Robert Marcellus, one of America’s greatest and most Teaching Syllabus influential clarinettists and teach- ers, died on 31 March, 1996. He H. Klose Complete Method Mozart Concerto, K622 was principal clarinettist of the Rose 40 Etudes, Part I Debussy Rhapsodie , under Rose 40 Etudes, Part II Copland Concerto , from 1953 - 1973. Rose 32 Etudes Brahms Quintet, Op. 115 During his tenure in Cleveland, he Baermann Complete Method, Part III Mozart Quintet, K581 Rose-Rode 20 Grandes Studies Beethoven Op. 16 for Winds and Piano was Department Head at Cavallini 30 Caprices (Ricordi Ed.) Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds, K452 the Cleveland Institute. After his Baermann Complete Method, Part IV Beethoven Trio for Cello, Clar. & Piano, Op.11 retirement from the orchestra, he Baermann Complete Method, Part V Brahms Trio for Cello, Clar. & Piano, Op.114 was Professor of Clarinet at JeanJean l6 Modern Etudes Mozart Trio for Clar. Piano & Viola, K498 from Polatschek Advanced Studies Schubert “Shepherd on the Rock” for Clar., Stark Arpeggio Studies Voice & Piano 1974 - 1994. His week-long mas- International Music Edition Orchestral Schumann Fantasy Pieces, Op.72 ter classes, held each summer Excerpts, Vols. l-8 Stravinsky 3 Pieces for Clarinet Solo (1974 - 87) were one of the high- Bonade The Clarinetist’s Compendium Brahms Sonatas, Op.120, No. 1 & 2 lights of his teaching career. Weber Concertino Bernstein Sonata for Clar. & Piano

The following interview with Robert Marcellus is taken from a series of interviews conducted by James Gholson with a number of prominent American clarinettists and teachers. They were each asked to respond to the same set of questions regarding teaching and performance. Australian Clari- net and Saxophone is pleased to publish a shortened version of one of those interviews. Interview with Robert Marcellus James Gholsonholson: Do you encourage stu- anything. And you know you can get gone through it myself. That’s why I feel dents to keep journals? the complete parts from Kalmus. You comfortable with it. And as far as the Robert Marcelluscellus: I don’t do it as a can get a folder with the Fourth, Fifth, repertoire is concerned, I don’t know, conscious part of a program. On occa- and Sixth symphonies of Tschaikovsky, there may be notable omissions. Occa- sion, I’ve said, “Make sure when you and a couple of the overtures and the sionally, I use the Hindemith Sonata, but leave here to write down just a couple of piano concertos thrown in, and they are it’s not a terribly strong piece. things that have been important today.” all the complete parts. I recommend, if And I find in a so-called four or five- I have not encouraged it. But I once read he can afford them, that the student buy year curriculum here at Northwestern the notes that my friend John Krell of the complete parts of the thirty or forty University, or at a conservatory when I the Philadelphia Orchestra kept – copi- works that are showing up on auditions. was in Cleveland, I restrict myself essen- ous notes after all his lessons with I would add that there are some won- tially to these pieces. And that’s plenty William Kincaid – and he ultimately put derful technical studies that I have never to cover for a curriculum. them in the form of a notebook and used myself. I never studied them; that’s What exercises have you personally called it Kincadiana. It made some of why I don’t use them. But the Uhl stud- developed that would be useful to the the most interesting reading that I can ies, I understand, are good for technical developing clarinetist? recall. I think it’s a good idea. development, and there are other such Well, there it is: Klose’s Book I. Prac- I have a teaching syllabus. Do you have books: the Jettel, The Accomplished Clari- tical exercises – those eight-note one- any additional ideas on that? netist, for instance. Many of those things measure exercises for developing finger I would amend this syllabus to include I don’t happen to use, but that doesn’t technique and finger action. Practical Bonade Orchestral Excerpts and Interna- mean they wouldn’t be good technique exercises – sixteenth-note measures. I tional Music Edition Orchestral Excerpts. to go through. You’ve noticed that I’ve find it invaluable to practice those at Also, there is a book of the French left out some of the studies of Perier and M.M. > = 60, playing two notes to a orchestral repertoire, a book of opera rep- people like that. That doesn’t mean that beat, and then four notes to a beat, a ertoire, and the Strauss orchestral ex- they’re not very, very fine studies to use. sort of daily or metronome exercise. cerpts – any orchestral excerpts, whether So this list is just sort of what I studied, What part do you feel transposition plays in they’re compiled in a volume or not, just and I know the material from having the development of the young clarinetist?

