaves thousands of Quebecers with a gut wrenching choice to make when moving day arrives. In order to find rental housing that meets their needs, do they part with their beloved pets? Judging by the latest statistics, the answer unfortunately is yes as the SPCA receives almost 1600 pets this time of year, a number almost triple their usual monthly intake.
Quebecers are not the only ones who love their pets and are faced with this agonizing decision. In 2006 Ontario’s Residential Tenancies act was amended and the “no pets” provision was made null and void because it was deemed unreasonable and unfair. Loosely translated, a landlord in Ontario cannot evict a tenant just because he or she has a pet even if the tenant signed a lease with a “no pets” clause as long as the pet is a good tenant. Why then, is Quebec not following this example?
Fortunately, we can take action. The SPCA recently launched the “Keeping families together” (www.stoppetabandonment.com) campaign in hopes that if enough people support it, things will change.
Although it is sad to say, the no pets clause is not the only reason we abandon our pets. Sometimes, we are just negligent and forget that a pet is a life-long responsibility just like a child is. For anyone out there who is considering abandoning your pet, I urge you not to. An animal’s life is just as valuable as a human’s and I believe Montreal is a good enough place that it realizes this. If Mahatma Ghandi was correct and “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”, then Montreal has a chance to show it can progress by taking better care of  its most vulnerable.

Nathan Friedland

“if we don’t have support for Music Education, what do we have”?

 

Glen Dicterow,  concertmaster of the NY Philharmonic is retiring.
The open, empty violin case backstage at Avery Fisher Hall stood as a stark reminder that Glenn Dicterow, the longest-serving concertmaster in the history of the New York Philharmonic, would retire after Saturday night’s concert. It awaited the return of the 1727 Guarneri del Gesù violin that the Philharmonic had lent him as its first among equals.

It has been 34 years since Mr. Dicterow became the Philharmonic’s concertmaster, or principal first violinist. When he leaves to devote himself to teaching, he will have held the position for 6,033 performances; played as a soloist in 219 concerts; helped transmit the wishes of four music directors and more than 200 other conductors; and toured in 174 cities in 51 countries, lugging his belongings in an old trunk that once belonged to Leonard Bernstein.

“It’s going to be a tough Saturday night,” Mr. Dicterow, 65, said in an interview this week in his studio, as he prepared for a series of final performances of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, running through Saturday, with the pianist Yefim Bronfman and the orchestra’s principal cellist, Carter Brey. “The last one. Saying goodbye.”

Audiences know the concertmaster as the violinist who sits to the conductor’s left, leading the orchestra as it tunes up and playing solos. But behind the scenes, concertmasters can wield power to shape an orchestra’s sound — which is why they are the best-paid players in orchestras. (Mr. Dicterow was paid $523,647 in 2011, according to the Philharmonic’s most recent tax filing.)

“Music, and the music business, have both changed quite a bit since Mr. Dicterow made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1967, at 18, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in a concert led by Andre Kostelanetz. (A review in The New York Times said that he had “blended talent and immaturity in his performance.”)

Mr. Dicterow said that playing had changed, to some extent. “It’s a given that you’re supposed to play perfectly, virtuosically,” he said. “But maybe there’s a bit of the generic quality in music making — people don’t have as much individual style. I think that’s just a product of the age we live in.”

He seemed genuinely taken aback when talking about the 2011 bankruptcy of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the current labor woes at the Metropolitan Opera, which is seeking to cut costs. And he lamented the disappearance of music education and the lack of government support for music. If we don’t have that, what do we have?

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But he said that he was looking forward to moving back to California — his father played in the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 52 years — to hold the Robert Mann Chair in Strings and Chamber Music at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. And he said that while he would miss the Philharmonic, he would not miss the stress of sitting in the first chair.

Mr. Dicterow recalled a pep talk he received from a friend who had retired from the orchestra, who told him that he would enjoy listening to music without the responsibility. “He said that on the stage, you hear more or less what’s around you,” he said. “He said that it’s great to sit back and not worry about things — bringing people in or playing solos.THE NY TIMES

The Varia of clarinet materials

Having noticed a veritable cornucopia of clarinet materials being marketed, it would seem proper to list all of the various instruments which I have owned or played and their comparative qualities.

