Name	Clarinet
Image capt	B Clarinet (Boehm system)
Background	woodwind
Classification	Wind Woodwind Single-reed
Hornbostel sachs	422.211.2-71
Hornbostel sachs desc	Single-reeded aerophone with keys
Range	Written range (though it is possible to play higher):
Midi	071/072
Related	* Saxophone Tárogató (modern) Oboe Chalumeau
Musicians	* Clarinetists
Articles	}}

The clarinet is a type of woodwind instrument that has a straight cylindrical tube with a flaring bell and a single-reed mouthpiece. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed. A person who plays the clarinet is called a clarinetist or clarinettist.

The word clarinet may have entered the English language via the French ''clarinette'' (the feminine diminutive of Old French ''clarin'' or ''clarion''), or from Provençal ''clarin'', "oboe". It "is plainly a diminutive of ''clarino'', the Italian for trumpet", and the Italian ''clarinetto'' is the source of the name in all other languages. According to Johann Gottfried Walther, writing in 1732, the reason for the name is that "it sounded from far off not unlike a trumpet". This may indicate a strident quality in the upper register, but in the low register it was feeble and buzzing. The English form ''clarinet'' is found as early as 1733, and the now-archaic ''clarionet'' appears from 1784 until the early years of the 20th century.

There are many types of clarinets of differing sizes and pitches, comprising a large family of instruments. The unmodified word ''clarinet'' usually refers to the B soprano clarinet, by far the most common type. The clarinet family is the largest woodwind family, with more than a dozen types, ranging from the (extremely rare) BBB octo-contrabass to the A soprano (piccolo clarinet). Of these, many are rare or obsolete (there is only one BBB octo-contrabass clarinet in existence, for example), and music written for them is usually played on more common versions of the instrument.

Johann Christoph Denner invented the clarinet in Germany around the turn of the 18th century by adding a register key to the earlier chalumeau. Over time, additional keywork and airtight pads were added to improve tone and playability. Today, the clarinet is used in jazz and classical ensembles, in chamber groups, and as a solo instrument.

Characteristics [link]

Sound [link]

The cylindrical bore is primarily responsible for the clarinet's distinctive timbre, which varies between its three main registers, known as the chalumeau, clarino, and altissimo. The tone quality can vary greatly with the musician, the music, the instrument, the mouthpiece, and the reed. The differences in instruments and geographical isolation of players in different countries led to the development, from the last part of the 18th century onwards, of several different schools of clarinet playing. The most prominent were the German/Viennese traditions and the French school. The latter was centered on the clarinetists of the Conservatoire de Paris. The proliferation of recorded music has made examples of different styles of clarinet playing available. The modern clarinetist has a diverse palette of "acceptable" tone qualities to choose from.

The A clarinet and B clarinet have nearly the same bore, and use the same mouthpiece. Orchestral players using the A and B instruments in the same concert use the same mouthpiece (and often the same barrel) for both (see 'usage' below). The A and the B instruments have nearly identical tonal quality, although the A typically has a slightly warmer sound. The tone of the E clarinet is brighter than that of the lower clarinets and can be heard even through loud orchestral textures. The bass clarinet has a characteristically deep, mellow sound, while the alto clarinet is similar in tone to the bass and the basset horn has a tone quality comparable to the A clarinet.

Range [link]

Clarinets have the largest pitch range of common woodwinds. The intricate key organization that makes this range possible can make the playability of some passages awkward. The bottom of the clarinet’s written range is defined by the keywork on each instrument, standard keywork schemes allow a low E on the common B clarinet. The lowest concert pitch depends on the transposition of the instrument in question.

Nearly all soprano and piccolo clarinets have keywork enabling them to play the E below middle C (E₃ in scientific pitch notation) as their lowest written note, though some B clarinets go down to E₃ to enable them to match the range of the A clarinet. On the B soprano clarinet, the concert pitch of the lowest note is D₃, a whole tone lower than the written pitch. Most alto and bass clarinets have an extra key to allow a (written) E₃. Modern professional-quality bass clarinets generally have additional keywork to written C₃. Among the less commonly encountered members of the clarinet family, contra-alto and contrabass clarinets may have keywork to written E₃, D₃, or C₃; the basset clarinet and basset horn generally go to low C₃.

Defining the top end of a clarinet’s range is difficult, since many advanced players can produce notes well above the highest notes commonly found in method books. The G two octaves above G₄ is usually the highest note clarinetists encounter in classical repertoire. The C above that (C₇ i.e. resting on the fifth ledger line above the treble staff) is attainable by advanced players and is shown on many fingering charts, and fingerings as high as G₇ exist.

The range of a clarinet can be divided into three distinct registers. The lowest register, consisting of the notes up to the written B above middle C (B₄), is known as the ''chalumeau'' register (named after the instrument that was the clarinet's immediate predecessor). The middle register is termed the ''clarino'' (sometimes ''clarion'') register and spans just over an octave (from written B above middle C (B₄) to the C two octaves above middle C (C₆)); it is the dominant range for most members of the clarinet family. The top or ''altissimo'' register consists of the notes above the written C two octaves above middle C (C₆). Unlike other woodwinds, all three registers have characteristically different sounds. The chalumeau register is rich and dark. The clarino register is brighter and sweet, like a trumpet heard from afar ("clarino" means trumpet). The altissimo register can be piercing and sometimes shrill.

Acoustics [link]

Sound is a wave that propagates through the air as a result of a local variation in air pressure. The production of sound by a clarinet follows these steps:

# The air in the bore of the instrument is at normal atmospheric pressure and moves towards the bell (or the first open hole). The minuscule space between the mouthpiece and the reed allows only a small amount of air to enter the instrument. This creates a low-pressure area in the mouthpiece. The difference in pressure between the two sides of the reed increases, causing the reed to press against the mouthpiece. # The wave of low-pressure air moves down the bore and arrives at the first open hole. # The outside air, at normal atmospheric pressure, is sucked in by the low pressure inside. The air that was previously leaving the clarinet through the hole changes direction quickly and enters the bore. # The incoming air normalizes the pressure within the bore, starting at the open hole and moving back towards the mouthpiece. # Once all the air in the bore is at atmospheric pressure (moving towards the mouthpiece), the difference in pressure between the two sides of the reed decreases and the reed returns to its original position. # The moving column of air is stopped by the sudden collision with the pressurized air coming from the player's mouth. A wave of high-pressure air moves towards the first open hole. # When the high-pressure air arrives at the open hole, the air coming into the bore abruptly changes direction and goes out through the hole. # The high pressure normalizes and the cycle restarts.

The cycle repeats at a constant frequency and emits a note related to that frequency. For example, A4 (440 Hz) is produced when the cycle repeats 440 times per second.

The bore of the soprano clarinet is cylindrical for most of the tube with an inner bore diameter between , but there is a subtle hourglass shape, with the thinnest part below the junction between the upper and lower joint. The reduction is depending on the maker. This hourglass shape, although not visible to the naked eye, helps to correct the pitch/scale discrepancy between the chalumeau and clarino registers (perfect 12th). The diameter of the bore affects characteristics such as available harmonics, timbre, and pitch stability (how far the player can bend a note in the manner required in jazz and other music). The bell at the bottom of the instrument flares out to improve the tone of the lowest notes.

Most modern clarinets have "undercut" tone holes that improve intonation and sound. Undercutting means chamfering the bottom edge of tone holes inside the bore. Acoustically, this makes the tone hole function as if it were larger, but its main function is to allow the air column to follow the curve up through the tone hole (surface tension) instead of "blowing past" it under the increased velocity of the upper registers.

The fixed reed and fairly uniform diameter of the clarinet give the instrument an acoustical behavior approximating that of a cylindrical stopped pipe. Recorders use a tapered internal bore to overblow at the 8th (octave) when its thumb/register hole is pinched open while the clarinet, with its cylindrical bore, overblows on the 12th. Adjusting the angle of the bore taper controls the frequencies of the overblown notes (harmonics). Changing the mouthpiece's tip opening and the length of the reed changes the harmonic timbre or voice of the instrument because this changes the speed of reed vibrations. Generally, the goal of the clarinetist when producing a sound is to make as much of the reed vibrate as possible, making the sound fuller, warmer, and potentially louder.

Covering or uncovering the tone holes varies the length of the pipe, changing the resonant frequencies of the enclosed air column and hence the pitch of the sound. A clarinetist moves between the chalumeau and clarino registers through use of the register key, or speaker key: clarinetists call the change from chalumeau register to clarino register "the break". The register key, when pressed, cancels the fundamental frequency scale and forces the clarinet to produce the next dominant harmonic scale a twelfth higher, and when using at least fingers 1-2-3 1-2, taking off the first finger on the left hand, acts as another register key, and doesn't overblow a twelfth, but instead a sixth. The clarinet is therefore said to overblow at the twelfth, and when moving to the altissimo register, a sixth. By contrast, nearly all other woodwind instruments overblow at the octave, or like the Ocarina and Tonette, do not overblow at all (the Rackett or Sausage Bassoon is the next most common Western instrument that overblows at the twelfth). A clarinet must have holes and keys for nineteen notes (a chromatic octave and a half, from bottom E to B) in its lowest register to play the chromatic scale. This overblowing behavior explains the clarinet's great range and complex fingering system. The fifth and seventh harmonics are also available, sounding a further sixth and fourth (a flat, diminished fifth) higher respectively; these are the notes of the altissimo register. This is also why the inner "waist" measurement is so critical to these harmonic frequencies.

The highest notes on a clarinet can have a shrill piercing quality and can be difficult to tune accurately. Different instruments often play differently in this respect due to the sensitivity of the bore and reed measurements. Using alternate fingerings and adjusting the embouchure helps correct the pitch of these higher notes.

Since approximately 1850, clarinets have been nominally tuned according to 12-tone equal temperament. Older clarinets were nominally tuned to meantone. A skilled performer can use his or her embouchure to considerably alter the tuning of individual notes or to produce vibrato, a pulsating change of pitch often employed in jazz. Vibrato is rare in classical or concert band literature; however, certain clarinetists, such as Richard Stoltzman, do use vibrato in classical music. Special fingerings may be used to play quarter tones and other microtonal intervals. Fritz Schüller of Markneukirchen, Germany built a quarter tone clarinet, with two parallel bores of slightly different lengths whose tone holes are operated using the same keywork and a valve to switch from one bore to the other.

Construction [link]

Materials [link]

Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber, metal, resin, and ivory. The vast majority of clarinets used by professional musicians are made from African hardwood, mpingo (African Blackwood) or grenadilla, rarely (because of diminishing supplies) Honduran rosewood and sometimes even cocobolo. Historically other woods, notably boxwood, were used.

Most modern, inexpensive instruments are made of plastic resin, such as ABS. These materials are sometimes called ''resonite,'' which is Selmer's trademark name for its type of plastic. Metal soprano clarinets were popular in the early twentieth century, until plastic instruments supplanted them; metal construction is still used for the bodies of some contra-alto and contrabass clarinets, and for the necks and bells of nearly all alto and larger clarinets. Ivory was used for a few 18th century clarinets, but it tends to crack and does not keep its shape well.

Buffet Crampon's Greenline clarinets are made from a composite of grenadilla wood powder and carbon fiber. Such instruments are less affected by humidity and temperature changes than wooden instruments but are heavier. Hard rubber, such as ebonite, has been used for clarinets since the 1860s, although few modern clarinets are made of it. Clarinet designers Alastair Hanson and Tom Ridenour are strong advocates of hard rubber. Hanson Clarinets of England manufactures clarinets using a grenadilla compound reinforced with ebonite, known as 'BTR' (bithermal reinforced) grenadilla. This material is also not affected by humidity, and the weight is the same as that of a wood clarinet.