March 1999 15 It’s more important than would be Orchestra. As far as listening to record- How often do you play duets with your reflected in my studio. I picked up trans- ings, I think that it behooves all students students? position sort of on the job. I guess I have to listen to the recordings of the stand- That’s something I don’t do. I must a pretty good ear. No, I think mostly for ard orchestral repertoire, as long as it’s say that is primarily because my teach- the C clarinet business, we should have been conducted by an extremely good ing is limited to some quite gifted and it, and occasionally I will assign a Rose conductor. Good at what they do: a fine quite accomplished, proficient players. study to be played on C clarinet. Again, Brahms conductor, or a fine Mozart con- I encourage them, however, to play with that may be an omission in my teach- ductor. There are such things as tempi each other any of these transcriptions or ing, but it has not been a militant part and style, so that they know where nice duets for two . But I think of my curriculum at all – a deliberate orchestral excerpts are and how they fit it’s terribly important in the development part. It should be, though. into the music tempo-wise, stylewise, of the high school age or the junior high Do you encourage the memorization of that sort of thing. I wish we had more of school age, particularly at that age. I opera and orchestral excerpts? the older recordings to listen to as far as think it’s very important not only to play By all means. It’s striking to me when clarinet sound is concerned. I think for the student to make him hear what I say – well, we’re trying a mouthpiece about clarinet sound today, the way I feel it should really sound like, for otherwise or an embouchure principle and I say, about orchestral performances today, and he would never know, but also to play “Let’s take that solo at the end of the there are a lot of very fine performances, an equal voice with him so he realizes, first movement of the Pastorale.” And but not really great, great performances. “Gee, I’ve got to play as loud as he plays.” all of a sudden, the student starts thumb- I am inclined to feel that way about clari- At least they can start getting a founda- ing through the books on the stand and net sound today. It seems to me to be tion of the reality of playing the instru- looking in the table of contents to find coming a little bit off the wall and not as ment, rather than something they think this excerpt. That shows that the student beautiful as it used to be. I think there it ought to be. hasn’t really practiced the excerpt or stud- are a lot of fine clarinet players, and a lot How do you teach staccato? ied it. It shows me many times about a of fine clarinet tones, but I don’t think Pretty much as laid in this compen- 60% approach to the profession, which there is anything to compare with a dium. [ed. Daniel Bonade’s A Clarinet means that that sort of student is gener- Bonade or a young McGinnis or Player’s Compendium] There are a lot of ally doomed, anyway. McLane. That kind of beauty just doesn’t very simple truths in there. And the thing seem to exist. How do you teach attacks? I like about the short staccato is that one Well, a wonderful principle, as Bonade Just out of curiosity, what are your must learn this to have a complete phrased it, is that the attack is the with- thoughts on Louis Cahuzac? alphabet at one’s beck-and-call to inter- drawal of the tongue from the reed. That Oh, I remember so well his recording pret music. The short staccato is some- has to do with the whole world of of the Hindemith, and although he was times abused and therefore maligned by articulation: t’s and d’s and tah’s and a very elderly gentleman when he people who hear that and then say, “I dah’s and do’s and to’s and thuh’s and recorded that, the interesting thing to wouldn’t play like that for anything in all kinds of things. Attacks are simply me is that the basic timbre of his sound the world.” The lovely thing is to make talking on the reed. But most people was very much akin to what I call the the best comparison of sound with your slam the reed too hard because their classical tradition of the French clarinet nicest straight slurred tone and to make tongues are floating all around their of the current day. The clarinet of the sure your sound is exactly the same, how- mouths as an inert sort of a blob with- first war. It’s an extremely vibrant sound, ever brief of duration, as your best out any poise or control. You can see that very luminous, not small – having a unstaccato or unslurred sound. Staccato at the master classes this week: a “guh” lovely round hue to it, but with a kind is just one of the hundred varieties of kind of “tuh” where they’re throwing an of intense center to it, without being articulations on the clarinet. I definitely uncontrollable muscle on the