Clarinet and Saxophone

Sample from the book:Music and Memory (www.myspace.com/musicandmemory)

(David’s Musical Memory Exercise)

Think of the last time you played, maybe with friends, in a concert situation or in your bedroom or a practice room; choose a pleasant memory. Were you sitting or standing? Were there other people with you, other musicians and/or an audience? What clothes were you wearing? See the colours of the cloth, textures and feel of the material on your skin. What was the air like? Were you outside or in? Was it light or dimmer? Is the picture still or moving? Become more aware of movement. Feel the instrument in your hand, the pressure keys under your fingers, how were you breathing as you played or sang. Were you hot, warm or comfortable at room temperature? What did you play and for how long? Were you playing fast or slow, loud or soft? How many sounds were there? What was your tone like? As your memory becomes richer in detail, in your inner ear what direction does the sound come from? Feel your connection with the instrument grow. Feel the music you played in your body, it’s rhythm, harmonies and melodies… and make them louder in your mind’s ear. Enjoy the weight of your feet on the ground. Where in your body did you feel the music, allow this feeling to grow? Become aware of the notes as you played, the higher ones and lower ones. As this memory becomes clearer and more detailed, are you in the mental picture (associated)? Or are you looking at yourself in the picture (disassociated)? Is your picture focused or unfocused? Find the zoom lens of your camera and zoom in. Then step into the picture, make it brighter and panoramic (see all around you)…Now double the feeling and the passion… and then again. Do this as often as you like until you are totally there and more…

Have fun with it…

David Jean-Baptiste

Music and Memory

Just want to share with you a few thoughts about the clarinet and why I believe it a good choice of instrument to learn.

The clarinet is one of those instruments when a person reaches an acceptable level of ability it brings a sense of as the French say, a certain Je ne sais quoi…When a person is able to express themselves on a musical instrument, there is a corresponding emotion associated with it. Loud amplified electric guitar playing can make the player feel indestructible. The saxophone is generally louder, conical and more often seen and heard than its brother the clarinet, and people generally feel a connection to popularity and sense of release when playing it. The trumpet is regal, perfect to proclaim the fanfare of kings. In jazz the trumpet is looked upon as a leaders instrument. Think of Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Wynton Marsalis to name a few.

The clarinet on the other hand has a little something intangible to it. A combination of clarity in tone, finesse in sound delivery and a tad above the rest, in the best possible meaning of course. Also in classical music there is a healthy repertoire of music written for the instrument.

Maybe it’s the fine keywork in relation to wood, lathed into a cylindrical bore. Yes there are metal clarinets and plastic clarinets, even clarinets made from glass. There is something about the wood, rosewoods, grenadilla, African blackwoods, cocobollo, the distinctive shape of the instrument and the focused sound, that in my opinion sets it above the rest.

So far I have been referring to the more often seen B flat clarinet in this article to learn to play clarinet online. When we bring other members of the clarinet family into the equation, the appeal of the clarinet sky rockets exponentially. The bass clarinet is totally sublime, the contra-bass clarinet can be dark and dirty, perfect for adding weight and authority to bass lines in any music genre. The basset-horn can be so sweet sounding at the top of the instrument, with a singing quality to it. Then sounds like the younger brother of the bass clarinet in its lower register. It’s no surprise that Mozart fell in love with the basset-horn.

So there you have it, learn to play the clarinet…The instrument is perfectly poised to grace ever evolving musical soundscapes with depth and meaning. It is on, and you are about to be part of it.

Best Regards David

David Jean-Baptiste

http://clarinetfamily.com

© The Wellness Clarinet Ltd 2016

David Jean-Baptiste In Conversation with Anton Weinberg

Anton Weinberg a student of Hans Keller has held international professorships of music at Indiana University, professor of clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London’s Barbican Centre, a professor in the new Gulbenkian and Leverhulme Trusts, and a member of the faculty for the government-sponsored National Youth Orchestra of Spain.

He has been a professor at Darlington International Summer School under the directorship of Peter Maxwell Davies, a faculty member at the National Centre of Orchestral Studies in New York, and a visiting professor at the Conservatories of Peking and Shanghai, where he gave lectures as part of the first Anglo/American cultural visits. He is also an authority on the sociology and psychology of music.

Anton’s book ‘Unfinished Sentences,’ with a preface from Lord Menuhin, stands as a testament to mastery.