Mouthpieces are generally made of hard rubber, although some inexpensive mouthpieces may be made of plastic. Other materials such as crystal/glass, wood, ivory, and metal have also been used. Ligatures are often made out of metal and plated in nickel, silver or gold. Other ligature materials include wire, wire mesh, plastic, naugahyde, string, or leather.

Reed [link]

The instrument uses a single reed made from the cane of ''Arundo donax'', a type of grass. Reeds may also be manufactured from synthetic materials. The ligature fastens the reed to the mouthpiece. When air is blown through the opening between the reed and the mouthpiece facing, the reed vibrates and produces the instrument's sound.

Basic reed measurements are as follows: tip, wide; lay, long (distance from the place where the reed touches the mouthpiece to the tip); gap, (distance between the underside of the reed tip and the mouthpiece). Adjustment to these measurements is one method of affecting tone color.

Most clarinetists buy manufactured reeds, although many make adjustments to these reeds and some make their own reeds from cane "blanks". Reeds come in varying degrees of hardness, generally indicated on a scale from one (soft) through five (hard). This numbering system is not standardized — reeds with the same hardness number often vary in hardness across manufacturers and models. Reed and mouthpiece characteristics work together to determine ease of playability, pitch stability, and tonal characteristics.

Components[link]

Note: A Boehm system soprano clarinet is shown in the photos illustrating this section. However, all modern clarinets have similar components.

The ''reed'' is attached to the ''mouthpiece'' by the ''ligature'', and the top half-inch or so of this assembly is held in the player’s mouth. German clarinetists often wrap a string around the mouthpiece and reed instead of using a ligature. The formation of the mouth around the mouthpiece and reed is called the ''embouchure''.

The reed is on the underside of the mouthpiece, pressing against the player's lower lip, while the top teeth normally contact the top of the mouthpiece (some players roll the upper lip under the top teeth to form what is called a ‘double-lip’ embouchure). Adjustments in the strength and shape of the embouchure change the tone and intonation (tuning). It is not uncommon for clarinetists to employ methods to relieve the pressure on the upper teeth and inner lower lip by attaching pads to the top of the mouthpiece or putting (temporary) padding on the front lower teeth, commonly from folded paper.

Next is the short ''barrel''; this part of the instrument may be extended to fine-tune the clarinet. As the pitch of the clarinet is fairly temperature-sensitive, some instruments have interchangeable barrels whose lengths vary slightly. Additional compensation for pitch variation and tuning can be made by pulling out the barrel and thus increasing the instrument's length, particularly common in group playing in which clarinets are tuned to other instruments (such as in an orchestra). Some performers use a plastic barrel with a thumbwheel that adjusts the barrel length. On basset horns and lower clarinets, the barrel is normally replaced by a curved metal neck.

The main body of most clarinets is divided into the ''upper joint'', the holes and most keys of which are operated by the left hand, and the ''lower joint'' with holes and most keys operated by the right hand. Some clarinets have a single joint: on some basset horns and larger clarinets the two joints are held together with a screw clamp and are usually not disassembled for storage. The left thumb operates both a ''tone hole'' and the ''register key''. On some models of clarinet, such as many Albert system clarinets and increasingly some higher-end Boehm system clarinets, the register key is a 'wraparound' key, with the key on the back of the clarinet and the pad on the front. Advocates of the wraparound register key say it improves sound, and it is harder for moisture to accumulate in the tube beneath the pad.

The body of a modern soprano clarinet is equipped with numerous ''tone holes'' of which seven (six front, one back) are covered with the fingertips, and the rest are opened or closed using a set of keys. These tone holes let the player produce every note of the chromatic scale. On alto and larger clarinets, and a few soprano clarinets, key-covered holes replace some or all finger holes. The most common system of keys was named the Boehm system by its designer Hyacinthe Klosé in honour of flute designer Theobald Boehm, but it is not the same as the Boehm System used on flutes. The other main system of keys is called the Oehler system and is used mostly in Germany and Austria (see History). The related Albert system is used by some jazz, klezmer, and eastern European folk musicians. The Albert and Oehler systems are both based on the early Mueller system.

The cluster of keys at the bottom of the upper joint (protruding slightly beyond the cork of the joint) are known as the ''trill keys'' and are operated by the right hand. These give the player alternative fingerings that make it easy to play ornaments and trills. The entire weight of the smaller clarinets is supported by the right thumb behind the lower joint on what is called the ''thumb-rest''. Basset horns and larger clarinets are supported with a neck strap or a floor peg.

Finally, the flared end is known as the ''bell''. Contrary to popular belief, the bell does not amplify the sound; rather, it improves the uniformity of the instrument's tone for the lowest notes in each register. For the other notes the sound is produced almost entirely at the tone holes and the bell is irrelevant. On basset horns and larger clarinets, the bell curves up and forward and is usually made of metal.

Keywork[link]

Theobald Boehm did not directly invent the key system of the clarinet. Boehm was a flautist who created the key system that is now used for the transverse flute. Klosé and Buffet applied Boehm's system to the Clarinet. Although the credit goes to those people, Boehm's name was given to that key system.

The current Boehm key system consists of generally 6 rings, on the thumb, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th holes, a register key just above the thumb hole, easily accessible with the thumb. Above the 1st hole, there is a key that lifts two covers creating the note A in the throat register (high part of low register) of the clarinet. A key at the side of the instrument at the same height as the A key lifts only one of the two covers, producing G# a semitone lower. The A key can be used in conjunction solely with the register key to produce A#/Bb.

History[link]

Lineage [link]

The clarinet has its roots in the early single-reed instruments or hornpipes used in the Middle East and Europe since the Middle Ages, such as the albogue, alboka, and double clarinet.

The modern clarinet developed from a Baroque instrument called the chalumeau. This instrument was similar to a recorder, but with a single-reed mouthpiece and a cylindrical bore. Lacking a register key, it was played mainly in its fundamental register, with a limited range of about one and a half octaves. It had eight finger holes, like a recorder, and two keys for its two highest notes. At this time, contrary to modern practice, the reed was placed in contact with the upper lip.

Around the turn of the 18th century, the chalumeau was modified by converting one of its keys into a register key to produce the first clarinet. This development is usually attributed to German instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner, though some have suggested his son Jacob Denner was the inventor. This instrument played well in the middle register with a loud, shrill sound, so it was given the name ''clarinetto'' meaning "little trumpet" (from ''clarino'' + ''-etto''). Early clarinets did not play well in the lower register, so players continued to play the chalumeaux for low notes. As clarinets improved, the chalumeau fell into disuse, and these notes became known as the ''chalumeau register''. Original Denner clarinets had two keys, and could play a chromatic scale, but various makers added more keys to get improved tuning, easier fingerings, and a slightly larger range. The classical clarinet of Mozart's day typically had eight finger holes and five keys.

Clarinets were soon accepted into orchestras. Later models had a mellower tone than the originals. Mozart (d. 1791) liked the sound of the clarinet (he considered its tone the closest in quality to the human voice) and wrote numerous pieces for the instrument., and by the time of Beethoven (c. 1800–1820), the clarinet was a standard fixture in the orchestra.

Pads [link]

The next major development in the history of clarinet was the invention of the modern pad. Because early clarinets used felt pads to cover the tone holes, they leaked air. This required pad-covered holes to be kept to a minimum, restricting the number of notes the clarinet could play with good tone. In 1812, Iwan Müller, a Russian-born clarinetist and inventor, developed a new type of pad that was covered in leather or fish bladder. It was airtight and let makers increase the number of pad-covered holes. Müller designed a new type of clarinet with seven finger holes and thirteen keys. This allowed the instrument to play in any key with near-equal ease. Over the course of the 19th century makers made many enhancements to Mueller's clarinet, such as the Albert system and the Baermann system, all keeping the same basic design. Modern instruments may also have cork or synthetic pads.

Arrangement of keys and holes [link]

The final development in the modern design of the clarinet used in most of the world today was introduced by Hyacinthe Klosé in 1839. He devised a different arrangement of keys and finger holes, which allow simpler fingering. It was inspired by the Boehm System developed for flutes by Theobald Boehm. Klosé was so impressed by Boehm's invention that he named his own system for clarinets the Boehm system, although it is different from the one used on flutes. This new system was slow to gain popularity because it meant the player had to relearn how to play the instrument. To ease this transition, Klose wrote a series of exercises for the clarinet, designed to teach his fingering system. Gradually it became the standard, and today the Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria. These countries still use a direct descendant of the Mueller clarinet known as the Oehler system clarinet. Also, some contemporary Dixieland and Klezmer players continue to use Albert system clarinets, as the simpler fingering system can allow for easier slurring of notes. At one time the reed was held on using string, but now the practice exists primarily in Germany and Austria.

Usage and repertoire [link]

Use of multiple clarinets [link]

The modern orchestral standard of using soprano clarinets in both B and A has to do partly with the history of the instrument, and partly with acoustics, aesthetics and economics. Before about 1800, due to the lack of airtight pads ''(see History)'', practical woodwinds could have only a few keys to control accidentals (notes outside their diatonic home scales). The low (chalumeau) register of the clarinet spans a twelfth (an octave plus a perfect fifth), so the clarinet needs keys to produce all nineteen notes in that range. This involves more keywork than is necessary on instruments that "overblow" at the octave — oboes, flutes, bassoons, and saxophones, for example, which need only twelve notes before overblowing.

Clarinets with few keys cannot therefore easily play chromatically, limiting any such instrument to a few closely related key signatures. For example, an eighteenth-century clarinet in C could be played in F, C, and G (and their relative minors) with good intonation, but with progressive difficulty and poorer intonation as the key moved away from this range. In contrast, for octave-overblowing instruments, an instrument in C with few keys could much more readily be played in any key.

This problem was overcome by using three clarinets — in A, B and C — so that early 19th century music, which rarely strayed into the remote keys (five or six sharps or flats), could be played as follows: music in 5 to 2 sharps (B major to D major concert pitch) on A clarinet (D major to F major for the player), music in 1 sharp to 1 flat (G to F) on C clarinet, and music in 2 flats to 4 flats (B to A) on the B clarinet (C to B for the player). Difficult key signatures and numerous accidentals were thus largely avoided.

With the invention of the airtight pad, and as key technology improved and more keys were added to woodwinds, the need for clarinets in multiple musical keys was reduced. However, the use of multiple instruments in different keys persisted, with the three instruments in C, B and A all used as specified by the composer.

The lower-pitched clarinets sound more "mellow" (less bright), and the C clarinet — being the highest and therefore brightest of the three — fell out of favour as the other two clarinets could cover its range and their sound was considered better. While the clarinet in C began to fall out of general use around 1850, some composers continued to write C parts after this date, e.g. Bizet's Symphony in C (1855), Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 (1872), Smetana's ''Vltava'' (1874), Brahms Symphony No. 4 (1885), and Richard Strauss deliberately reintroduced it to take advantage of its brighter tone, as in ''Der Rosenkavalier'' (1911).