The oldest instrument was a Selmer full boehm metal clarinet , # 406, from the late 20s. It was sent to me in a decrepit case, actually falling apart. The sender wanted an appraisal and I replied that I couldn’t make such an appraisal without playing the instrument. So, we worked out an arrangement wherein I would completely restore the instrument to playing condition, which I did, with the following results: the clarinet played absolutely beautifully, with an exceptionally facile altissimo. I brought it into Twigg Music in Montreal to purchase a new case and played it for them, and frankly they were very impressed with both the look of the instrument, it size. the bore being very much narrower than a wooden instrument. It was rather shocking to me. This is the very same model which Gaston Hamelin played first clarinet in the Boston Symphony. It was the instrument that the conductor ,Serge Koussevitsky, disapproved of strongly.The contract was not renewed.
Hamelin went back to France, taking several soon-be-prominent players with him, notably Ralph Maclain, who became principal in the Philadelphia and founded the so-called American school of the clarinet. One of his students was Harold Wright, Principal in the Boston orchestra and probably the most individual sound of the instrument ever to be heard. By those comments I mean to say , that late in his career and even as early as his time as principal with the National Symphony in Wash. D.C., his sound and presentation were much more like those of a great soprano, perhaps someone like Jessye Norman, or Renee Fleming, an individual presentation which entered and continued to the delight of his audiences. (Please hear his Mozart Concerto withe BSO on this site, it is without any of the cliched holding of certain notes at the beginning of a run,or a childish attempt at phrasing Mozart, adding ornaments. This work and Wrights works is literally perfect.

Back to clarinet materials, having said that the early Selmer metal instruments were superb, and having played one of these early instruments,let us go the early instruments made of Boxwood, those with the usual three keys. I had a set made for me by a maker in NY, and they had excellent quaiity, and I must confrss that I played them with a contemporary mouthpiece for my best results. I toured Nova Scotia with a trio called the Mannheim Trio, with Valerie Kinsslow, soprano, and Boyd MacDonald , fortepiano. We played “Parto Parto”, by Mozart, from La Clemenza Di Tito. I cannot qualify the sound or the respnse exactly, but here were instuments with which you had use various harmonic fingerings for certain chromatics. I later had some extra keys added. This in the time of the burgeoning practice of playing all on original instruments.

There was acute pun going around:” What do you do with a BAroque Cello?”FIX IT”

Moving forward, the plastic clarinet made its presence known with the appearance of the Resonite Clarinet by Selmer. There was a cute visual ad of a 1947 Studebaker, you know the one that seemed to be going in both directions at once. There was a larger clarinet joint under each of the four tires holding the car about a foot off the ground. Maybe some remember it.
This was the Selmer version of plastic. All the other makers followed suit, the Yamaha being the most prolific. That clarinet is now number 250, going along with a price, however the is no clarinet made of plastic which has any particular quality of response other than strident. I own a 250, with the prior number, which I believe was 95, though I cannot be sure. This type pf plastic or bakelite or resonite iincludes the Buffet Greenline, made of carbon fibres. Not only is it price the same as the Buffet wooden instrument, it can shatter and break quite easily.

Ultimately, we come to the grenadilla, or sometimes called the mpingo, the most proular material. If you reach back into your memory, you will recall a time of considerable wanting of a clarinet made from grenadilla.
The manufacture of this instrument is most difficult since the wood changes with the temperature, has tedency to crack, all of the joints shrinking and swelling with the change in temperature, and humidity.
At a school where I taught briefly, they had a full time tech. who did nothing but unfreeze barrels from tne top joints of clarinets. Play on a new clarinet in a band rehearsal for several hours at a time and you will even have some instructors directing their student to leave the barrel pulled out a bit, regardless of changes in pitch.
In your youth you learned to want a wooden clarinet. You loved your first one, especially if it had silver plated keys and had a case like your teachers, black with a fitted cover. I certainly did, almost anxiously waiting for the time. Do I remember any special sound or respond it had? It had none, except that which I imparted into the horn with my breath, reed and mouthpiece. And, at whatever level of proficiency I had reached.. There was always a great deal more to accomplish, and it is still constant. One is never finished learning.