reed, rather buzzy as such, but very luminous and do teach the prepared fingers, stopping than a nicely poised one. Generally vibrant. It’s an interesting sound. the reed with the tongue and moving speaking, articulations, if the student has What volumes do you see as necessary to ahead to the next note ahead of time. them at all, are proper position of the the library of a clarinet player in terms And also stopping the slur in mixed tongue. But attacks are strictly phonet- of reed-making books, that sort of thing? articulations with the tongue and mov- ics on the reed. I don’t think any acoustical books are ing the fingers ahead. Even though it has to be practiced slowly at first and sounds What recordings do you feel are prime necessary to the clarinet player. One should read the section on reed adjust- a bit unmusical, the short stop of a slur listening in the development of the clari- in scherzando music is a very desirable netist? ment in the Bonade Compendium or Kal Opperman’s book on how to hand- musical aspect. (Sings Rossini’s La Gazza Unfortunately, these recordings are no make reeds. We have a couple of inde- Laddra to demonstrate). longer available, but it’s interesting to me pendent study research papers done by Do you have any long tone exercises that to trace the lineage of a beautiful clari- graduate students concerning the Reed you use with your students? net sound: a young Robert McGinnis Du-All machine. Some of the papers are I don’t as such. Again, I’m talking of the Philadelphia Orchestra, principal really wonderful reading, employing the about very proficient students. But I can position in the mid 30’s; my teacher technique of how to make reeds and that well remember the very first thing I ever Bonade before him; Ralph McLane, sort of thing. And I’m sure there are some did for my teacher Mr. Handlon in who came later into the Philadelphia books that I don’t know about. Minneapolis, who was such a serious

16 Australian Clarinet and Saxophone teacher, was simply to play a low “E” the Casals interpretation of one of the How do you teach support? with the metronome on 60 and hold it Bach suites, trying to get that student to The old business about, as Selmer said, for ten beats, then without moving any- play it exactly as Casals would have breathing into your stomach – not liter- thing, especially the wind, to push the played it. It was just to test the ear, but ally, but figuratively. When I take a register key to sustain middle “B” for unconsciously it gave an eye-opening to breath, it’s very deep and the abdominal another eight beats or so, and diminu- some of the phrasing. Not that one stomach wall expands. It feels pectorally endo, then low “F” and that sort of thing. would have to agree or would necessar- like I’m inflating an inner tube or a bal- I certainly applaud that at a certain time ily want to agree with everything that loon and the bottom part keeps inflated in the development of the clarinetist. Casals did, but it was a nice exposure to as one plays. It’s a good feeling; it’s a good, Do you employ rhythms in your teach- that kind of music-making. The Bach healthy, deep torso kind of feeling about ing? studies are fine and they occupy a proper playing. It’s not rigorous at all – quite I hope so! It would be pretty monoto- place. They’re a little like the JeanJean the contrary – but it’s a very deep sus- nous without it. I don’t know how to studies musically in that the JeanJean taining kind of support. It just automati- take that question! studies require nobody else in the room cally sustains. I think we saw that this playing with you, but just a capella. morning in the class with the gentleman Do you change rhythms of scales, use That’s what’s nice about them. that played the Copland. I kept won- alternate rhythms, etc.? What misconceptions do you feel exist in dering why he wasn’t projecting. He was No, but you must remember, Jim, that just whispering; as soon as he began sup- I’m dealing with very accomplished stu- the teaching of the clarinet? Mostly horrible sound! porting, the tone came out – it was am- dents to begin with. It’s interesting, plified better. Really, that’s the old because I notice in dotted rhythms how Yes, you talked about a wide, open throat. Kincaid approach about pushing out and inconsistent they are in a lot of these stu- Well, that’s death to a beautiful sound. down. I suppose that’s what they meant, dents, unknowingly, in repetitions. They Misconceptions taught are open throat, although I never studied with either one aren’t able to hold the same exact inci- anchor-tonguing, or worse sometimes – of them, and that’s the only way to go. siveness rhythmically (sings dotted pas- chin or lip or hand vibrato as we see it sage). I’m a little like my dear colleague practiced occasionally. It’s a misconcep- How do you teach embouchure? Mr. Brody: “One either plays in rhythm tion that it’s