While technical improvements and an equal-tempered scale reduced the need for two clarinets, the technical difficulty of playing in remote keys persisted and the A has thus remained a standard orchestral instrument. In addition, by the late 19th century the orchestral clarinet repertoire contained so much music for clarinet in A that the disuse of this instrument was not practical. Attempts were made to standardise to the B instrument between 1930 and 1950 (e.g. tutors recommended learning the routine transposition of orchestral A parts on the B clarinet, including solos written for A clarinet, and some manufacturers provided a low E on the B to match the range of the A), but this failed in the orchestral sphere.

Similarly there have been E and D instruments in the upper soprano range, B, A, and C instruments in the bass range, and so forth; but over time the E and B instruments have become predominant.

The B instrument remains dominant in wind ensemble music and in jazz, with both B and C instruments used in some ethnic traditions, such as klezmer music.

Classical music [link]

In classical music, clarinets are part of standard orchestral instrumentation, which frequently includes two clarinetists playing individual parts — each player is usually equipped with a pair of standard clarinets in B and A (see above) and clarinet parts commonly alternate between B and A instruments several times over the course of a piece or even, less commonly, of a movement (e.g. 1st movement Brahms 3rd symphony). Clarinet sections grew larger during the last few decades of the 19th century, often employing a third clarinetist, an E or a bass clarinet. In the 20th century, composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Olivier Messiaen enlarged the clarinet section on occasion to up to nine players, employing many different clarinets including the E or D soprano clarinets, basset horn, alto clarinet, bass clarinet and/or contrabass clarinet.

This practice of using a variety of clarinets to achieve coloristic variety was common in 20th century music and continues today. However, many clarinetists and conductors prefer to play parts originally written for obscure instruments on B or E clarinets, which are often of better quality and more prevalent and accessible.

The clarinet is widely used as a solo instrument. The relatively late evolution of the clarinet (when compared to other orchestral woodwinds) has left solo repertoire from the Classical period and later, but few works from the Baroque era. Many clarinet concertos have been written to showcase the instrument, with the concerti by Mozart, Copland and Weber being well known.

Many works of chamber music have also been written for the clarinet. Common combinations are: Clarinet and piano (including clarinet sonatas) Clarinet, piano and another instrument (for example, string instrument or voice) Clarinet quartet: various combinations including four B clarinets, three B clarinets and bass clarinet, two B clarinets, alto clarinet and bass, and other possibilities such as the use of a basset horn, especially in European classical works. Clarinet quintet, generally made up of a clarinet plus a string quartet. Wind quintet, consists of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. Trio d'anches, or ''trio of reeds'' consists of oboe, clarinet, and bassoon. Wind octet, consists of pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and horns.

Concert bands [link]

In wind bands, clarinets are a central part of the instrumentation, occupying the same space (and often playing the same notes) in bands that the strings do in orchestras. Bands usually include several B clarinets, divided into sections each consisting of two or three clarinetists playing the same part. There is almost always an E clarinet part and a bass clarinet part, usually doubled. Alto, contra-alto, and contrabass clarinets are sometimes used as well, and, rarely, a piccolo A clarinet.

Jazz [link]

The clarinet was a central instrument in early jazz starting in the 1910s and remained popular in the United States through the big band era into the 1940s. Larry Shields, Ted Lewis, Jimmie Noone and Sidney Bechet were influential in early jazz. The B soprano was the most common instrument, but a few early jazz musicians such as Louis Nelson Delisle and Alcide Nunez preferred the C soprano, and many New Orleans jazz brass bands have used E soprano.

Swing clarinetists such as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Woody Herman led successful and popular big bands and smaller groups from the 1930s onward. Duke Ellington, active from the 1920s to the '70s, often emphasized the clarinet in his works. Featured clarinetists in Ellington's bands included Barney Bigard, Jimmy Hamilton and Russell Procope. Harry Carney, primarily a baritone saxophonist, occasionally doubled on bass clarinet.

With the decline of the big bands' popularity in the late 1940s, the clarinet faded from its prominent position in jazz, though a few players (John Carter, Buddy DeFranco, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Giuffre, Perry Robinson, Theo Jorgensmann and others) used clarinet in bebop and free jazz. Jean-Christian Michel, French composer and clarinetist has initiated a jazz-classical cross-over on the clarinet with the drummer Kenny Clarke. The clarinet's place in the jazz ensemble was usurped by the saxophone, which projects a more powerful sound and uses a less complicated fingering system.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Britain underwent a surge in the popularity of traditional jazz. During this period, a British clarinetist named Acker Bilk became popular, founding his own ensemble in 1956. Bilk had a string of successful records, including the popular "Stranger on the Shore". America also saw a renewed interest in Dixieland or traditional New Orleans jazz; Pete Fountain was one of the best known performers in this genre. Filmmaker Woody Allen is a notable jazz clarinet enthusiast, and performs New Orleans-style jazz regularly with his quartet in New York.

In the U.S., the instrument has seen something of a resurgence since the 1980s, with Eddie Daniels, Don Byron, and Marty Ehrlich and others playing the clarinet in more contemporary contexts. Bob Wilber, active since the 1950s, is a more eclectic jazz clarinetist, playing in several classic jazz styles. See also Gilad Atzmon whose 21st century jazz style has been described as bebop/hard bop, with forays into free jazz and swing, influenced by Arabic music. In Canada, John Malmstrom performs in various mid-20th-century styles as well as writes original jazz compositions featuring clarinet and saxophone.

Other genres [link]

The clarinet is uncommon in rock music. A rare example is Don Byron, a founder of the Black Rock Coalition who was a member of hard rock guitarist Vernon Reid's band on the ''Mistaken Identity'' album (1996). A clarinet is featured in the Buffalo Springfield album Buffalo Springfield Again, as part of a jazz trio during the coda of Broken Arrow.

Clarinets also feature prominently in klezmer music, which entails a distinctive style of playing. The use of quarter-tones requires a different embouchure. Some klezmer musicians prefer Albert system clarinets.

The popular Brazilian music styles of choro and samba use the clarinet. Prominent contemporary players include Paulo Moura, Naylor 'Proveta' Azevedo, Paulo Sérgio dos Santos and Paquito D'Rivera.

The clarinet is prominent in Bulgarian wedding music, an offshoot of Roma/Romani traditional music. Ivo Papazov is a well-known clarinetist in this genre. In Moravian dulcimer bands, the clarinet is usually the only wind instrument among string instruments.

In the Republic of Macedonia, old-town folk music -called chalgija ("чалгија"), the clarinet has the most important role in wedding music; clarinet solos mark the high point of dancing euphoria. One of the most renowned Macedonian clarinet players is Tale Ognenovski, who gained worldwide fame for his virtuosity.

In Greece the clarinet (usually referred to as "κλαρίνο" - "clarino") is prominent in traditional music, especially in central, northwest and northern Greece (Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia). The double-reed zurna was the dominant woodwind instrument before the clarinet arrived in the country, although many Greeks regard the clarinet as a native instrument. Traditional dance music, wedding music and laments include a clarinet soloist and quite often improvisations. Petroloukas Chalkias is a famous clarinetist in this genre.

The instrument is equally famous in Turkey, especially the soprano clarinet in G. The soprano clarinet crossed via Turkey to Arabic music, where it is widely used in Arabic pop, especially if the intention of the arranger is to imitate the Turkish style. Also in Turkish folk music, a clarinet-like woodwind instrument, the sipsi, is used. However, it's far more rare than the soprano clarinet and is mainly limited to folk music of the Aegean Region.

Groups of clarinets [link]

Groups of clarinets playing together have become increasingly popular among clarinet enthusiasts in recent years. Common forms are: Clarinet choir, which features a large number of clarinets playing together, usually involves a range of different members of the clarinet family (see Extended family of clarinets). The homogeneity of tone across the different members of the clarinet family produces an effect with some similarities to a human choir. Clarinet quartet, usually three B sopranos and one B bass, or two B, an E Alto Clarinet, and a B Bass Clarinet, or sometimes four B sopranos.

Clarinet choirs and quartets often play arrangements of both classical and popular music, in addition to a body of literature specially written for a combination of clarinets by composers such as Arnold Cooke, Alfred Uhl, Lucien Caillet and Václav Nelhýbel.

Extended family of clarinets [link]

There is a family of many differently pitched clarinet types, some of which are very rare. The following are the most important sizes, from highest to lowest:

! Name !! Key !! Commentary !! Range (concert)
Piccolo clarinet	A	Now rare, used for Italian military music and some contemporary pieces for its sonority;
E-flat clarinet (Sopranino clarinet)	E	Characteristic timbre, used in concert band repertoire because its tonality is considered "compatible" with other instruments, especially those in B.
Sopranino clarinet	D	Obscure because of its limited repertoire in Western music.
C Clarinet	C	Rare because its timbre is considered too bright.
	B	The most common type: used in most styles of music.
A clarinet	A	Has a richer sound than B, frequently used in orchestral and chamber music.
Basset clarinet	A	Clarinet in A extended to a low C; used primarily to play Classical-era music. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was written for this instrument, though it is frequently played in a version for the ordinary A clarinet. Basset clarinets in Bb also exist; this instrument is required to play the obbligato to the aria "Parto, parto" in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito.
Basset-horn	F	Similar in appearance to the alto, but differs in that it is pitched in F, has an extended range to low C, and has a narrower bore on most models. Mozart's Clarinet Concerto was originally sketched out as a concerto for basset horn in G. Rarely used today.
Alto clarinet	E	Used in chamber music and wind ensembles.
Bass clarinet	B	Used in contemporary music, concert band and jazz; sometimes used in orchestral music.
Contra-alto clarinet (also called E Contrabass Clarinet)	EE	Used in clarinet choirs.
Contrabass clarinet (also called B Subcontrabass or Double-bass Clarinet)	BB	Used in clarinet choirs and sometimes in orchestras and wind ensembles.

Experimental EEE and BBB octocontra-alto and octocontrabass clarinets have also been built. There have also been soprano clarinets in C, A, and B with curved barrels and bells marketed under the names Saxonette, Claribel, and Clariphon.

See also [link]

List of Clarinet concerti

List of clarinetists

Clarinet makers Lists of makers of clarinets, clarinet mouthpieces, and clarinet reeds.

Double clarinet A Middle Eastern instrument, not a true clarinet in the western sense of the term

Quarter tone clarinet

International Clarinet Association

Notes [link]

References[link]

Nicholas Bessaraboff, ''Ancient European Musical Instruments.'' Boston: Harvard University Press, 1941.

"Woodwind Instruments and Their History" by Anthony Baines, Dover Publishing.

Jack Brymer, ''Clarinet''. (Yehudi Menuhin Music Guides) Hardback and paperback, 296 pages, Kahn & Averill. ISBN 1-871082-12-9.

David Pino, ''The Clarinet and Clarinet Playing.'' Providence: Dover Pubns, 1998, 320 p.; ISBN 0-486-40270-3.

F. Geoffrey Rendall, ''The Clarinet.'' Second Revised Edition. London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1957.

F. Geoffrey Rendall, ''The Clarinet: Some Notes upon Its History and Construction.'' Third Edition, revised and with some additional material by Philip Bate. London: Ernest Benn Limited; New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1971.

Cyrille Rose, ''Artistic Studies, Book 1.'' ed. David Hite. San Antonio: Southern Music, 1986.

Nicholas Shackleton, "Clarinet", ''Grove Music Online'', ed. L. Macy (accessed 21 February 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).

Buffet Crampon Greenline website

Jennifer Ross, "Clarinet", "Ohio: Hardcover Printing Press, 1988.

