And now, Schickele Mix. Ready, Mr. Schickele? I am readier than thou. Here's the theme.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
Hello there, I'm Peter Schickele, and this is Schickele Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. Or as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. And it's good to report that the bills for our show are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts and by this noble radio station within whose marbled walls I sit in this state-of-the-art studio.
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Now say you're a musician and you want to make a career as a soloist. Well, the first thing is you're going to have to travel. That's a given. No, actually the first thing you have to do is win a contest or two and then spend a lot of money to put on a recital in New York so you can get what you hope will be good reviews except that the critics probably won't even come to your concert because you don't have a reputation. Then comes the traveling part. And there are some practical considerations that come into play here.
Unless you're a pianist, you won't be able to travel alone. Concert promoters, at least in my experience, are likely to shy away from unaccompanied bassoon recitals. So you'll need accompaniment, but you will want to keep that to a minimum, which means a pianist. I know you love that piece by the Estonian composer, the one scored for E-flat clarinet, bass trombone, viola d'amore, and sandpaper blocks, but that's four musicians, four plane fares, four hotel rooms. Besides, with that roster, what are you going to program for the rest of the concert? And, speaking of weird pieces, the bulk of your repertoire is going to have to be by mainstream composers, which more or less means pre-20th century. Now, if you're a violinist, hey, no prob. You've got great pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, I could go on and on.
Even taking into account the fact that Chopin didn't write anything for violin and piano, you've got plenty to choose from. But if you're a clarinetist, hold the phone, you've got troubles. You can count the number of great pieces by mainstream composers on the fingers of one hand, and still have enough fingers left over to play a few notes on the instrument.
And the cream of that miniscule repertoire is undoubtedly the pair of sonatas that Brahms wrote at the very end of his life. They're great pieces. But there's one thing about them that testy clarinetists really get ticked off at. And that is that even though it's well known that the sonatas were inspired by the playing of a clarinetist named Richard Mühlfeld, Brahms published them to be playable with clarinet, or viola, or violin for Pete's sake.
What galls the clarinetists is that finally, almost two centuries after the invention of their instrument, they get a couple of top drawer sonatas really written for them, not arrangements, and what happens? String players move in on them. At least with violists it's understandable. Their repertoire is no better off than that of clarinets, but violin? That's immoral.
In point of fact, violinists don't often play the two clarinet sonatas. Brahms furnished them with some sonatas of their own. But violists do play them. And the last straw, the final indignation for clarinetists, is that some people think that the pieces sound better on viola.
How many record producers does it take to change a light bulb? Okay. Okay, how many? I don't know, what do you think?
[music excerpt: Brahms, Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Opus 120, No. 1, 3rd Mvt.; Reginald Kell, clarinet/Joel Rosen, piano]
[music excerpt: Brahms, Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Opus 120, No. 1, 3rd Mvt.; Paul Doktor, viola/Nadia Reisenberg, piano]
The beginning of the Allegretto Grazioso, the third movement of Brahms' Sonata in F minor, Opus 120 No. 1. First we heard clarinetist Reginald Kell, accompanied by Joel Rosen, and then the same excerpt with violist Paul Doktor, accompanied by Nadia Reisenberg. They took the piece considerably faster than Kell and Rosen did.
What do I think? Well, the nice thing, especially in this age of recordings, is that you don't have to choose. You can enjoy the different qualities of both. I grew up with a recording of the other sonata, the E-flat, performed by the great violist William Primrose, and I must say that when I finally heard the clarinet version years later, it took me a while to get used to it, in spite of the fact that I used to play clarinet.
Well, I mean, I played it a little. I switched to bassoon when I was about 14. I certainly never got good enough to play Brahms, but you know, come to think of it, my brother switched from violin to viola right around the same time, so we almost, we came close to having the, at least the potential for both the clarinet and viola versions of these sonatas under the same, I mean, literally under the same roof, but not actually.
I mean we came close but as I said my brother switched to viola I think it was shortly after I quit the clarinet so it wasn't really even a potential thing I mean to say it was would be like that comic strip alley-oop or the Flintstones you know that show cavemen with dinosaurs when actually they didn't really exist at the same time. Okay okay there goes the irrelevancy alarm I can see I'm not going to get away with anything today.
It seems like they adjust that thing, you know, make it more and more sensitive every time... Okay, all right, yes sir! Now, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, you know that business about repertoire is very serious. Now take the brass quintet and the woodwind quintet. There are a lot of fantastic wind players around now, but the repertoires of those groups... I hate to say it, because I've got good friends in brass and woodwind quintets, but let's face it, Their repertoires don't hold a candle to the string quartet literature.