easy to play in an orchestra. My teacher said take what is natural or one doesn’t.” There’s no such thing as But it’s easier to play in a good orchestra and develop it, in the natural formation playing pretty well in rhythm. It has to than a bad orchestra. Oh yes, another of the mouth, lip, teeth and jaws. I see be perfect all the time. Then we look for misconception is that double lip gives a some pretty funny embouchures com- the reasons why it isn’t perfect. Then I fuller sound. Quite the contrary. It gives ing in here. Of course, I didn’t study with might assign something to correct it. a smaller sound. Henri Selmer and I don’t know anybody that did, but he had a wonderful way of What literature for other media have you Do you have some set procedures on reed verbalizing a few things, like “The lips found valuable in your teaching, for adjustment? How would you like to see around the mouthpiece must always instance the Bach cello suites? that improved as far as teaching is con- have the same pressure and must never Those I recommend and Corroyez did cerned? vary;” and “The lips should be like a a wonderful group of transcriptions; they I think in a sense I do. Of course, rubber band around the mouthpiece,” are not available now. It was a French there’s no point in doing anything if you in a way. That says a great deal. My printing, not Durand or one of the big don’t have good cane. There’s only one teacher said the more lower lip one can publishers, a beautiful edition on a reason for handmaking reeds, besides the take inside one’s embouchure and con- capella violin works and cello suites obvious economical advantage, and that sequently the farther down on the reed registrated beautifully for the clarinet. would be if you could get better cane the lip can be placed with comfort, the Those are out of print, incidentally, and than is available. And, of course, you can more beautiful the sound. It’s simple to I would like to see those reprinted. I guess construct the reed according to a certain equate that, because the more lip you H. Voxman did some Bach things. Also architecture, including the heel, which I take in, the more vibrating reed surface Giamperi. I recommend those particu- think is important. The Vandoren and larly for professionals in the summer Lurie reeds, to my way of thinking, are you have inside the mouth and the far- when they have no instrumental ensem- just too thin in the bark area and conse- ther down you are to the middle of the bles, or no orchestra, so they’re left with quently lack structural stability. It might reed. This way you can play all day with- their electric fan and a bucket of ice water have nothing to do with playing strength out bending the reed. The mouth struc- and a chair and a music stand and their or the vibrating part of the reed, but if tures, bite structures, and teeth structures clarinet to practice all summer. Those you get a good thick heel like the Morre’s, are all so different – we all have to find it are good then because they are self-suf- it’s been proven time and time again that – but basically it should be a compatible ficient and you don’t need an orchestra it will produce a much steadier reed and thing, so that one can just collect it and or accompanist. Also, it gives us a pretty greater longevity. But the trick in adjust- put it around the mouthpiece. A lot of good chance to emulate the finer aspects ing reeds, really, is balancing the reed. people blow into their cheeks and that of a good stringed bow technique – to That’s where a lot of the art comes in. sort of thing, or they don’t have a good emulate the sound of down bows or off- And it’s not that hard, really, to balance lower lip relationship to their lower jaw, the-string or lifts which is so compatible a reed one side to another. That means a or they don’t take enough mouthpiece to and synonymous with that style. Years lot in the evenness, the speed of vibra- into their mouth on the top, etc. It’s one ago, I had students come in and study tion of a reed. of those more difficult aspects of teaching

March 1999 17 and that’s why a lot of teachers stay away you play with your ring finger of your time? Absolutely. Mr. Szell used to have from it. They don’t know what an left hand, is strictly a chromatic finger- a wonderful piece of advice for fledgling embouchure is and they don’t know what ing. And the two side trill keys are not conductors. He said, “You’ve got to think is correct. A lot of them play with incor- chromatic “F#” like a lot of people play. with your heart and feel with your rect embouchures themselves, so how The chromatic of “F#” is just the index brain.” And that’s a perfect combination. can they teach it? But it’s a little exhaust- finger in the left hand. The Stark Arpeg- This whole business when you see a ing for both student and teacher some- gio Studies are where I catch up on that. certain conductor, a