Fabrizio Meloni, ''Il Clarinetto'', ill., 299 pages, Zecchini Editore, zecchini.com Italy, 2002, ISBN 88-87203-03-2.

Bărbuceanu Valeriu, "Dictionary of musical instruments", Second Revised Edition, Teora Press, Bucharest, 1999.

"Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics" by Arthur H. Benade, Dover Publishing.

SELMER Paris : the clarinet family

External links [link]

The International Clarinet Association

Category:Clarinets Category:French loanwords Category:B-flat instruments Category:Clarinetists

am:ክላርኔት ar:كلارينيت bn:ক্লারিনেট zh-min-nan:O͘-ta̍t-á be:Кларнет bg:Кларинет bar:Glarinettn bs:Klarinet ca:Clarinet cs:Klarinet da:Klarinet de:Klarinette et:Klarnet el:Κλαρινέτο es:Clarinete eo:Klarneto eu:Klarinete fa:کلارینت fr:Clarinette fy:Klarinet ga:Clairnéid gd:Clàirneid gl:Clarinete ko:클라리넷 hr:Klarinet io:Klarineto id:Klarinet ia:Clarinetto is:Klarínett it:Clarinetto he:קלרינט ka:კლარნეტი kk:Кларнет lv:Klarnete lt:Klarnetas hu:Klarinét mk:Кларинет mr:क्लॅरिनेट nl:Klarinet nds-nl:Klarinet ja:クラリネット no:Klarinett nn:Klarinett pl:Klarnet pt:Clarinete ro:Clarinet qu:Qipa pinkuyllu ru:Кларнет scn:Clarinu simple:Clarinet sk:Klarinet sl:Klarinet sr:Кларинет sh:Klarinet fi:Klarinetti sv:Klarinett tl:Klarinete ta:கிளாரினெட் th:คลาริเน็ต tr:Klarnet uk:Кларнет vi:Clarinet vls:Klarinette diq:Qırnata zh:單簧管

Name	Artie Shaw
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Arthur Jacob Arshawsky
Birth date	May 23, 1910
Birth place	New York City, New York, United States
Death date	December 30, 2004
Death place	Thousand Oaks, California, United States
Instrument	Clarinet
Genre	Swing, big band
Occupation	Bandleader, composer
Years active	1925–2004
Notable instruments	}}

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led one of America's most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early '40s. Their signature song, a 1938 version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", was a wildly successful single and one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of Third Stream, which blended classical and jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions that flirted with be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.

Early life[link]

Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City, Shaw grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where, according to his autobiography his natural introversion was deepened by local antisemitism. Shaw began learning the saxophone when he was 13 years old, and by the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet and left home to tour with a band. Returning to New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s. From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930 he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements.

Shaw first gained critical acclaim with his "Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935. During the swing era, his big band was popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" (1938), "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield), "Back Bay Shuffle", "Moonglow", "Rosalie" and "Frenesi". He was an innovator in the big band idiom, using unusual instrumentation; "Interlude in B-flat", where he was backed with only a rhythm section and a string quartet, was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream.

In addition to hiring Buddy Rich, he signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer to tour the segregated Southern US. However, after recording "Any Old Time" she left the band due to hostility from audiences in the South, as well as from music company executives who wanted a more "mainstream" singer. His band became enormously successful, and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman: longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player. In response to Goodman's nickname, the "King of Swing", Shaw's fans dubbed him the "King of the Clarinet." Shaw, however, felt the titles were reversed. "Benny Goodman played clarinet. I played music", he said. In 1938 DownBeat Magazine's readers agreed with Shaw's evaluation and named Artie Shaw as the King of Swing.

Shaw prized innovation and exploration in music more highly than popular success and formulaic dance music, despite a string of hits which sold more than 100 million records. He fused jazz with classical music by adding strings to his arrangements, experimented with bebop, and formed "chamber jazz" groups that utilized such novel sounds as harpsichords or Afro-Cuban music.

The long series of musical groups Shaw formed included such talents as vocalists Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest and, Mel Tormé; drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff, among countless others. He composed the morose "Nightmare", with its Hassidic nuances, for his personal theme, rather than more approachable songs. In a televised interview of the 1970s, Shaw derided the often "asinine" songs that bands were compelled to play night after night. In 1994, he told Frank Prial (''The New York Times''), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' "

Pacific overtures[link]

During World War II, Shaw enlisted in the United States Navy and later formed a band, which served in the Pacific theater (just as Glenn Miller's wartime band served in Europe). After 18 months playing for Navy personnel (sometimes as many as four concerts a day in battle zones, including Guadalcanal), Shaw returned to the U.S. in a state of physical exhaustion, receiving a medical discharge. In the late 1940s, Shaw performed classical music at Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Like Benny Goodman and other leaders of big bands, Shaw fashioned a small group from within the band. He named it the Gramercy Five after his home telephone exchange. Band pianist Johnny Guarneri played a harpsichord on the quintet recordings and Al Hendrickson played an electric guitar, which was unusual in jazz recordings of the time. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge later became part of the group, succeeding Billy Butterfield. The Gramercy Five's biggest hit was "Summit Ridge Drive". A CD of ''The Complete Gramercy Five'' sessions was released in 1990.

Throughout his career, Shaw would take sabbaticals from the music business. This included studying advanced mathematics, as cited in Karl Sabbagh's ''The Riemann Hypothesis.'' His first interregnum, at the height of his success, was met with disbelief by booking agents. They predicted that Shaw would not only be abandoning a million-dollar enterprise but that nightclub and theater owners would sue him for breach of contract. Shaw's offhand response was, "Tell 'em I'm insane. A nice, young American boy walking away from a million dollars, wouldn't you call that insane?"

In 1954, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet, citing his own perfectionism, which, he later said, would have killed him. He explained to a reporter, "In the world we live in, compulsive perfectionists finish last. You have to be Lawrence Welk, or, on another level, Irving Berlin, and write the same kind of music over and over again. I'm not able to do that." He spent the rest of the 1950s living in Europe.

In 1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself guest conducted from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement.

After Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman interviewed Shaw, Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham and others for her documentary film ''Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet'' (1981) about Bix Beiderbecke, she went on to create an Academy Award-winning documentary, ''Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got'' (1985), featuring her interviews with Shaw, Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Helen Forrest and others. Later in 2003, along with members of his original bands and other music professionals, Shaw was extensively interviewed by Russell Davies for the BBC Television documentary, ''Artie Shaw — Quest for Perfection'', which became his last major interview.

In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life[link]

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man," Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932–33; annulled); Margaret Allen (1934–37; divorced); actress Lana Turner (1940; annulled); Betty Kern (1942–43; divorced), the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; actress Ava Gardner (1945–46; divorced); ''Forever Amber'' author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48; annulled); actress Doris Dowling (1952–56; divorced); and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85; divorced). He had one son, Steven Kern, with Betty Kern, and another son, Jonathan Shaw (a well-known tattoo artist who founded Fun City Tattoo), with Doris Dowling. Both Lana Turner and Ava Gardner later described Shaw as being extremely emotionally abusive. His controlling nature and incessant verbal abuse in fact drove Turner to have a nervous breakdown, soon after which she divorced him.

In 1946, Shaw was present at a meeting of the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. Olivia de Havilland and Ronald Reagan, part of a core group of actors and artists who were trying to sway the organization away from communism, presented an anti-communist declaration which, if signed, was to run in newspapers. There was bedlam as many rose to champion the communist cause, and Artie Shaw began praising the democratic standards of the Soviet constitution. In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his leftist activities. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a communist front.

He was a precision marksman, ranking fourth in the United States in 1962, as well as an expert fly fisherman. In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. Shaw had long suffered from adult onset diabetes and eventually died of complications of the disease at age 94. In 2005, Shaw's eighth wife, Evelyn Keyes, sued Shaw's estate, claiming that she was entitled to one-half of Shaw's estate pursuant to a contract to make a will between them. In July 2006, a Ventura, California jury unanimously held that Keyes was entitled to almost one-half of Shaw's estate, or $1,420,000.

Radio[link]

Shaw did many big band remotes, and he was often heard from the Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln. It was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner. Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on CBS from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939.

At the height of his popularity, Shaw reportedly earned $60,000 per week. For a comparison, George Burns and Gracie Allen were each making US $5,000 per week during the year the Artie Shaw Orchestra provided the music for their radio show. He also acted on the show as a love interest for Gracie Allen.

Shaw's recording of "Nightmare" was used as the theme soundtrack for BBC Radio's adaptation of the Philip Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.

Films, TV and fiction[link]

Shaw made several musical shorts in 1939 for Vitaphone and Paramount Pictures. He portrayed himself in the Fred Astaire film, ''Second Chorus'' (1940), which featured Shaw and his orchestra playing "Concerto for Clarinet." The film brought him two Oscar nominations, one for Best Score and one for Best Song ("Love of My Life"). He collaborated on the love song "If It's You" sung by Tony Martin in the Marx Brothers' film, ''The Big Store'' (1941). In 1950 he was a mystery guest on ''What's My Line?'', and during the 1970s he made appearances on ''The Mike Douglas Show'' and ''The Tonight Show''.

Many of his recordings have been used in motion pictures. His recording of "Stardust" was used in its entirety in the closing credits of the film ''The Man Who Fell to Earth''. Martin Scorsese also used the Shaw theme song, "Nightmare", in his Academy Award-winning Howard Hughes biopic, ''The Aviator''.

He credited his time in the Navy as a period of renewed introspection. He entered psychoanalysis and began to pursue a writing career. His autobiography, ''The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity'', was published in 1952 (with later reprint editions in 1992 and 2001). Revealing downbeat elements of the music business, Shaw explained that "the trouble with Cinderella" is "nobody ever lives happily ever after." He turned to semi-autobiographical fiction with the three short novels in ''I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead!'' (1965, reprinted in 1997), which prompted Terry Southern's comment: "Here is a deeply probing examination of the American marital scene. I flipped over it!" Shaw's short stories, including "Snow White in Harlem," were collected in ''The Best of Intentions and Other Stories'' (1989). He worked for years on his 1000-page autobiographical novel, ''The Education of Albie Snow'', but the three-volume work remains unpublished. Currently, through Curtis International Associates, the Artie Shaw Orchestra is still active.

References[link]

External links[link]

University of Arizona: Artie Shaw Collection

Biography at swingmusic.net

Swing Bandleader, Clarinetist Artie Shaw Dies, ''The Washington Post'', December 31, 2004

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats Category:1910 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Swing clarinetists Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz clarinetists Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Clarinetists Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Disease-related deaths in California Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Big band bandleaders Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:People from New York City Category:People from New Haven, Connecticut Category:Bell Records artists Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Gennett recording artists

cs:Artie Shaw de:Artie Shaw es:Artie Shaw eo:Artie Shaw fr:Artie Shaw it:Artie Shaw he:ארטי שו ka:არტი შოუ hu:Artie Shaw nl:Artie Shaw ja:アーティ・ショウ no:Artie Shaw nds:Artie Shaw pl:Artie Shaw pt:Artie Shaw ro:Artie Shaw ru:Шоу, Арти simple:Artie Shaw fi:Artie Shaw sv:Artie Shaw

name	Julian Bliss
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
origin	Harpenden, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
instrument	Clarinet
genre	Classical, Chamber music
occupation	Soloist, chamber musician, clarinet designer
website	http://www.julianbliss.com
notable instruments	Leblanc Bliss }}

Julian Bliss (born 1989) is a British clarinettist and clarinet designer. He has performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, notably with his teacher Sabine Meyer. He also recently designed the Bliss Clarinet for instrument manufacturer Leblanc.

