BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Welcome to our series, What the Fact?!
Throughout 2018, we’re teaming up with talent at the Australian National Academy of Music to bring you informed answers to real questions and topics about your music career.
Ever wondered why you feel performance anxiety? What the deal is with tuning to 440Hz – or not? How to lead an orchestra? We’re here to tell you all about it.
This is Dimitri Ashkenazy, and he knows heaps about the clarinet:
Dimitri is, in fact, a soloist and chamber musician who has appeared on stages from the Sydney Opera House to the Hollywood Bowl. He has played on radio, for album and television recordings. He has performed in concert with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given masterclasses the world over.
And he’s done it all on the clarinet of his choosing.
Which one is his favourite – the B-flat, the E-flat…or even something else? Let’s find out what the differences are, first.
Hacking the clari
What was your reaction when you were a young student of clarinet and first discovered…there’s more!?
I was fascinated, and in particular by the E-flat (and its close sister, the D clarinet). I started looking for all the pieces in which the E-flat clarinet featured – mostly the large orchestral works by the likes of Shostakovich and Mahler – but also for any solo or chamber works, of which unfortunately there are only very few.
The orchestral solos are great. Apart from the two I’ve already mentioned, the better-known composers – perhaps Ravel, Richard Strauss, and Stravinsky – used the little clarinets most effectively.
What can the E-flat do that the B-flat can’t?
The E-flat has a particularly penetrating, piercing sound; and as a result is most frequently used by composers for incisive, jagged solos – something it can bring off more convincingly than a B-flat (although, in its very high register, the B-flat can sound pretty penetrating, too).
As its lower range is limited, compared to the B-flat, it is more difficult to make the E-flat sound mellow and smooth – something one normally associates with clarinet sound. There are some exceptional E-flat specialists out there, though, who manage it!
These two types of clarinet are most commonly referred to by key. In comparison, we often label the others as ‘alto’ or ‘bass’. Why are the E-flat and B-flat instruments closer related?
I think it has to do with the keys on the instruments themselves. All the commonly used clarinets referred to by their pitch (A, B-flat, C, D, E-flat) have, essentially, the same keys. Once the instrument gets considerably longer than manageable with those keys, and needs more keys to cover the extra ground (as it were), one starts to refer to it by a different name (alto clarinet, basset horn, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet).
Often, though, the pitch will be added to that (alto clarinet in E-flat, basset horn in F, bass clarinet in B-flat, contrabass clarinet in B-flat, etc.). Actually, the E-flat is often referred to as ‘piccolo clarinet’, as well!
What do the two keys demand of the player, from technique to knowledge of transposition?
Often, the parts from which we play are for a specific instrument of a specific pitch. But it can often happen that the player decides to play it on a comparable sister instrument (parts in A or in C on the B-flat clarinet; or parts in D on the E-flat clarinet, for example). This is often a question of convenience: not having to warm up the other instrument, intonation issues related to that, the part’s difficulty or ease on one or the other clarinet, or even not wanting the stress of having to change in a short time or just before a solo.
So as far as transposition is concerned, all clarinettists, or nearly all those who perform at least, will encounter it at some point. As far as the techniques are concerned, basically those of the B-flat and the E-flat are the same. But, as the E-flat is smaller, it takes some getting used to the smaller spaces between the holes and the keys, and to the smaller mouthpiece; and even just to the fact that when you finger the note, it sounds so much higher than normally!
One tends to have a little more ringing in the ears after practising E-flat, as well..
The most common of the two in solo instrumental repertoire appears to be the B-flat. Why do you think composers have historically preferred this type over its E-flat sibling throughout history?
The B-flat has so much more range; so many more colours and moods at its disposal than the E-flat (the end of my answer to the second question notwithstanding). Even the C clarinet, used frequently in the classical period and sometimes in large orchestral repertoire for its particular sound, is more limited than the B-flat.
I think there is a certain resonance, balance in the size of the B-flat (and its sister, the A) that the smaller ones don’t quite reach; neither in terms of the physical obstacles to achieving some dynamics, textures, variations of sound, nor in terms of the actual range playable without physical discomfort on the part of the players and the audience!
How many clarinets actually are there anyway? And why are the B-flat and E-flat in the tightest battle for ultimate winner of the higher registers?
Actually, there have been clarinets made in almost all pitches – from the G below the commonly used A and B-flat, all the way up to the A-flat above the commonly used E-flat piccolo clarinet. Most are not used any more, however.
And finally…which one is your favourite?
My favourite is actually the B-flat’s sister, the A. The A’s balance and resonance I mentioned are even closer to perfection, in my view!
Dimitry Ashkenazy will perform alongside an ensemble of leading wind virtuosi and ANAM Musicians. See International Woodwind All-Stars at 7.30pm September 12 at ANAM in the South Melbourne Town Hall.
READ NEXT: Nick Deutsch, who will perform oboe in this event, explains everything you need to know about tuning. EVERYTHING.
Check back in soon for our next What the Fact?! with professionals in the music industry.