former conduc- times if it’s a problem, and it takes If a student somewhere in his develop- tor of the New York Philharmonic, for patience to correct it; and it’s a little bit ment on his way here to study with me instance, getting up in the one part of stressful all the way around. has not been taught the proper the Bach B minor Mass, the crucifixus, Do you do some specific things with your fingerings, then we do go back to chap- actually assuming the pose of the cruci- upper lip? ter and verse, and very carefully, I go back fix, and he’s hanging on the cross and Oh yes. Just like the lower chin, point- and mark all the appropriate left little doing bumps and grinds with his pelvis ing the lower chin and all that. But the finger, right little finger, fork l, fork 2, at the same time. That’s not how you upper lip is definitely slightly tucked side Bb, chromatic Bb, fork Bb through- should interpret music. The interpreter, under itself, and I insert different vary- out the first several of the Stark Arpeg- whether it’s a clarinetist or a conductor, ing degrees of pressure with the top lip gios, just to make sure he does the correct has one obligation to illuminate the score onto the mouthpiece to control the lev- fingerings. Because a lot of people use to the listener. To illuminate the com- erage of the lower jaw. wrong fingerings that can hamper tech- poser to the listener: what the composer nique. wrote to the listener. And that takes a lot Do you think of the top lip as being In what order do you evaluate fundamen- of thought processes. And a lot of stu- against the teeth or against the mouth- dents have the wrong idea. They want piece? tals in solving problems with regard to semi-professionals? to go into music because it’s a wonder- Simultaneously. It’s two things at once. ful, wonderful, beautiful thing, and a It’s against the teeth and against the Well, of course, the wind, the embou- chure, and, so closely aligned with that, personal thing to all of us. No question. mouthpiece, so it’s tucked very neatly. But one must think constantly: number That’s what gives you the musculature the shape of the oral cavity. Hand posi- tion, steadiness of the wind, the jaws, one to avoid disaster, but number two, of the top lip. Otherwise, it’s too placid it’s a wonderful combination of three and doesn’t have the strength. the lips, the oral cavity, the clarinet in the embouchure, the clarinet in the things. It’s based on a marvellous instru- And you think of a triangle? hands, and the axis of the palms of the mental craft to begin with. You’ve got to Oh, very definitely, just put the dim- hands themselves, the knuckles being as know your instrument and be proficient. ple in the chin and blow through the quiet as possible off of which the fingers You’ve got to have aspiration of the heart, straw and you’ve got it. A good embou- operate. Those are some of the basic there’s no question about that, that’s what chure is basically a very simple thing, things, but then, of course, I spend as makes music good. But you also have to although we talk about it in detail to much time on the basics of music, on think every second. correct certain false embouchures. But musical interpretations, simple phrase How do you teach legato fingerings? it’s really quite simple in the last analy- lines and their expression, as I do on the In a variety of ways. First of all, the sis. instrumental thing. I believe firmly, as I traditional way that so many of the fine You use a patch on the top of your mouth- said at the class, that if you know the clarinet players in this country who stud- piece. musical path, it has to solve the instru- ied with Bonade started, like Rose 40 Yes, but it’s a very thin one, extremely mental problem. You cannot let your- Studies #l: at a very slow tempo, raising thin. self play incorrectly or roughly, or ugly the fingers very slowly and putting them Do you want to add anything on chro- or unsmoothly, or unbrillantly. The ba- down softly without making clicking matic fingerings? Please mark the follow- sics become more important, not less noises – getting instantaneous coverage ing scales to illustrate the fingerings you important, as one distills throughout the of the open holes simultaneously with use in each chromatic scale. years. That’s true of any great musician all fingers and doing it more or less to It’s an important thing, and just as a and I’ve talked with some incredible get a vocal interval, not a glissando, as personal confession, I don’t think I am world-class musicians who all agree and opposed to a mechanical interval. (There exhaustive in my follow-through on that. uphold the simple basic truths that are other ways of looking at legato.) I’m That should be taught at the first stage, become the most meaningful and most a great believer that the hands should be so that for instance, when you play a mature form of knowledge. That’s