Education[link]

Bliss started playing clarinet at age 4, when he was given a Lyons C Clarinet, a clarinet designed to let children begin the clarinet four or more years younger than usual. Most students do not play wind instruments until age 11 or 12.

Bliss earned his Postgraduate Artist's Diploma from Indiana University in 2001 at age 12, but he was not awarded his diploma until he graduated from high school. He studied first with David Johnston at Harpenden, Paul Harris, then with Howard Klug at Indiana and with Sabine Meyer in Germany at the Musikhochschule.

Music career[link]

Bliss won the 2001 Concerto Soloists Young Artists Competition in Philadelphia. In 2002, he performed at Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee (during the Prom at the Palace) by royal invitation. He also performed at the Queen's 80th birthday.

He has appeared as a soloist with many orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland Junior Orchestra. He has performed at Lincoln Centre in New York City and the Louvre in Paris.

Bliss also has a career as a chamber musician. He has collaborated with many of the world's top classical artists, including Joshua Bell, Stephen Kovacevich, Elena Bashkirova, Julian Rachlin, and Hélène Grimaud.

He was the subject of a three-part made-for-television documentary entitled "Gifted". He also appeared on the ''Today'' program in the United States and on NHK in Japan.

Leblanc Bliss[link]

In collaboration with Leblanc, Bliss developed the Leblanc Bliss clarinet. Says Bliss of the line: "I know I can pick up any Bliss clarinet and be able to perform at the level to which I am accustomed." He characterizes the clarinet's design as "wicked".

The design deviates from standard synthetic clarinets in that it does not use acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), but instead uses a custom composite that produces 20% more amplitude. The barrel and bell are narrower (and thus lighter) than standard clarinets, and the keys are plated in black nickel to differentiate the clarinet's appearance from those with traditional silver-coloured keys. The bore has several tapers and is manufactured to tolerances of hundreds of thousandths of an inch. The right hand trill keys are above the gravity line to reduce the risk of water in the tone holes.

Discography[link]

After his debut album with Julien Quentin, Bliss signed an exclusive recording contract with EMI's main label.

2002: ''Prom at the Palace'', with various artists, EMI Classics

2003: ''Music for Clarinet and Piano'', with Julien Quentin, EMI Classics

2007: ''Krommer Concerto for two clarinets, Spohr Clarinet Concerto No. 4'', with Sabine Meyer (Clarinet) and Kenneth Sillito and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, EMI Classics

2009: ''Best Encores 100'', with various artists, EMI Classics

References[link]

External links[link]

Julian Bliss Website

Leblanc Bliss

Category:1989 births Category:Living people Category:British classical musicians Category:Clarinetists Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music

name	Aaron Copland
birth date	November 14, 1900
birth place	New York, New York
death date	December 02, 1990
death place	Sleepy Hollow, New York
residence	United States
citizenship
nationality	American
fields
alma mater	}}

Aaron Copland (; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers". He is best known to the public for the works he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s in a deliberately more accessible style than his earlier pieces, including the ballets ''Appalachian Spring'', ''Billy the Kid'', ''Rodeo'' and his ''Fanfare for the Common Man''. The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are archetypical of what many people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast American landscape and pioneer spirit. However, he wrote music in different styles at different periods of his life: his early works incorporated jazz or avant-garde elements whereas his later music incorporated serial techniques. In addition to his ballets and orchestral works, he produced music in many other genres including chamber music, vocal works, opera and film scores.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Aaron Copland was born in Brooklyn of Lithuanian Jewish descent, the last of five children, on November 14, 1900. Before emigrating from Russia to the United States, Copland's father, Harris Morris Copland, Anglicized his surname "''Kaplan''" to "''Copland''" while waiting in Scotland en route to America. Throughout his childhood, Copland and his family lived above his parents' Brooklyn shop, H.M. Copland's, at 628 Washington Avenue (which Aaron would later describe as "a kind of neighborhood Macy's"), on the corner of Dean Street and Washington Avenue, and most of the children helped out in the store. His father was a staunch Democrat. The family members were active in Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes, where Aaron celebrated his Bar Mitzvah. Not especially athletic, the sensitive young man became an avid reader and often read Horatio Alger stories on his front steps.

Copland's father had no musical interest at all, but his mother, Sarah Mittenthal Copland, sang and played the piano, and arranged for music lessons for her children. Of his siblings, oldest brother Ralph was the most advanced musically, proficient on the violin, while his sister Laurine had the strongest connection with Aaron, giving him his first piano lessons, promoting his musical education, and supporting him in his musical career. She attended the Metropolitan Opera School and was a frequent opera goer. She often brought home libretti for Aaron to study. Copland attended Boys' High School and in the summer went to various camps. Most of his early exposure to music was at Jewish weddings and ceremonies, and occasional family musicales. From 1913 to 1917 he took music lessons with Leopold Wolfsohn, who taught him the standard classical fare. Copland's first public music performance was at a Wanamaker recital.

By the age of 15, after attending a concert by composer-pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Copland decided to become a composer. After attempts to further his music study from a correspondence course, Copland took formal lessons in harmony, theory, and composition from Rubin Goldmark, a noted teacher and composer of American music (who had given George Gershwin three lessons). Goldmark gave the young Copland a solid foundation, especially in the Germanic tradition, as he stated later: "This was a stroke of luck for me. I was spared the floundering that so many musicians have suffered through incompetent teaching." But Copland also commented that the maestro had "little sympathy for the advanced musical idioms of the day" and his "approved" composers ended with Richard Strauss.

Copland's graduation piece from his studies with Goldmark was a three-movement piano sonata in a Romantic style. But he had also composed more original and daring pieces which he did not share with his teacher. In addition to regularly attending the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Symphony, where he heard the standard classical repertory, Copland continued his musical development through an expanding circle of musical friends. After graduating from high school, Copland played in dance bands. Continuing his musical education, he received further piano lessons from Victor Wittgenstein, who found his student to be "quiet, shy, well-mannered, and gracious in accepting criticism." Copland's fascination with the Russian Revolution and its promise for freeing the lower classes drew a rebuke from his father and uncles. In spite of that, in his early adult life Copland would develop friendships with people with socialist and communist leanings.

Studying in Paris[link]

From 1917 to 1921, Copland composed juvenile works of short piano pieces and art songs. Copland's passion for the latest European music, plus glowing letters from his friend Aaron Schaffer, inspired him to go to Paris for further study. His father wanted him to go to college, but his mother's vote in the family conference allowed him to give Paris a try. On arriving in France, he studied at the Fontainebleau School of Music with noted pianist and pedagogue Isidor Philipp and with Paul Vidal. But finding Vidal too much like Goldmark, Copland switched to famed teacher Nadia Boulanger, then aged thirty-four. He had initial reservations: "No one to my knowledge had ever before thought of studying with a woman." She interviewed him, and recalled later: "One could tell his talent immediately."

Boulanger had as many as forty students at once and employed a formal regimen that Copland had to follow, too. Copland found her incisive mind much to his liking and stated: "This intellectual Amazon is not only professor at the Conservatoire, is not only familiar with all music from Bach to Stravinsky, but is prepared for anything worse in the way of dissonance. But make no mistake...A more charming womanly woman never lived." Though he planned on only one year abroad, he studied with her for three years, finding her eclectic approach inspired his own broad musical taste.

Adding to the heady cultural atmosphere of the early 1920s in Paris was the presence of expatriate American writers Paul Bowles, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound, as well as artists like Picasso, Chagall, and Modigliani. Also influential on the new music were the French intellectuals Marcel Proust, Paul Valéry, Sartre, and André Gide, the latter cited by Copland as being his personal favorite and most read. Travels to Italy, Austria, and Germany rounded out Copland's musical education. During his stay in Paris, Copland began writing musical critiques, the first on Gabriel Fauré, which helped spread his fame and stature in the music community. Instead of wallowing in self-pity and self-destruction like many of the expatriate members of the Lost Generation, Copland returned to America optimistic and enthusiastic about the future.

1925 to 1950[link]

Upon returning to the US, Copland was determined to make his way as a full-time composer. He rented a studio apartment on New York City's Upper West Side, which kept him close to Carnegie Hall and other musical venues and publishers. He remained in that area for the next thirty years, later moving to Westchester County, New York. Copland lived frugally and survived financially with help from two $2,500 Guggenheim Fellowships—one in 1925 and one in 1926. Lecture-recitals, awards, appointments, and small commissions, plus some teaching, writing, and personal loans kept him afloat in the subsequent years through World War II. Also important were wealthy patrons who supported the arts community during the Depression, underwriting performances, publication, and promotion of musical events and composers.

Soon after his return, Copland was introduced to the artistic circle of Alfred Stieglitz and met many of the leading artists of that time. Stieglitz's conviction that the American artist should reflect "the ideas of American Democracy" influenced Copland and a whole generation of artists and photographers, including Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Walker Evans. Evans' photographs inspired portions of Copland's opera ''The Tender Land''.

In his quest to take up Stieglitz's challenge, Copland had few established American contemporaries to emulate apart from Carl Ruggles and the reclusive Charles Ives, although the 1920s were Golden Years for American popular music and jazz, with George Gershwin, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong leading the way. Later, however, Copland joined up with his younger contemporaries and formed a group termed the "commando unit," which included Roger Sessions, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, and Walter Piston. They collaborated in joint concerts showcasing their work to new audiences.

Copland's relationship with the "commando unit" was one of both support and rivalry, and he played a key role in keeping them together. The five young American composers helped promote each other and their works but also had testy exchanges, inflamed by the assertion of the press that Copland was the "truly American" composer. Going beyond the five, Copland was generous with his time with nearly every American young composer he met during his life, later earning the title the "Dean of American Music."

Mounting troubles with the ''Symphonic Ode'' (1929) and ''Short Symphony'' (1933) caused him to rethink the paradigm of composing orchestral music for a select group, as it was a financially contradictory approach, particularly in the Depression. In many ways, this shift mirrored the German idea of Gebrauchsmusik ("music for use"), as composers sought to create music that could serve a utilitarian as well as artistic purpose. This approach encompassed two trends: first, music that students could easily learn, and second, music which would have wider appeal, such as incidental music for plays, movies, radio, etc. Copland undertook both goals, starting in the mid 1930s.

Perhaps motivated by the plight of children during the Depression, around 1935 Copland began to compose musical pieces for young audiences, in accordance with the first goal of American Gebrauchsmusik. These works included piano pieces (''The Young Pioneers'') and an opera (''The Second Hurricane'').

During the Depression years, Copland traveled extensively to Europe, Africa, and Mexico. He formed an important friendship with Mexican composer Carlos Chávez and would return often to Mexico for working vacations conducting engagements. During his initial visit to Mexico, Copland began composing the first of his signature works, ''El Salón México'', which he completed four years later in 1936. This and other incidental commissions fulfilled the second goal of American Gebrauchsmusik, creating music of wide appeal.

During this time, he composed (for radio broadcast) "Prairie Journal," one of his first pieces to convey the landscape of the American West. Branching out into theater, Copland also played an important role providing musical advice and inspiration to The Group Theater—Stella Adler's and Lee Strasberg's "method" acting school. The Group Theater followed Copland's musical agenda and focused on plays that illuminated the American experience. After Hitler and Mussolini's attacks on Spain in 1936, leftist parties had united in a Popular Front against Fascism. Many Group Theater members were influenced by Marxism and other progressive philosophies, and several had joined the Communist Party, including Elia Kazan and Clifford Odets. Copland also had contact later with other major American playwrights, including Thorton Wilder, William Inge, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee, and considered projects with all of them. During the 1930s, Copland wrote incidental music for several plays, including Irwin Shaw's "Quiet City" (1939), considered one of his most personal and poignant scores.