‘Brilliant concepts, I recommend Anton Weinberg as a marvellous musician, interpreter, teacher and thinker’. (Lord Menuhin)

‘The most versatile of us all, he can be regarded as an expert in so many different fields. In addition he is unusually articulate revealing matters which many of us can only hope to demonstrate’. (Jack Brymer O.B.E)

I met with Anton one early autumnal evening in Paddington station, over a coffee to discover what light this man may be able to shine on mindset in relation to performing. Naturally I have my own practical techniques on this. Other than the obvious one of visualizing a perfect performance, I approached the meeting with one main question…What can a performer do mentally in preparation for a performance, to increase the likelihood of giving the audience a wow! Moment…a moment of magic?

A moment of magic can best be described as a point in time where thoughts disappear and the viewer is suddenly in another world.

Performing to an audience as I see it is a multi-directional wave of consciousness connecting everyone in the room. A connection comprised of sounds, bodily sensations and impressions. The performer creates a moment of magic when in such a state of complete flow that they draw the audience into a moment of total awareness.

Anton agreed, adding that a performance mindset that creates magic is totally instinctive, and the essence of art is interaction. He talked of Andres Segovia and how he would take a passage or phrase of music and interpret it in thirty different ways in preparation. This was certainly an ah ha moment and struck a chord with me.

He spoke of cellist Rostropovich and Sting how they can summon these great musical moments with a jazz like improvisatory flair. How Katya Labeque plays chords so improvisatory, formal and simple with an unexpected quality; as Beethoven and Bach used to improvise at parties.

Anton told stories from the lives of actors and comedians Sid James, Morecombe and Wise, and Tony Hancock; stories of situations that created moments of magic in comical genius. He talked of Pushkin http://rosiamar.nm.ru/ruslan.html and that audiences in all forms of art seek these moments of magic be it literature, dance or visual art.

Indeed I thought, these special moments have the power to enlighten people and change the course of their lives.

“The instrument is just a vehicle, sense the audience, feel the corporate character of the audience,” he said. “It is something you can’t really prepare for, in fact too much preparation can be counter productive. When Leopold Stokowski the British born conducter conducted, if there was a fidgety audience he would play quieter and slower. Dynamics in the music have nothing to do with volume and everything to do with character. A silent whisper can be infinitely more potent than an outburst. Maintain a positive mindset question everything and believe nothing.”

In my mind it had been a very satisfactory meeting, as Anton had totally over delivered on my question. Leaving me plenty to think about and had created ample growing room for me to improve on my own performance.

We both agreed that performance is where the money is, as these days what is expected of the top players has become homogeneous in terms of sound, technique and musicality. Now unlike the past it is becoming harder to tell one top player from the other on recordings.

“Everyone is a genius but if you end up measuring a fishes ability by his ability to climb trees he’ll end up thinking he’s stupid” (Einstein)

So to summarise, to harness the power to create moments of magic do everything to play with increasing awareness and never over prepare. Ask yourself often, how can I create a moment in the now? Knowing in your ability to do this. The more we think of our own individual abilities to create magical moments, the stronger these thoughts will become and the more often they will happen.

Have Fun David

www.clarinetfamily.com

© The Wellness Clarinet Ltd 2016

May the classical player play Weber’s concertos differently from the last time performed. Some may say this is a challenge, but when looked upon in the bright light of reality it is not really. Great clarinetists do this consistently and naturally making hairs stand on end each time at that. We may embrace the same intention of awareness when playing the music of Brahms and Mozart, Poulenc and Milhaud. Playing the notes and then forgetting them. Meaning our spirit and true nature takes command over our controlling and suppressive musical tendencies. So we can flow and therefore speak through the notes of the music like a new wave of consciousness. So we can feed our audience something new and inspirational; even though the presentation of notes, their order, melodies rhythms and harmonies of the music, may have remained the same as they have always been for the past 300 years.

A key goal in jazz music is to be open to the moment musically and to respond accordingly, rather like a medium of sort; a musical response to the musical inclinations of the other performing musicians on stage. Also to the audience; aiming to create a new melody or feeling. I know a Danish pianist composer and improviser who can improvise complete works of music. Every time he plays it will be different to anything you heard previously. He simply has an open channel to universal energy flow. So therefore if we can do this It must be possible for a clarinetist to tap into subtle energies in a room of people so to create a euphoric feeling in them when playing the music of Bach for example.