why completely in accord with the musical middle “B” on the third line in treble they are so important at the outset. Ter- situation, so if a passage calls very obvi- clef, it should basically be fingered with ribly important. ously for a very sustained legato, like the the left little finger. But along with it (al- What is the reasoning clarinetist and do second movement of Brahms’ Third though you don’t need it), the right lit- you avail yourself and your students of a Symphony. I believe in playing with the tle finger should go down on the “C” mental accounting of all mechanical fingers into the clarinet, so to speak, key. It’s that sort of prudence. And the activity? holding the clarinet very steadily and side low “D#” or “Eb” key, that is the If I understand your question correctly then with somewhat strong fingers – primary fingering for that. The little fork – do I paraphrase it properly when I say playing legato through the phrase with- key to produce the same note on top that you’ve got to think every second of the out making any key noise, without

March 1999 19 making any abrupt changes, but with When do you practice and how often? Polatschek. The Baermann’s a wonder- great sustaining and blend. A passage like I’m not supposed to any more. My ful routine and it takes a lot of patience. the Ravel Septet, in the chalumeau reg- doctor has told me not to practice. But For people who don’t have that kind of ister for the A Clarinet – that’s one of when I was with the Cleveland Orches- time and that kind of intensity of effort, the most beautifully, naturally contoured tra, the only thing I would practice really the Klose works just as well. It’s not quite legato phrases I can think of. And if you would be unusually difficult clarinet as good because it doesn’t cover the range, have your “musical ears” screwed on cor- passages – possibly the Ginastera as you know, but it’s very condensed and rectly, you cannot play that any other Variciones Concertantes comes to mind, very synopsized. Just doing that for l/2 way than legato. That’s the sort of thing or a certain fleeting passage in the Roussel hour or an hour a day for four months, where if you keep the wind spinning ap- Bacchus and Ariane, or the Villa-Lobos many, many problems just take care of propriately without impediment, it’s Choros #l0, things like that I would prac- themselves. almost like not making any key noises tice. But I did most of my playing with How do you employ the metronome in when you change your fingers. Some- a superb orchestra every day and you your teaching and practice? times that calls for a certain amount of don’t really require practice because your When I was a student, I employed it inherent strength in the curve of the fin- reflexes and concentration and brain- fairly often at outset of the Klose practi- ger. Sometimes it takes a lot of strength power is honed so sharply every second cal exercises: two notes to a beat with to play legato with strong fingers and while you’re playing. And that’s the best the metronome at 60, and then four good control. Sometimes, depending on thing. And then I got there about an notes to a beat without interruption. the intervals or the musical situation, it hour or fifty minutes, maybe, before Then I would use it as a criterion for takes very little inherent strength in the rehearsal or a concert and did a lot of evenness of scales on in my development fingers. It depends on the intensity of woodshedding then on the repertoire I when I was practicing as a student. Then, the music, actually. was going to play, whether it was the when I was cranking up to return to the What angle is used when raising the technical combinations or just the place- National Symphony, I started practicing fingers up? ment of solos in the Pastoral Symphony again after three years in the Air Force If you take the proper curve of the fin- of Beethoven. So that’s the kind of prac- and I remember going through the gers, it’s just like you tell the little kids to tice I would do. At one time in my life, advanced studies of Victor Polatschek hold a tennis ball in the palm of their the only time I really did practice as a and setting a reasonable, but challeng- hands. That is the proper curve for the student, I practiced five hours a day – ing metronome tempo for every one of hands. Now the hand just simply opens for two weeks. And at the end of the those etudes and playing them straight up. I would say that it never really goes first week I played the first eight etudes through with the metronome without all the way to a full, straight extension of from the JeanJean for Bonade, Sixteen interruption, and not going on to work the fingers, but almost. If we were read- Etudes Moderne, and at the end of the on a new study until I had played once ing on a compass and the hand is point- second week, the final eight of the six- through without one