Going into various other of the more rarer woods, I have been told by the designer and clarinetmaker, William Ridenour, that cocobolo is almost an impossible wood to work. His only suggestion w as that all of these should be lined with rubber, similar to some bassoons.

Late in the 50s or 60s, Selmer produced its unique model called the “Recital”. Frequently call the FAT Clarinet, it had a narrower bore and a thicker body, resuling is a fine and weighty response. But with any other mouthpiece than the C85, which seemed to be made for the Recital, the tuning was faulty, though quite a lovely response.

I donated my set my University.

All of the above have developed into clarinets having astronomical prices, out of the reach of most if not all families with a clarinet student.I counseled many students to purchase brands at lesser prices, simply because they were good as the more expensive instruments.

And where would there studies lead them? Employment for serious clarinetists is diminishing by the week, if not the day. By the time your parents finished paying for the instrument, it s on the shelf in your closet.

I leave the instrument made from hard rubber or ebonite for last. The reasons are clear. There is an abundance of rubber, a natural substance throughout the world. It is one of the most pliable materials to machine. It is far more stable in pitch and dimension than any wooden clarinet.Because of these reasons it is far easier to produce and to finish, making its acquisition much simpler.

Does any clarinet have an actual sound? NO. A clarinet is an inanimate object. Only you can turn into a beautiful instrument for making music with your acquired knowledge of repertoire, formation and mentorship of someone who knows what it is supposed to sound like.

The varia is most amazing , the results mostly the same.

stay well.

sherman

Leblanc, now a part of Conn-Selmer

It would appear, by all intents and purposes, that
Conn-Selmer has absorbed the Leblanc company, at least within the US.

Conn-Selmer shows no Leblanc artist model clarinets, neither Opus or Concerto; all of Leblanc clarinets, Vito, etc. are being advertised under the Conn-Selmer name.

William Ridenour , the designer of the Opus and Concerto, has been producing the “Libertas” in hard rubber, an exact copy of the Concerto, and incidentally, a superb clarinet, certainly the finest instrument in the Ridenour output. I got the last of the current number of Libertas instruments several weeks past. This particular clarinet was the template for the Lbertas and , as such, doesn’t have the usual and somewhat traditional jump-keys as other Lyrique  and all Leblancs have or had, shall we say.

Not only is this Libertas of mine a superb clarinet, but unique as well, in its traditional layout of the trill keys.

Speaking of “jump-keys”. It is amusing to note that each key having a separate screw implies that in case of emergency, one of these keys may  jump off the clarinet, careening into the eye of a member of the audience , or perhaps a member of the ensemble, or even maybe, let’s hope, into the eyes of a conductor. But, as far as I know or remember, this has never happened. Back in the dark ages, I used to have all-leather pads in these trill keys, may have gotten condensation in one , but never did a key jump off the horn.

So goes the quirks of the industry. It also may be worth mentioning, that clarinets do not change that much  as there is not that much to change, a gimmick here and a doodad there is usually only a sales pitch.

I’m delighted with the change, since it affords the public the opportunity to purchase a superb clarinet in ebonite, one that will not change pitch in a cold hall or crack open when the case comes into the rehearsal from the car or cab on a cold day.

Best of all, an affordable superb clarinet.

I still remember the students whos parents had to borrow money at high interest in order to get their children a “good” clarinet, which , inevitably ends up in the closet, there being so much employment available for clarinetists. The number of orchestras diminish by the week in the US, yet the graduate schools accept more and more aspiring clarinetists who will have to seek other employment.

There is a particular personality that will always produce, mistake-free in an orchestral situation. That doesn’t happen that frequently, in the ultra-sensitive environment of the clarinetist wishing to make a life in a symphony orchestra.

Music has the strangest and most wonderful ability to be loved and enjoyed by all, a necessary function of life. We must always remember the beauty, but perhaps not be ensnared its seductive nature.

stay well, and keep practicing.