Once at a small Improvised music event in London, two experimental improvisers toyed on stage. They toyed around looking for new ways to turn their performance, and to take the audience by surprise. At one point the bassist of the duet rolled up a carpet he was using to keep his bass in place while playing and began hitting his bass with the carpet, producing some weird but different acoustic effect. “What is that man doing to that lovely instrument?” was the general feeling in the room. Through the ensuing shock that followed and general apprehensive atmosphere in the audience created by this action, someone shouted out “Rubbish!” a brief pause followed, then…”rubbish rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.” The very next turn in the music saw the musicians using the word rubbish spontaneously in their improvisation. Be clear on this, not to say improvisation is rubbish, because it is an art form as valid as any.

The new iPhone 7 comes out this soon, if you want to be on the edge of it all; include a new ringtone from the latest iPhone in your current recording. This is something that could never have happened in the past.

So in summary modern clarinet performance has everything to do with present moment awareness and responsiveness to what’s happening in the moment. These might be thought processes, sensations, dreamscapes as well as physical occurrences. Both jazz and classical music it is the same processes at play; tune up and tune in.

Have Fun, David

www.clarinetfamily.com

© The Wellness Clarinet Ltd 2016

Click Here to hear John Coltrane’s Music

John William Coltrane, also known as “Trane” (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967), was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and was later at the forefront of free jazz. He organized at least fifty recording sessions as a leader during his career, and appeared as a sideman on many other albums, notably with trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk.

As his career progressed, Coltrane and his music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. His second wife was pianist Alice Coltrane and their son Ravi Coltrane is also a saxophonist. Coltrane influenced innumerable musicians, and remains one of the most significant saxophonists in music history. He received many posthumous awards and recognitions, including canonization by theAfrican Orthodox Church as Saint John William Coltrane and a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007.

Biography

Coltrane’s first recordings were made when he was a sailor.
Saint John William Coltrane
Born September 23, 1926
Hamlet, North Carolina, US
Died July 17, 1967 (aged 40)
Huntington, New York, US
Honored in African Orthodox Church

Information about Coltrane’s canonization
Early life and career (1926–1954)

Coltrane was born in Hamlet, North Carolina on September 23, 1926, and grew up in High Point, North Carolina, attending William Penn High School (now Penn-Griffin School for the Arts). Beginning in December 1938 Coltrane’s aunt, grandparents, and father all died within a few months of each other, leaving John to be raised by his mother and a close cousin.[3] In June 1943 he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To avoid being drafted by the Army, he enlisted in the Navy on August 6, 1945, the day the first U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. He was trained as an apprentice seaman at Sampson Naval Training Station in upstate New York before he was shipped to Pearl Harbor, where he was stationed at Manana Barracks, the largest posting of African-American servicemen in the world. By the time he got to Hawaii, in late 1945, the Navy was already rapidly downsizing. Coltrane’s musical talent was quickly recognized, though, and he became one of the few Navy men to serve as a musician without having been granted musicians rating when he joined the Melody Masters, the base swing band. He continued to perform other duties when not playing with the band, including kitchen and security details. By the end of his service, he had assumed a leadership role in the band. After mustering out of the Navy, as a seaman first class in August 1946, he returned to Philadelphia, where he “plunged into the heady excitement of the new music and the blossoming bebop scene.” After touring with King Kolax, he joined a Philly-based band led by Jimmy Heath, who was introduced to Coltrane’s playing by his former Navy buddy, the trumpeter William Massey, who had played with Coltrane in the Melody Masters In Philadelphia after the war, he studied jazz theory with guitarist and composer Dennis Sandole and continued under Sandole’s tutelage through the early 1950s. Originally an altoist, during this time Coltrane also began playing tenor saxophone with the Eddie Vinson Band. Coltrane later referred to this point in his life as a time when “a wider area of listening opened up for me. There were many things that people like Hawk [Coleman Hawkins], and Ben [Webster] , and Tab Smith were doing in the ’40s that I didn’t understand, but that I felt emotionally.”

An important moment in the progression of Coltrane’s musical development occurred on June 5, 1945, when he saw Charlie Parker perform for the first time. In a DownBeat article in 1960 he recalled: “the first time I heard Bird play, it hit me right between the eyes.”Parker became an early idol, and they played together on occasion in the late 1940s.

Contemporary correspondence shows that Coltrane was already known as “Trane” by this point, and that the music from some 1946 recording sessions had been played for trumpeter Miles Davis—possibly impressing him.

There are recordings of Coltrane from as early as 1945. He was a member of groups led by Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic and Johnny Hodges in the early- to mid-1950s.