hitch of either ing due west at a 270´ angle, I would teen. So I covered the sixteen etudes in rhythm or wrong note, and that took say you get up to about 340´ or some- two lessons, which was quite extraordi- some doing. But I learned a great deal thing like that. Instead of an arbitrary nary, but it shows what can be done with from that. It’s discipline, organization – “how much do you raise the fingers?” It a really concentrated effort. I was that’s what the metronome’s results are depends solely on the elevation of the practicing about four or five hours a day. in practicing. music. The phrase would go from the What did your warm-up or practice What alternate fingerings do you employ “B” to the “D” and the index finger in consist of? for the altissimo register? the left hand would arch with the phrase. I had no warm-up – the warm-up was Well, I use that so-called double fork So the hands must be completely in ac- getting the reed straightened out and fingering for the high “G” in the piano cord with the music. unwrinkled so to speak, just getting the subito measure in the middle of the What is the role of the upper lip in your reed set for the morning, but there was Beethoven Eighth Symphony, Third embouchure? no warm-up as such. That’s not neces- Movement. But, by and large, I use the Plenty! Tucked under itself slightly and sary if you come to terms with an first, or what I like to call the legitimate, pressing down on the mouthpiece again embouchure that you just turn on like a playing fingering for all of the altissimo depending on the intensity or the light switch every morning – one that notes. On the double high “Bb,” of amount of lower jaw control I want to doesn’t bend the reed or get all irregular, course, I like to use the fork fingering, use. I use that as a lever. I arch the soft but just turn on. The warm-up consisted which also includes the low “F” finger- palette in the back of the mouth and also mostly practicing a few passages for the ing for the left hand, that sort of thing, as a lever by which I control the hang or day’s events or selecting the proper reed. to try and get a good sound out. And if placement of the lower jaw. It’s like So what does that mean for students in I’m playing a solo with a high “Ab” above Selmer said – using all the lips in your terms of a warm-up? the staff, I use the high “D”, but instead embouchure. I would really recommend that if a of the “Eb” key in the right hand, I use And you feel that the top lip helps in your student is to show up for the practice the low “F#” key, which makes a bell downward slurs? studio at 9:00, that he show up one hour tone out of it. Occasionally, the solo of earlier and practice Baermann III scales, the middle section of Don Quixote by Oh, downwards slurs, upward slurs. I thirds, interrupted chords of the 7th, etc. Strauss that goes up to the high “F” that use it all the time. Stark Arpeggio Studies or Jettel or sort of soars over the whole orchestra, I

20 Australian Clarinet and Saxophone use the covered “F” for that. But outside Opportunity is a great variable. There abusing it too much. You just played of that, quite legitimate. Once in a while are a lot of wonderful musicians who them until they soaked up, which was the high “E” in Don Juan in the lyric haven’t surfaced because of lack of op- very rare – that’s why I liked the cane so solo, I will depress the low “E” key with portunity. Being in the right place at the much – then, maybe you’d stop playing my left little finger, but as in the legiti- right time. Proper training is important. them. mate, or playing a fingering, I will keep All of the ingredients that go into reach- What about Dutch rush? ing the “state of the art”, is that what the right little finger on the “Eb” key. I I used to use it when I was a student you meant? Opportunity, and paren- do that once in a while. But as far as and in my early days in Washington, in thetically involved in that sometimes is technical fingerings are concerned, with the Washington National Symphony. a great deal of luck. Being in the right technical passages, I don’t use any of the But I have come to respect the reed knife. place at the right time. It’s almost like an open “D’s” or anything like that. Abso- It’s a little more accurate and I can use a accident of birth. If you think you are lutely legitimate fingerings. That’s the very nice brushing stroke with a good bad off, or wonder why it couldn’t have best. edge and a blending stroke, just as much been better for you – you could always What importance do you assign to throat as the Dutch rush. I never use it. have been born in some hole in South- posture and vowel sounds to achieve your east Asia. It’s almost like that sort of thing How has the art of clarinet teaching and concept of sound? as far as the opportunity and circum- performance changed since you were a Okay, very simple. Alexander Selmer