In 1939, Copland completed his first two Hollywood film scores, for ''Of Mice and Men'' and ''Our Town'', and received sizable commissions. In the same year, he composed the radio score "John Henry", based on the folk ballad. But it wasn’t until the worldwide market for classical recordings boomed after World War II that he achieved economic security. Even after securing a comfortable income, he continued to write, teach, lecture, and, eventually, conduct.

Demonstrating his broad range, Copland in the 1930s began composing music for ballet, including his highly successful ''Billy the Kid'' (1939), the second of four ballets he scored (after ''Hear Ye! Hear Ye!'' (1934)). In an interview with Vivian Perlis, Eugene Loring said of the ballet, "In our western states, there were still a few old-timers who remembered Billy. One came backstage in San Francisco to tell us that it was all fine, except that Billy really shot left-handed!" Copland's ballet music established him as an authentic composer of American music much as Stravinsky's ballet scores established him with Russian music. Copland's timing was excellent; he helped fill a vacuum for the American choreographers who needed suitable music to score their own nationalistic dance repertory.

In keeping with the wartime period, Copland's "Piano Sonata" (1941) was a piece characterized as "grim, nervous, elegiac, with pervasive bell-like tolling of alarm and mourning." It was later adapted to "Day on Earth," a landmark American dance by Doris Humphrey.

Copland started to publish some of his lectures in the 1930s, "What to Listen for in Music" being one of the most notable of his writings. Copland eventually moved over to rival ASCAP. Through royalties and with his great success from 1940 on, Copland amassed a multi-million dollar fortune by the time of his death.

The decade of the 1940s was arguably Copland's most productive, and it firmly established his worldwide fame. His two ballet scores for ''Rodeo'' (1942) and ''Appalachian Spring'' (1944) were huge successes. His pieces ''Lincoln Portrait'' and ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' have become patriotic standards (See Popular works, below). Also important was the ''Third Symphony''. Composed in a two-year period from 1944 to 1946, it became the most popular American symphony of the 20th Century.

In 1945, Copland contributed to ''Jubilee Variation'', a work commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony in which ten American composers collaborated, but the piece is seldom heard in the concert hall. Copland's ''In the Beginning'' (1947) is a choral work using the first chapter and the first seven verses of the second chapter of Genesis from the King James Version of the Bible and is a masterpiece of the choral repertory.

Copland's ''Clarinet Concerto'' (1948), scored for solo clarinet, strings, harp, and piano, was a commission piece for bandleader and clarinetist Benny Goodman and a complement to Copland's earlier jazz-influenced work, the ''Piano Concerto'' (1926). His "Four Piano Blues" is an introspective composition with a jazz influence.

Copland finished the 1940s with two film scores, one for William Wyler's 1949 film ''The Heiress'' and one for the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel ''The Red Pony''.

In 1949, he returned to Europe to find Pierre Boulez dominating the group of post-War radical musicians. He also met with the proponents of the twelve-tone school (Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg) and found himself having greater sympathy for them than he did for the French, who he felt were drifting too far from classical principles to suit his taste.

1950s and 1960s[link]

In 1950, Copland received a Fulbright scholarship to study in Rome, which he did the following year. Around this time, he also composed his ''Piano Quartet'', adopting Schoenberg's twelve-tone method of composition, and ''Old American Songs'' (1950), premiered by William Warfield.

Because of the political climate of that era, ''A Lincoln Portrait'' was withdrawn from the 1953 inaugural concert for President Eisenhower. That same year, Copland was called before Congress, where he testified that he was never a communist.

Despite the difficulties that his suspected Communist sympathies posed, Copland nonetheless traveled extensively during the 1950s and early 1960s, observing the avant-garde styles of Europe while experiencing the new school of Soviet music. In addition, he was rather taken with the work of Toru Takemitsu while in Japan and began a correspondence with him that would last over the next decade. Copland wrote of the Japanese composer: "He has the 'pure gold' touch, he chooses his notes carefully and meaningfully." Copland also gained exposure to the latest musical trends in Poland and Scandinavia. In observing these new musical forms, Copland revised his text "The New Music" with comments on the styles that he encountered. In particular, while Copland explained the importance of the work of John Cage and others (in his chapter titled "The Music of Chance"), he found that these radical trends in music which appealed to those "who enjoy teetering on the edge of chaos" were less likely to gain the appreciation of a wider audience "who envisage art as a bulwark against the irrationality of man's nature." As he summarized: "I’ve spent most of my life trying to get the right note in the right place. Just throwing it open to chance seems to go against my natural instincts."

In 1954, Copland received a commission from Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein to create music for the opera ''The Tender Land'', based on James Agee's ''Let Us Now Praise Famous Men''. Copland had been wary of writing an opera, being especially aware of the pitfalls of that form, including weak libretti and demanding production values. Nevertheless, Copland decided to try his hand at "la forme fatale," especially as the 1950s were boom times for American playwrights, with Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets and Thornton Wilder doing some of their best work. In spite of its flaws, the opera has established itself as one of the few American operas in the standard repertory.

Copland exerted a major influence on the compositional style of an entire generation of American composers, including his friend and protégé Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein was considered the finest conductor of Copland's works and cites Copland's "aesthetic, simplicity with originality" as being his strongest and most influential traits.

Later life[link]

From the 1960s onward, Copland's activities turned more from composing to conducting. Though not enamored with the prospect, he found himself without new ideas for composition, saying: "It was exactly as if someone had simply turned off a faucet." Copland was a frequent guest conductor of orchestras in the US and the UK. He made a series of recordings of his music, primarily for Columbia Records. In 1960, RCA Victor released Copland's recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra of the orchestral suites from ''Appalachian Spring'' and ''The Tender Land''; these recordings were later reissued on CD, as were most of Copland's Columbia recordings (by Sony). From 1960 to his death, he resided at Cortlandt Manor, New York. His home, known as Rock Hill, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. It was further designated a National Historic Landmark in 2008. Copland's health deteriorated through the 1980s, and he died of Alzheimer's disease and respiratory failure on December 2, 1990, in North Tarrytown, New York (now Sleepy Hollow). Much of his large estate was bequeathed to the creation of the Aaron Copland Fund for Composers, which bestows over $600,000 per year to performing groups.

Personal life[link]

Deciding not to follow the example of his father, a solid Democrat, Copland never enrolled as a member of any political party, but he espoused a general progressive view and had strong ties with numerous colleagues and friends in the Popular Front, including Odets. Copland supported the Communist Party USA ticket during the 1936 presidential election, at the height of his involvement with The Group Theater, and remained a committed opponent of militarism and the Cold War, which he regarded as having been instigated by the United States. He condemned it as, "almost worse for art than the real thing". Throw the artist "into a mood of suspicion, ill-will, and dread that typifies the cold war attitude and he'll create nothing". In keeping with these attitudes, Copland was a strong supporter of the Presidential candidacy of Henry A. Wallace on the Progressive Party ticket. As a result, he was later investigated by the FBI during the Red scare of the 1950s and found himself blacklisted.

Copland was included on an FBI list of 151 artists thought to have Communist associations. Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn questioned Copland about his lecturing abroad, neglecting completely Copland's works which made a virtue of American values. Outraged by the accusations, many members of the musical community held up Copland's music as a banner of his patriotism. The investigations ceased in 1955 and were closed in 1975. Though taxing of his time, energy, and emotional state, Copland's career and international artistic reputation were not seriously affected by the McCarthy probes. In any case, beginning in 1950, Copland, who had been appalled at Stalin's persecution of Shostakovich and other artists, began resigning from participation in leftist groups. He decried the lack of artistic freedom in the Soviet Union, and in his 1954 Norton lecture he asserted that loss of freedom under Soviet Communism deprived artists of "the immemorial right of the artist to be wrong." He began to vote Democratic, first for Stevenson and then for Kennedy.

Composer[link]

Influences[link]

Copland's earliest musical inclinations as a teenager ran toward Chopin, Debussy, Verdi and the Russian composers. Some of his preferences might also have been formed by the anti-German feelings during World War I, as later he studied German music. Copland's curiosity about the latest music from Debussy and Scriabin was frustrated by the fact that sheet music for "avant-garde" works was expensive at that time and hard to come by. Of all her students, she listed Copland first. Copland especially admired Boulanger's total grasp of all classical music, and he was encouraged to experiment and develop a "clarity of conception and elegance in proportion." Following her model, he studied all periods of classical music and all forms—from madrigals to symphonies. This breadth of vision led Copland to compose music for numerous settings—orchestra, opera, solo piano, small ensemble, art song, ballet, theater and film. Boulanger particularly emphasized "la grande ligne" (the long line), "a sense of forward motion...the feeling for inevitability, for the creating of an entire piece that could be thought of as a functioning entity." Copland stated that an ideal music might combine Mozart's "spontaneity and refinement" with Palestrina's "purity" and Bach's "profundity".

Copland was excited to be so close to the new post-Impressionistic French music of Ravel, Roussel, and Satie, as well as Les six, a group that included Milhaud, Poulenc, and Honegger. Webern, Berg, and Bartók also impressed him. Copland was "insatiable" in seeking out the newest European music, whether in concerts, score reading or heated debate. These "moderns" were discarding the old laws of composition and experimenting with new forms, harmonies and rhythms, and including the use of jazz and quarter-tone music. Serge Koussevitzky had just arrived in Paris and was adding to the ferment by conducting and promoting the new music of Russia and France. Later he would conduct many Copland premieres in New York. Among the first performances that Copland attended was Milhaud's ''La création du monde'', which caused riots in Paris. Milhaud was Copland's inspiration for some of his earlier "jazzy" works. He was also exposed to Schoenberg and admired his earlier atonal pieces, thinking Schoenberg's ''Pierrot Lunaire'' a landmark work comparable to Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." Copland even tried out Schoenberg's innovative twelve-tone system and adapted it to his style.

Above all others, Copland named Igor Stravinsky as his "hero" and his favorite 20th century composer. Stravinsky's rhythm and vitality is apparent in many of his works. Copland especially admired Stravinsky's "jagged and uncouth rhythmic effects," "bold use of dissonance," and "hard, dry, crackling sonority."

Another inspiration for much of Copland's music was jazz. Although familiar with jazz back in America—having listened to it and also played it in bands—he fully realized its potential while traveling in Austria: "The impression of jazz one receives in a foreign country is totally unlike the impression of such music heard in one's own country...when I heard jazz played in Vienna, it was like hearing it for the first time." His earlier works especially demonstrate the influence of jazz rhythmic, timbral and harmonic practices. That influence is apparent in a few later works, such as the ''Clarinet Concerto'' commissioned by Benny Goodman. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Copland sought out jazz at the Cotton Club and heard Duke Ellington, Benny Carter and Bix Beiderbecke, among others. Of Duke Ellington among other jazz composers, Copland said he was "the master of them all."