Miles and Monk period (1955–1957)

The rivalry, tension, and mutual respect between Coltrane and bandleader Miles Davis was formative for both of their careers.
Coltrane was freelancing in Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 while studying with guitarist Dennis Sandole when he received a call from Davis. The trumpeter, whose success during the late forties had been followed by several years of decline in activity and reputation, due in part to his struggles with heroin, was again active and about to form a quintet. Coltrane was with this edition of the Davis band (known as the “First Great Quintet”—along with Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums) from October 1955 to April 1957 (with a few absences), a period during which Davis released several influential recordings which revealed the first signs of Coltrane’s growing ability. This quintet, represented by two marathon recording sessions for Prestige in 1956 that resulted in the albums Cookin’, Relaxin’, Workin’, and Steamin’, disbanded due in part to Coltrane’s heroin addiction.

During the later part of 1957 Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot, and played in Monk’s quartet (July–December 1957), but, owing to contractual conflicts, took part in only one official studio recording session with this group. A private recording made by Juanita Naima Coltrane of a 1958 reunion of the group was issued by Blue Note Records in 1993 as Live at the Five Spot-Discovery! A high quality tape of a concert given by this quartet in November 1957 was also found later, and in 2005 Blue Note made it available on CD and LP. Recorded by Voice of America, the performances confirm the group’s reputation, and the resulting album,Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, is widely acclaimed.

Blue Train, Coltrane’s sole date as leader for Blue Note, featuring trumpeter Lee Morgan, bassist Paul Chambers, and trombonist Curtis Fuller, is often considered his best album from this period. Four of its five tracks are original Coltrane compositions, and the title track, “Moment’s Notice”, and “Lazy Bird”, have become standards. Both tunes employed the first examples of his chord substitution cycles known as Coltrane changes.

Davis and Coltrane

Coltrane rejoined Davis in January 1958. In October of that year, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term “sheets of sound” to describe the style Coltrane developed during his stint with Monk and was perfecting in Davis’ group, now a sextet. His playing was compressed, with rapid runs cascading in hundreds of notes per minute. He stayed with Davis until April 1960, working with alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb. During this time he participated in the Davis sessions Milestones and Kind of Blue, and the concert recordings Miles & Monk at Newport and Jazz at the Plaza.

At the end of this period Coltrane recorded his first album for Atlantic Records, Giant Steps, made up exclusively of his own compositions. The album’s title track is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult chord progression of any widely-played jazz composition. Giant Steps utilizes Coltrane changes. His development of these altered chord progression cycles led to further experimentation with improvised melody and harmony that he would continue throughout his career. First albums as leader.

Coltrane formed his first group, a quartet, in 1960 for an appearance at the Jazz Gallery in New York City. After moving through different personnel including Steve Kuhn, Pete La Roca, and Billy Higgins, the lineup stabilized in the fall with pianistMcCoy Tyner, bassist Steve Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. Tyner, from Philadelphia, had been a friend of Coltrane’s for some years and the two men had an understanding that the pianist would join Coltrane when Tyner felt ready for the exposure of regularly working with him. Also recorded in the same sessions[clarification needed] were the later released albumsColtrane’s Sound and Coltrane Plays the Blues.

Still with Atlantic Records, Coltrane’s first record with his new group was also his debut playing the soprano saxophone, the hugely successful My Favorite Things. Around the end of his tenure with Davis, Coltrane had begun playing soprano, an unconventional move considering the instrument’s near obsolescence in jazz at the time. His interest in the straight saxophone most likely arose from his admiration for Sidney Bechet and the work of his contemporary, Steve Lacy, even though Davis claimed to have given Coltrane his first soprano saxophone. The new soprano sound was coupled with further exploration. For example, on the Gershwin tune “But Not for Me”, Coltrane employs the kinds of restless harmonic movement (Coltrane changes) used on Giant Steps (movement in major thirds rather than conventional perfect fourths) over the A sections instead of a conventional turnaround progression. Several other tracks recorded in the session utilized this harmonic device, including “26–2”, “Satellite”, “Body and Soul”, and “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes”.

First years with Impulse Records (1960–1962)

In May 1961, Coltrane’s contract with Atlantic was bought out by the newly formed Impulse! Records label. An advantage to Coltrane recording with Impulse! was that it would enable him to work again with engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had taped both his and Davis’ Prestige sessions, as well as Blue Train. It was at Van Gelder’s new studio inEnglewood Cliffs, New Jersey that Coltrane would record most of his records for the label.