 

sherman

 

 

“Fatherhood is the greatest gift of all.” Nathan Friedland

Without a real job, after having returned to college to pursue a nursing career as a 30 year old, with hardly any money or worldly possessions, I cannot ever remember experiencing the joy that I felt while taking the metro back to school after my fiance and I saw a visual representation of our hopes and dreams; the first ultrasound of what would be our baby girl with her tiny heart beating steadily as it seemed to shine like gold on the screen in front of us. Something happened to me that day that I suppose happens to all fathers: we feel a new sense of responsibility, a new sense of purpose, a new sense that if we can make a life, then we can do anything. It was like I had a sudden surge of energy that was almost instinctive, and I knew from that day onward that I would do anything to nurture and protect the heartbeat that I just saw. Like many fathers, I would learn the meanings of the words nurture and protect in a raw and visceral way and perhaps that is why we dads always seem to say “I don’t want anything for father’s day”.
In the months and years that followed, I did my best to do what I thought was right for my new family. Like many dads, I made some mistakes as life threw a few curve-balls my way. My wife became very ill after our daughter was born and I found myself tapping into a survival instinct that I didn’t even know I had in order to get through it. Soon after her recovery, our new infant daughter then became very sick as well, an ordeal so close to my wife’s illness that it threatened my beliefs but at the same time, somehow made me stronger. When the dust settled we bought a house on a tranquil west-island street…without an inspection, mistake number one. A virtual money-pit, I, like many dads, became a “DIY”er. I renovated our bathroom, the kitchen, the roof, our daughter’s bedroom, and even built a new deck after the old one burned down (mistake number two – my fault). I did all these things while working full-time as a nurse, while watching my daughter thrive after surviving a cancer that could have killed her. Then the cars broke (mistake number three – also my fault) and I, once again, like many dads, became a backyard mechanic. I replaced an engine and a transmission, fixed timing belts and did break-jobs as I watched our daughter receive awards in school, one after the other, french, math, she is good at everything. The pipes froze in the winter (mistake number 4 – again, my fault) and like many dads, I became a plumber. Under the house in -30 is not fun, but my daughter was counting on me and I, like many dads, got the job done. That same winter, the pellet stove died (mistake number 5) on the coldest day of the year and we had no heat. “Daddy, I’m cold.” I called a repair-man but there was a 2 week wait for service. Our neighbor offered his house as refuge, but, with pride at stake and a cold daughter to keep warm, I became a stove technician and fixed the stove with help from the internet. When my daughter called her friend as she basted in front of the newly fixed stove and told her how her dad fixed it, I overheard her friend’s dad say “That’s what us dads do.” I was so proud.
The reason I don’t want anything for father’s day is simple: ten years ago I got a gift that is never ending, a gift that has given me the strength of a super-hero able to accomplish anything that needs to get done. Like many fathers, all I have to do is look at my child and I am rejuvenated and healed from whatever is ailing me and that is the greatest gift anyone can receive.

Nathan Friedland

Orchestral Sound: Harold Wright

Amongst the world wide clarinet community, a current topic of conversation has been “Playing in an orchestra” and the abilities needed in order to fill the hall with the sound,and how to attract the listener to that sound, even how to create that sound.
It is not some secret formula, but has directly to do with the playing foundation of the performer, his basic degree of musicality, yes, his ability to emulate an essential singing quality to his performance, and perhaps a special understanding of sound, and the way sound creates beauty. It also has a good deal to do with excellent colleagues who share the same sensibilities and abilities and yes, understanding the concert hall, the venue that you reach by gift and endless practice. First and foremost is the music.
While I have performed the mozart many times, with all qualities of many orchestra, I have never ever really loved the Concerto, or I have never conceived the Mozart in this way of delicacy, wide and exact interpretation of nuance, which comes from both the music and the artist and the orchestra. I have performed the Mozart with the Denver Symphony, with Brian Preistman, The Utah Symphony, with Maurice Abravanel, The Milwaukee , with Harry John Brown, Thw Westchester orchestra , Jens Nygaard, and the Concordia Orchestra , with John Corley.

It was always somewhat of a contest, a bar to get over, or an attempt at perfection, and never did I  succeed, always a disappointment, never such a complete triumph as this performance by the late Harold Wright, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ozawa conducting.

Here is Harold Wright playng the first movement of the Mozart.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIgQrs6WfZ4