Although Copland was intrigued by the idea of a "jazz concerto" and "symphonic jazz," his ''Concerto for Piano and Orchestra'' did not succeed in that form as had those of Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin, who was praised by such eminent musical exiles as Schoenberg, Bartók, and Stravinsky (Gershwin had recently died at 38 and so was no longer a potential rival). Yet, enthusiastic as he was about jazz throughout his life, Copland also recognized its limitations:

"With the [Piano] Concerto I felt I had done all I could with the idiom, considering its limited emotional scope. True, it was an easy way to be American in musical terms, but all American music could not possibly be confined to two dominant jazz moods – the blues and the snappy number."

Although his early focus of jazz gave way to other influences, Copland continued to make use of jazz in more subtle ways in later works. Copland pointed out in summarizing the American character of his music, "the optimistic tone", "his love of rather large canvases", "a certain directness in expression of sentiment", and "a certain songfulness". As he advanced in his career (by 1941), he said of himself and advised other composers:

"I no longer feel the need of seeking out conscious Americanisms [folksongs and folk rhythms]. Because we live here and work here, we can be certain that when our music is mature it will also be American in quality."

In contradiction to this statement, however, he continued to look for and employ folk material for several more years.

Copland's work from the late 1940s onward included experimentation with Schönberg's twelve-tone system, resulting in two major works, the ''Piano Quartet'' (1950) and the ''Piano Fantasy'' (1957).

Early work[link]

Copland's earliest compositions before leaving for Paris were short works for piano and some art songs, inspired mostly by Liszt and Debussy. He experimented with ambiguous beginnings and endings, rapid key changes, and the frequent use of tritones. In ''Three Moods'' (1921), Copland's final movement is entitled "Jazzy", which he noted "is based on two jazz melodies and ought to make the old professors sit up and take notice".

One of Copland's first significant works upon returning from his studies in Paris was the necromantic ballet ''Grohg''. This ballet, suggested to Copland by the film ''Nosferatu'', a free adaptation of the Dracula tale, provided the source material for his later ''Dance Symphony''. Originally intended as an orchestral exercise while he was studying in Paris, Copland completed it as a full orchestral score after returning to New York in 1925. It too had "jazz elements" as did many of Copland's works in the 1920s.

Copland's ''Symphony for Organ and Orchestra'' (1924) brought him into contact with Serge Koussevitzky, a conductor known as a champion of "new music", and another figure who would prove to be influential in Copland's life, perhaps the second most important after Boulanger. Koussevitzky performed twelve Copland works during his tenure as conductor of the Boston Symphony. Copland's relationship with Koussevitzky was apparently unique, as his interpretations of Copland's works reflected the particular admiration that the latter had for the young composer. Copland's ''Music for the Theatre'' (1925) and the ''Piano Concerto'' (1926) were both composed for Koussevitzky.

Other major works of his first period include the ''Piano Variations'' (1930), and the ''Short Symphony'' (1933). However, this jazz-inspired period was relatively brief, as his style evolved toward the goal of writing more accessible works using folk sources.

Popular works[link]

Impressed with the success of Virgil Thomson's "Four Saints in Three Acts", Copland wrote ''El Salón México'' between 1932 and 1936, which met with a popular acclaim that contrasted the relative obscurity of most of his previous works. It appears he intended it to be a popular favorite, as he wrote in 1927: "It seems a long, long time since anyone has written an ''Espana'' or a ''Bolero''—the kind of brilliant piece that everyone loves." Copland derived freely from two collections of Mexican folk tunes, changing pitches and varying rhythms. The use of a folk tune with variations set in a symphonic context started a pattern he repeated in many of his most successful works right on through the 1940s. This work also marked the return of jazz patterns to Copland's compositional style, though they appeared in a more subdued form than before and were no longer the centerpiece. Chávez conducted the premiere, and ''El Salón México'' became an international hit, gaining Copland wide recognition.

Copland achieved his first major success in ballet music with his groundbreaking score ''Billy the Kid'', based on a Walter Noble Burns novel, with choreography by Eugene Loring. The ballet was among the first to display an American music and dance vocabulary, adapting the "strong technique and intense charm of Astaire" and other American dancers. It was distinctive in its use of polyrhythm and polyharmony, particularly in the cowboy songs. The ballet premiered in New York in 1939, with Copland recalling "I cannot remember another work of mine that was so unanimously received." John Martin wrote, "Aaron Copland has furnished an admirable score, warm and human, and with not a wasted note about it anywhere." It became a staple work of the American Ballet Theatre, and Copland's twenty minute suite from the ballet became part of the standard orchestral repertoire. When asked how a Jewish New Yorker managed so well to capture the Old West, Copland answered "It was just a feat of imagination."

In the early 1940s, Copland produced two important works intended as national morale boosters. ''Fanfare for the Common Man'', scored for brass and percussion, was written in 1942 at the request of the conductor Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It would later be used to open many Democratic National Conventions, and to add dignity to a wide range of other events. Even musical groups from Woody Herman's jazz band to the Rolling Stones adapted the opening theme. Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded a "prog rock" version of the composition in 1977. The fanfare was also used as the main theme of the fourth movement of Copland's ''Third Symphony,'' where it first appears in a quiet, pastoral manner, then in the brassier form of the original. In the same year, Copland wrote ''A Lincoln Portrait'', a commission from conductor André Kostelanetz, leading to a further strengthening of his association with American patriotic music. The work is famous for the spoken recitation of Lincoln's words, though the idea had been previously employed by John Alden Carpenter's "Song of Faith" based on George Washington's quotations. "Lincoln Portrait" is often performed at national holiday celebrations. Many Americans have performed the recitation, including politicians, actors, and musicians and Copland himself, with Henry Fonda doing the most notable recording. This fragment (lifted from Ruth Crawford Seeger) is now one of the best-known compositions by any American composer, having been used numerous times in movies and on television, including commercials for the American beef industry. The ballet, originally titled "The Courting at Burnt Ranch", was choreographed by Agnes de Mille, niece of film giant Cecil B. DeMille. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on October 16, 1942, with de Mille dancing the principal "cowgirl" role and the performance received a standing ovation. A reduced score is still popular as an orchestral piece, especially at "Pops" concerts.

Copland was commissioned to write another ballet, ''Appalachian Spring'', originally written using thirteen instruments, which he ultimately arranged as a popular orchestral suite. The commission for ''Appalachian Spring'' came from Martha Graham, who had requested of Copland merely "music for an American ballet". Copland titled the piece "Ballet for Martha", having no idea of how she would use it on stage but he had her in mind. "When I wrote ‘Appalachian Spring’ I was thinking primarily about Martha and her unique choreographic style, which I knew well…And she's unquestionably very American: there's something prim and restrained, simple yet strong, about her which one tends to think of as American." Copland borrowed the flavor of Shaker songs and dances, and directly used the dance song Simple Gifts. Graham took the score and created a ballet she called ''Appalachian Spring'' (from a poem by Hart Crane which had no connection with Shakers). It was an instant success, and the music later acquired the same name. Copland was amused and delighted later in life when people would come up to him and say: "Mr. Copland, when I see that ballet and when I hear your music I can see the Appalachians and just feel spring." Copland had no particular setting in mind while writing the music, he just tried to give it an American flavor, and had no knowledge of the borrowed title.

Symphonic works[link]

Copland composed three numbered symphonies, but applied the word "symphony" to more than just symphonies of typical structure. He rewrote his early three-movement ''Organ Symphony'' omitting the organ, calling the result his ''First Symphony''. His fifteen-minute ''Short Symphony'' was the ''Second Symphony'', though it also exists as the ''Sextet''. His ''Dance Symphony'' was hurriedly extracted from the earlier unproduced ballet ''Grohg'' to meet an RCA Records commission deadline.

The ''Third Symphony'' is in the more traditional format (four movements; second movement, scherzo; third movement, adagio) and is his most famous symphony. At forty minutes, it is his longest orchestral composition. He composed it with Koussevitzky's unique character in mind, "I knew exactly the kind of music he enjoyed conducting and the sentiments he brought with it, and I knew the sound of his orchestra, so I had every reason to do my darnedest to write a symphony in the grand manner." Completing the work after World War II was won by the Allies, he stated that the symphony was "intended to reflect the euphoric spirit of the country at the time." It is the best known, most performed, and most recorded American symphony of the 20th Century.

Later work[link]

Copland's work in the late 1940s and 1950s included use of Schönberg's twelve-tone system, a development that he recognized as important, but which he did not fully embrace. His first result was his "Piano Quartet" (1950). However, he found the atonality of serialized music to run counter to his desire to reach a wide audience. So, in contrast to the Second Viennese School, Copland's use of the system emphasized the importance of the "classicalizing principles", in order to prevent the material from falling into "near-chaos".

In 1951, Copland undertook one of his most challenging works, the "Piano Fantasy" (1957) which he labored over for several years. Critics lauded the effort, calling the piece "an outstanding addition to his own oeuvre and to contemporary piano literature" and "a tremendous achievement". Jay Rosenfield stated, "This is a new Copland to us, an artist advancing with strength and not building on the past alone."

Other late works include: "Dance Panels" (1959, ballet music), "Something Wild" (1961, his last film score, much of which would be later incorporated into his "Music for a Great City"), "Connotations" (1962, for the new Lincoln Center Philharmonic hall), "Emblems" (1964, for wind band), "Night Thoughts" (1972, for the Van Cliburn Piano Competition), and "Proclamation’" (1982, his last work, started in 1973).

Film composer[link]

By the 1930s, Hollywood began to beckon "serious" composers with promises of better films and higher pay. The reality, however, was that few found good projects. Copland sought to enter that arena, as both a challenge for his abilities as a composer and an opportunity to expand his reputation and audience for his more serious works. Unlike the total attention he would hope to get from a concert-goer, Copland wrote that film music had to achieve a balance. It should be "secondary in importance to the story being told on the screen" while notably adding to the dramatic and emotional content of the film—but without diverting the viewer's attention from the action.

Upon arriving in Hollywood in 1937, he had high hopes: "It is just a matter of finding a feature film that needs my kind of music." What he found, however, was the ongoing tendency of studios to edit and cut movie scores, which often subverted a composer's intentions. No projects seemed suitable at first. But his patience paid off two years later when Copland found a kindred spirit in director Lewis Milestone, who allowed Copland to supervise his own orchestration and who refrained from interfering with his work. Copland composed three of his five film scores for Milestone.

This collaboration resulted in the notable film ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939), from the novel by John Steinbeck, that earned Copland his first nomination for an Academy Award ( he actually received two nominations, one for "best score" and another for "original score"). He considered himself lucky with his first film score: "Here was an American theme, by a great American writer, demanding appropriate music." He often avoided the full orchestra, and he rejected the common practice of using a leitmotiv to identify characters with their own personal themes. He instead matched a theme to the action, while avoiding the underlining of every action with exaggerated emphasis.

Another technique Copland employed was to keep silent during intimate screen moments and only begin the music as a confirming motive toward the end of a scene. Virgil Thompson wrote that the score for "Of Mice and Men" established "the most distinguished populist musical style yet created in America."

Copland's score for ''The North Star'' (1943) was nominated for an Academy Award, and his score for William Wyler's 1949 film, ''The Heiress'' won the award. Several themes from his scores are incorporated in the suite ''Music for Movies.''

When commenting on the effectiveness of film scores, Copland said: "I'd love to be able to have audiences see a film with the music, then see it a second time with the music turned off, and then see it a third time with the music turned on. Then, I think they'd get a much more specific idea of what the music does for a film.".