stances being conducive to the develop- student? said think “e” while playing, particularly ment of the talent to reach the “state of Plenty. In some ways better, in some in the high register. That has been mis- the art”. Then of course, once it starts, ways worse. That would be an entirely understood on occasion by zealous stu- once I got my position, the exposure for separate paper. As I said in class last night, dents. Sometimes a good, hard “eh” a month to Bruno Walter and all the the time in which I grew up as a stu- mouthpiece, it’s very simple, you keep symphonies of Mozart and Brahms and dent, and that I started playing profes- the “eh” and close the mouth with an that sort of thing, then it’s like the kin- sionally, and in a sense, even my last days “ooh” and you get “eh,” plus “ooh,” like dling of fire. Then it’s got to get better. in the Cleveland Orchestra, things were a German umlaut. Never opening the Seems a little unjust that there is oppor- not quite as frantic, the pace of living throat at all, as such, just keep a natural tunity involved in it. Absolutely. was not quite as fast. Certain things have sort of position. Opening the throat too improved in this country all the way wide slows the wind. What tools do you recommend for reed making and adjustment? around over the time I grew up. There’s To what extent do you employ styles of A Herder knife from Herder Cutlery no question about that. But certain com- vibrato? in Philadelphia, a hard Arkansas oil plexities have been introduced that make None whatsoever, except in Rhapsody stone, one of those little pocket jobs, the pace much faster. The artistic poli- in Blue. Or the Second Rhapsody of emery board, a Cordier reed clipper, and cies of the country’s orchestras are being Gershwin or the I Got Rhythm Varia- I use both 220 #320 wet or dry Tri-M- dictated by record companies and record tions, another piece by Gershwin with a Ite sandpaper. royalties, and cartel managements that little jazz clarinet solo. There was one contrive a whole international monopoly piece written by Lothar Kline called What kind of clarinet do you use? of artists in London, England. That kind Musique a Go Go for symphony orches- Buffet. of thing. The time for individual reflec- tra that has a little jazz clarinet lick in it, Why do you use that particular kind of tion, and the 36-week season is over. It’s as I recall. I use vibrato in jazz, but I can’t reed knife? just what bus to be on to catch the right imagine using it in a symphony orches- Well, it’s the nicest feeling reed knife plane to go to the right concert; how tra, in any orchestra whatsoever. I just in the entire world. Just try it! many concerts you can jam into one want to say one thing, so you can get What is your process for reed adjustment? week in a symphony orchestra for rev- me on tape! The only reason an oboist Well, I had awfully good cane the years I enue, as opposed to the five rehearsals a uses vibrato is because you cannot stand was playing Morre reeds in the Cleveland week we had in the Cleveland Orches- the sound of the instrument without it. Orchestra. For breaking in, did you say? tra for every pair of weekly concerts. Five How do you come the closest to achieving No, with preparing it for performance or rehearsals a week. And that gives one a the “state of the art?” breaking in. lot of time for reflection, and individu- Okay, like I said at the class the other Well, actually – selection and adjust- ality, and very sober musical thought, day, I firmly believe it takes three things: ment. I used to open a box of a dozen very probing musical thought. No it’s aspiration of the heart, great instrumen- Morre reeds – 2 or 2 1/2 – and select largely question of just getting the tal skill, and brainpower. That’s one way two or three “live” ones. I understand, notes and trying to play with some of looking at it. How do I reach the state somebody told me years ago, that that kind of flourish or pizzazz. That’s of the art? As Bonade once said, one has was pretty much the way Stanley about it – rather than the unique art- to have – he used the poetic expression, Drucker used to take the Vandorens out, istry of some of the clarinetists that you “a divine fire” – to want to play. Of picked one out of the box and threw the heard last night at the retrospective, course, it’s predicated to talent, basic others away. That’s kind of what I did. my predecessors. sense of rhythm, pitch, tone. But you Sure, I adjusted them and I took a little – James Gholson is Professor of Clarinet also have to have a burning desire – you care in breaking them in. But the Morre at the University of Memphis (USA). Visit wouldn’t want to live without it! That, cane at the time I was playing was so his web site at http://unitus.ml.org. plus experience and opportunity. good that you didn’t have to worry about

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