Some years ago I was talking with one of the members of a full-time brass quintet that had been criticized a lot for playing so many arrangements and he said to me, hey, would you want to make your living playing the brass quintet literature? Now violinists with their extensive literature, they may come on all purist about arrangements until somebody writes a really good piece for some other instrument. Prokofiev wrote a flute sonata, and it turned out to be one of his best pieces, one of the few really great works for flute and piano. And so, of course, a violinist talked Prokofiev into making a version for violin. It's like violinists' attitude towards composers is, Hey, it's okay with us if you write pieces for wind players, as long as they're fluffy little French conservatoire pieces or gnarled ponderous opuses that even the composer's mother won't like. But listen, my friend, nobody said anything about writing great pieces. You write a great piece, we want in on it.
Just kidding around here, you know. Just kidding around, everybody. Let's listen to a clarinet sonata, Schickele Mix style. These pieces are all basically for clarinet and piano, although there are sometimes other instruments reinforcing the accompaniment in the spirit of the 18th century concept of continuo, in which two or even three players might be improvising off the keyboard part.
The clarinet sonata number one in E-flat minor has four movements and lasts about 12 minutes. I'll see you then.
[music: Shearing, Three Miniatures, No. 1 (After Hours); James Campbell, clarinet/The Gene DiNovi Trio]
The clarinet sonata number one in E-flat minor, although like many classical sonatas it ended in the major, began with a piece by George Shearing, the jazz pianist. This piece, which was written for the performer here, James Campbell, the clarinetist, is the first of three miniatures.
And there's a very nice thing you know I know George Shearing a bit he always comes to P. D. Q. Bach when he's in town and I go hear him when I'm in town and I gotta tell you something now many of you won't believe this but it's true he is a worse punster than I am and I'd just like to pass on he wrote these pieces for James Campbell after hearing a tape of him play the clarinet and he didn't ask any money for it he just said part of the deal and I'm reading from the liner notes now part of the deal is that whenever Jim plays the He passes on George's request for donations to his favorite charity.
So here goes. Please send any donations to Guide Dogs for the Blind, P.O. Box 1200, San Rafael, California, 94902.
I'm glad to pass that along. Okay, and then, from the same recording, by the way, that was The Gene DiNovi Trio, accompanying James Campbell. Then the next piece, a very lovely little piece by Germaine Tailleferre, a composer who was a member of that loose group of Parisian composers called Les Six. She was the only woman member of it. This was called Arabesque for clarinet and piano.
And then we had the complete third movement from the Brahms F minor Sonata and this time we heard Richard Stoltzman playing accompanied on the piano by Richard Goode. Certainly a better recording than that old Reginald Kell one, much clearer. Then the next piece, and the last one of the sonata, was Omer Simeon playing Beau Koo Jack.
That's B-E-A-U and then K-O-O, Jack. That's from 1929. The pianist was Earl Hines. And it says there's a banjo in there, but I must say I can't hear it. Beaucoup, Jack. Moi, je suis Petit Pete. Jean-Pierre Schickele to you. The show is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Today's show is called Clarinet Plus, and now we're going to talk about clarinets not as soloists, but as responsible citizens and members of the community. On another edition of this show, we talk about how large the clarinet family is, ranging from the little sopranino range E flat clarinet, which is something over a foot long, to the contrabass clarinet, and I think there's actually even a subcontrabass clarinet that you practically have to get up on a stepladder to play. But even your standard garden variety clarinet, the soprano of the family, actually has a range equal to that of soprano, alto, and tenor singers combined, and the instrument fits into a lot of different kinds of ensembles. Not all, though. It hasn't really been a major voice in jazz since the end of the swing era, nor is it a significant part of rock and guitar-oriented folk music.
You know, in certain ways, music is like clothes. There are instrumental fashions. I remember reading how sales of acoustic guitars, which had plummeted after Bob Dylan went electric, skyrocketed when Crosby, Stills & Nash debuted at the original Woodstock Festival and then brought out their first album.
Nevertheless, the clarinet has traveled in quite various company, as you will hear in today's second suite, which is called A Real Team Player. It has four movements, and I'll be back in about 13 minutes.
[music: Papasov, "Hristianova Kopanitsa" (Balkanology); Ivo Papasov & His Orchestra]
[music: Stravinsky/Ramuz, “The Soldier’s Tale,” Little Pastorale; Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Friend]
[music: Page, "Pagin’ the Devil" (Clarinet Marmalade); Lester Young with The Kansas City Six]
[music: Mozart, Trio in E Flat (K 498), 2nd Mvt.; Ensemble Walter Boeykens]
That suite was called A Real Team Player, and that spectacular first cut was from an album called Balkanology by Ivo Papasov and his orchestra. The tune was called Hristianova Kopanitsa, and Ivo Papasov is the clarinetist. He's got an interesting group there with electric bass, saxophone, all sorts of stuff. Then we heard a very brief little cut from The Soldier's Tale by Stravinsky, the little pastoral.