Critic, writer, and teacher[link]

Starting with his first critiques in 1924, Copland began a long career as music critic, teacher, and observer, mostly of contemporary classical music. He was an avid lecturer and lecturer-performer. He wrote reviews of specific works, trends, composers, festivals, books about music, and recordings. He took on a wide range of issues from the most general ("Creativity") to the most practical ("Composer Economics"). Copland also wrote three books, "What to Listen for in Music (1939)", "Our New Music (1941)", and "Music and Imagination" (1952). He had a long list of notable students (see below). Copland put a good deal of time and energy into supporting young musicians, especially through his association with the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood, both as a guest conductor and teacher. In working with young composers, Copland thought it more important to focus on expressive content than on technical points.

Conductor[link]

Copland studied conducting in Paris in 1921, but not until his involvement conducting his own Hollywood scores, did he undertake it except out of necessity. On his international travels in the 1940s, however, he began to make appearances as a guest conductor, performing his own works. By the 1950s, he was conducting the works of other composers as well. From the 1960s on, he conducted far more than he composed.

A self-taught conductor, Copland developed a very personal style. He occasionally asked friend Leonard Bernstein for advice. Copland took an understated and unpretentious approach to conducting and modeled his style after other composer/conductors such as Stravinsky and Hindemith. Observers of Copland noted that he had "none of the typical conductorial vanities". Though his friendly and modest persona, and his great enthusiasm, were appreciated by professional orchestra musicians, some criticized his beat as "unsteady" and his interpretations as "unexciting". Some of his peers, like Koussevitzky, went even further, advising him to "stay home and compose". Copland thoroughly enjoyed conducting but admitted that he did it in part because in the last seventeen years of his life he felt little inspiration to compose. He was offered "permanent" conducting posts but preferred to operate as a guest conductor. Nearly all of Copland's conducting appearances included his own works, which added to the intoxication of conducting. As he stated, "Conducting puts one in a very powerful position…Best of all, it is a use of power for a good purpose." It also allowed him the freedom to travel which he always enjoyed.

Copland was a strong advocate for newer music and composers, and his programs always included heavy representation of 20th century music and lesser-known composers. Newton Mansfield, violinist with the New York Philharmonic, stated, "The orchestra didn’t take him too seriously. It was like going out to a nice lunch." Copland recorded nearly all his orchestral works with himself conducting. Beginning in 1964, this award "established to bring a declaration of appreciation to an individual each year that has made a significant contribution to the world of music and helped to create a climate in which our talents may find valid expression." Copland was awarded the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in composition for ''Appalachian Spring''. His scores for ''Of Mice and Men'' (1939), ''Our Town'' (1940), and ''The North Star'' (1943) all received Academy Award nominations, while ''The Heiress'' won Best Music in 1950.

In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

He was awarded a special Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in 1987. He was made an honorary member of the Alpha Epsilon chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia in 1961 and was awarded the fraternity's Charles E. Lutton Man of Music Award in 1970.

Notable students[link]

Samuel Adler

Norma Beecroft

Elmer Bernstein

Paul Bowles

Mario Davidovsky

Jacob Druckman

Halim El-Dabh

Alberto Ginastera

Alvin Lucier

José Pablo Moncayo

Juan Orrego-Salas

Einojuhani Rautavaara

Michael Tilson Thomas

Douglas Townsend

Lester Trimble

Anthony Iannaccone

Selected works[link]

''Scherzo Humoristique: The Cat and the Mouse'' (1920)

''Four Motets'' (1921)

''Passacaglia'' (piano solo) (1922)

''Symphony for Organ and Orchestra'' (1924)

''Music for the Theater'' (1925)

''Dance Symphony'' (1925)

''Concerto for Piano and Orchestra'' (1926)

''Symphonic Ode'' (1927–1929)

''Piano Variations'' (1930)

''Grohg'' (1925/32) (ballet)

''Short Symphony (Symphony No. 2)'' (1931–33)

''Statements for orchestra'' (1932–35)

''The Second Hurricane, play-opera for high school performance'' (1936)

''El Salón México'' (1936)

''Billy the Kid'' (1938) (ballet)

''Quiet City'' (1940)

''Our Town'' (1940)

''Piano Sonata'' (1939–41)

''An Outdoor Overture'', written for high school orchestras (1938) and transcribed for wind band (1941)

''Fanfare for the Common Man'' (1942)

''Lincoln Portrait'' (1942)

''Rodeo'' (1942) (ballet)

''Danzon Cubano'' (1942)

''Music for the Movies'' (1942)

''Sonata for violin and piano'' (1943)

''Appalachian Spring'' (1944) (ballet)

''Third Symphony'' (1944–1946)

''In the Beginning'' (1947)

''The Red Pony'' (1948)

''Clarinet Concerto'' (commissioned by Benny Goodman) (1947–1948)

''Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson'' (1950)

''Piano Quartet'' (1950)

''Old American Songs'' (1952)

''The Tender Land'' (1954) (opera)

''Canticle of Freedom'' (1955)

''Orchestral Variations'' (orchestration of ''Piano Variations'') (1957)

''Piano Fantasy'' (1957)

''Dance Panels'' (1959; revised 1962) (ballet)

''Connotations'' (1962)

''Down A Country Lane'' (1962)

''Music for a Great City'' (1964) (based on his score of the 1961 film ''Something Wild'')

''Emblems, for wind band'' (1964)

''Inscape'' (1967)

''Duo for flute and piano'' (1971)

''Three Latin American Sketches'' (1972)

Film[link]

''Aaron Copland: A Self-Portrait'' (1985). Directed by Allan Miller. Biographies in Music series. Princeton, New Jersey: The Humanities.

''Appalachian Spring'' (1996). Directed by Graham Strong, Scottish Television Enterprises. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities.

''Copland Portrait'' (1975). Directed by Terry Sanders, United States Information Agency. Santa Monica, California: American Film Foundation.

''Fanfare for America: The Composer Aaron Copland'' (2001). Directed by Andreas Skipis. Produced by Hessischer Rundfunk in association with Reiner Moritz Associates. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities & Sciences.

Written works[link]

Copland, Aaron (1939; Revised 1957), ''What to Listen For in Music'', New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, reprinted many times.

Copland, Aaron (2006). ''Music and Imagination'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-58915-5

Notes[link]

References[link]

Berger, Arthur, ''Aaron Copland'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953)

Hall, Roger, ''A Guide to Film Music: Songs and Scores ''(Stoughton, MA: PineTree Press, 2007)

Kamien, Roger, ''Music: An Appreciation'', 3rd edition (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill College, 1997), ISBN 0-07-036521-0

Oja, Carol J., & Judith Tick, eds., ''Aaron Copland and His World'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)

Pollack, Howard, ''Aaron Copland'' (NY: Henry Holt and Co., 1999), ISBN 0-8050-4909-6

Ross, Alex, ''The Rest is Noise: Listening To The Twentieth Century'' 1st edition (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)

Smith, Julia, ''Aaron Copland'' (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1953)

External links[link]

Copland House

American Masters "Aaron Copland" at www.pbs.org

The Aaron Copland Collection, 1900–1990, Music Division, Library of Congress

Review of "Howard Pollack, Aaron Copland: The Life and Work of an Uncommon Man" by R. James Tobin

Who Was That Masked Composer? by David Schiff

Aaron Copland and His World

Aaron Copland On Film Music

Brief Copland Bio

''Music and Imagination'' (1952)

Keeping Score: Copland and the American Sound – Multimedia website produced by the San Francisco Symphony

Aaron Copland at NPR Music

Aaron Copland's personal library on LibraryThing

The Presidency Project – ''Remarks at the Presentation of the 1964 Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards.''

Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts

; Listening

Art of the States: Aaron Copland

Audio (.ram files) of a 1961 interview for the BBC

Audio (.smil files) of a 1980 interview for NPR

Fanfare for America (video)

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Name	Jonas Martin Frost III
Width	200px
State	Texas
District	24th
Party	Democratic
Term	January 15, 1979 – January 3, 2005
Preceded	Dale Milford
Succeeded	Kenny Marchant
Birth date	January 01, 1942
Birth place	Glendale, California
Spouse	Jo Ellen Ronson
Religion	Judaism
Occupation	Political commentator Attorney, Polsinelli Shughart PC|footnotes }}

Jonas Martin Frost III (born January 1, 1942) is an American politician, who was the Democratic representative to the U.S. House of Representatives for Texas's 24th congressional district from 1979 to 2005.

Personal life[link]

Born in Glendale, California, Frost grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. He graduated in 1964 with a bachelor's degrees in journalism and history from the University of Missouri. As a student, Frost was editor of ''The Maneater'', was a member of Zeta Beta Tau, and was tapped by Omicron Delta Kappa and QEBH. He later received his Juris Doctor degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1970.

Before going to law school Frost worked as a newspaper reporter. Following his graduation he worked as a law clerk for Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes of the Northern District of Texas and began a private practice.

Political career[link]

Frost ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House in 1974. He tried again successfully in 1978, becoming the second Jewish U.S. congressman from Texas, the first being David Spangler Kaufman. Frost was reelected 12 times without serious opposition.

On October 10, 2002, Martin Frost was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

He served two terms as the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus from 1999 to 2003, the number three post in the Democrats' House leadership after the minority leader and minority whip. As Democratic Caucus Chair, Frost was often at odds with another prominent Dallas-area Congressman, Dick Armey, who was the Republican House Majority Leader.

Due to term limits as Democratic Caucus Chair, Frost made a bid for Minority Leader after Dick Gephart resigned in the wake of losing four seats in the 2002 Congressional midterm elections, but Frost dropped out of the race and supported eventual winner Nancy Pelosi. Frost is generally considered a centrist while Pelosi is liberal.

Frost was the ranking member of the House Rules Committee during his last term in the House.

Due to his strong fundraising ability for fellow Democrats, and the fact that he led the 1991 redistricting in Texas, he was one of the targets of a controversial mid-decade redistricting engineered by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. His district, which included portions of Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington, was redrawn to be much more Republican. Its portions of Fort Worth and Arlington were replaced with wealthier and more Republican territory around Dallas. While Al Gore won the old 24th fairly handily in 2000, the new 24th would have given George W. Bush a staggering 68 percent of the vote in that election. It was an open secret that the new 24th was redrawn for State Representative Kenny Marchant. Moreover, Frost's home in Arlington was shifted into the heavily Republican 6th District, represented by 10-term incumbent Joe Barton. Frost decided to seek re-election in the newly redrawn 32nd District, which included a considerable amount of territory that he had represented from 1979 until 1993. He lost by 10 points to Republican Pete Sessions. Since Ralph Hall's party switch earlier in 2004, Frost had been the only white Democrat to represent a significant portion of the Metroplex.

Retirement[link]

In 2005, Frost was a candidate for chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He dropped out of the race on February 1. On February 15, Frost was hired by FoxNews as a political commentator.

He is now an attorney at Polsinelli Shughart and president of America Votes.

In a July 2011 op-ed regarding the debt ceiling crisis, Frost wrote, "We now have a group of U.S. politicians seeking political purity, who seem to have much in common with the Taliban. They are tea party members."

Notes[link]

External links[link]

{{s-ttl| title = Chairman of Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee | years = 1995–1999 }} {{s-ttl| title = Chairman of House Democratic Caucus | years = 1999–2003 }}

Category:1942 births Category:Living people Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Category:Texas lawyers Category:United States Army officers Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:People from the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex Category:University of Missouri alumni Category:Georgetown University Law Center alumni Category:Jewish members of the United States House of Representatives Category:Jews and Judaism in Texas

de:Martin Frost fi:Martin Frost