And then after that, that was by the way, members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Lionel Friend, although there were only two instruments there, I don't know how much conducting was going on. And then we heard a nice slow number called Pagin' the Devil. That was The Kansas City Six, recorded in 1938, and the clarinetist was Lester Young, better known as a tenor sax player.
And then finally, the middle movement from Mozart's trio in E-flat for clarinet, viola, and piano. That was the minuet movement played by the Ensemble Walter Boeykens, or something like that. Originally, actually, I was going to end that suite with a work of my own, but then I thought, wait a minute, you can't do a program on the clarinet without some Mozart. He was the first composer to write great stuff for the instrument. You've got to have him.
I must say, though, I'm still feeling a little resentful. Mozart gets much more airplay than I do. Me? I'm Peter Schickele. The show is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Okay, we've heard clarinets in groups. How about groups of clarinets? You'll find that the largest herds of clarinets travel in bands. In some ways, clarinets are to the band what violins are to the orchestra. There are usually more of them than any other instrument, and one of the most characteristic concert band sounds is a bunch of clarinets in unison.
[music excerpt: P. D. Q. Bach, "Grand Seranade for an Awful Lot of Winds & Percussion (S. 1000)" (Music for an Awful Lot of Winds & Percussion); Turtle Mountain Naval Base Tactical Wind Ensemble]
Part of the last movement of the grand serenade for an awful lot of winds and percussion by P. D. Q. Bach, performed by the Turtle Mountain Naval Base Tactical Wind Ensemble. Our last suite today features pieces that feature groups of clarinets, from three to five in each group. The first two works employ a lot of contrapuntal writing, that is, all the parts have melodic interest and rhythmic independence.
The third number, however, in addition to a great solo for the lead clarinet, features clarinets playing in close harmony in their lower register and also wailing away at the top of their range. It's quite a sound. I call this suite, Clarinet Clusters, and I'll see you in about seven minutes.
[music: Templeton arr. Brand, "Bach Goes to Town" (Swing, Swing, Swing); Benny Goodman & His Orchestra]
[music: Graupner, Suite, 5th Mvt. (The Early Clarinet Family); Keith Puddy, Gary Brodie & Paul Price, chalumeaux]
[music: Ellington, "Creole Love Call" (Finest Vintage Jazz, 1917-1941); Adelaide Hall, vocal/Duke Ellington & His Orchestra]
Clarinet Clusters. We began with something from an old LP, Swing, Swing, Swing, Benny Goodman & His Orchestra, and that was called Bach Goes to Town. Written, as I recall, it doesn't say so here, but I'm pretty sure that that was written by Alec Templeton. Let me see if it says it inside.
Yeah, it says inside, Templeton. And there we had all four members of the reed section in Benny Goodman's band, plus Benny Goodman playing clarinets, so a lot of clarinet there. And then we heard, I was cheating a little bit on this next one, this was a trio by Johann Christoph Graupner. This movement was called L'Esperanza, it's from a suite.
And that was three, not clarinets, but chalumeaux, which was a predecessor of the clarinet, and played basically in what is now the lower part of the clarinet range, and interesting little bit of trivia here, you know, when Johann Sebastian Bach went to Leipzig, which was the job that he had for the longest time in his life, he was the third choice, Telemann was offered the job first, he turned it down, and Graupner, this guy, was offered the job second, but his employer, his prince, wouldn't let him go, so they ended up giving the job to Bach.
Well, you know, you gotta make do with what you can. And then finally, Adelaide Hall singing Creole Love Call with Duke Ellington & His Orchestra featuring some really nice clarinet work. You know, jazz and swing bands are a likely place to hear clarinet clusters because, as I said, usually all and certainly most of the sax players are going to be doublers. As a matter of fact, they're usually called reed players. They play sax and clarinet and perhaps flute, even though flutes don't have reeds.
They're thought of as part of the reed section. And at least one of them may play oboe or bassoon. Doublers have a lot of instrument cases to carry, but at least nowadays they cry all the way to the bank since they get paid extra for each double. As a matter of fact, what about this next piece? It's from a symphony whose outer movements employ pairs of oboes and horns no flutes but this middle movement uses pairs of flutes and horns no oboes it's hard to avoid the thought that the flutes and oboes were originally played by doublers I wonder if they had those little stands you know with the rubber covered dowels sticking up to put their instruments on when they weren't being played probably not
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
Mozart's 24th Symphony. That's Schickele Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members. Thank you, members. And not only that, our program, once it achieves a certain minimum level of competence, is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International.
We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program with album numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number. This is Program 84. And this is Peter Schickele saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. You're looking good. See you next week.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Schickele Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Schickele Mix. Care of Public Radio International, 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.