By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by Reggie Workman, while Eric Dolphy joined the group as a second horn around the same time. The quintet had a celebrated (and extensively recorded) residency in November 1961 at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane’s new direction. It featured the most experimental music he had played up to this point, influenced by Indian ragas, the recent developments in modal jazz, and the burgeoning free jazz movement. John Gilmore, a longtime saxophonist with musician Sun Ra, was particularly influential; after hearing a Gilmore performance, Coltrane is reported to have said “He’s got it! Gilmore’s got the concept!” The most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues, “Chasin’ the ‘Trane”, was strongly inspired by Gilmore’s music.

During this period, critics were fiercely divided in their estimation of Coltrane, who had radically altered his style. Audiences, too, were perplexed; in France he was booed during his final tour with Davis. In 1961, Down Beat magazine indicted Coltrane and Dolphy as players of “Anti-Jazz”, in an article that bewildered and upset the musicians. Coltrane admitted some of his early solos were based mostly on technical ideas. Furthermore, Dolphy’s angular, voice-like playing earned him a reputation as a figurehead of the “New Thing” (also known as “Free Jazz” and “Avant-Garde”) movement led by Ornette Coleman, which was also denigrated by some jazz musicians (including Davis) and critics. But as Coltrane’s style further developed, he was determined to make each performance “a whole expression of one’s being”.

Classic Quartet period (1962–1965)

ed and Jimmy Garrison replaced Workman as bassist. From then on, the “Classic Quartet”, as it came to be known, with Tyner, Garrison, and Jones, produced searching, spiritually driven work. Coltrane was moving toward a more harmonically static style that allowed him to expand his improvisations rhythmically, melodically, and motivically. Harmonically complex music was still present, but on stage Coltrane heavily favored continually reworking his “standards”: “Impressions”, “My Favorite Things”, and “I Want to Talk About You”.
The criticism of the quintet with Dolphy may have had an impact on Coltrane. In contrast to the radicalism of his 1961 recordings at the Village Vanguard, his studio albums in 1962 and 1963 (with the exception of Coltrane, which featured a blistering version of Harold Arlen’s “Out of This World”) were much more conservative and accessible. He recorded an album of ballads and participated in collaborations with Duke Ellington on the album Duke Ellington and John Coltrane and with deep-voiced ballad singer Johnny Hartman on an eponymous co-credited album. The album Ballads is emblematic of Coltrane’s versatility, as the quartet shed new light on old-fashioned standards such as “It’s Easy to Remember”. Despite a more polished approach in the studio, in concert the quartet continued to balance “standards” and its own more exploratory and challenging music, as can be heard on the Impressions album (two extended jams including the title track along with “Dear Old Stockholm”, “After the Rain” and a blues), Coltrane at Newport(where he plays “My Favorite Things”) and Live at Birdland, both[disambiguation needed] from 1963. Coltrane later said he enjoyed having a “balanced catalogue.”

The Classic Quartet produced their most famous record, A Love Supreme, in December 1964. It is reported that Coltrane, who struggled with repeated drug addiction, derived inspiration for A Love Supreme through a near overdose in 1957 which galvanized him to spirituality. A culmination of much of Coltrane’s work up to this point, this four-part suite is an ode to his faith in and love for God. These spiritual concerns would characterize much of Coltrane’s composing and playing from this point onwards, as can be seen from album titles such as Ascension, Om and Meditations. The fourth movement of A Love Supreme, “Psalm”, is, in fact, a musical setting for an original poem to God written by Coltrane, and printed in the album’s liner notes. Coltrane plays almost exactly one note for each syllable of the poem, and bases his phrasing on the words. Despite its challenging musical content, the album was a commercial success by jazz standards, encapsulating both the internal and external energy of the quartet of Coltrane, Tyner, Jones and Garrison. The album was composed at Coltrane’s home in Dix Hills on Long Island.

The quartet played A Love Supreme live only once—in July 1965 at a concert in Antibes, France. By then, Coltrane’s music had grown even more adventurous, and the performance provides an interesting contrast to the original.

Avant-garde jazz and the second quartet (1965–1967)

As Coltrane’s interest in jazz became increasingly experimental, he added Pharoah Sanders to his ensemble.
In his late period, Coltrane showed an increasing interest in avant-garde jazz, purveyed by Coleman, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra and others. In developing his late style, Coltrane was especially influenced by the dissonance of Ayler’s trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, a rhythm section honed with Cecil Taylor as leader. Coltrane championed many younger free jazz musicians (notably Archie Shepp), and under his influence Impulse! became a leading free jazz record label.

After A Love Supreme was recorded, Ayler’s style became more prominent in Coltrane’s music. A series of recordings with the Classic Quartet in the first half of 1965 show Coltrane’s playing becoming increasingly abstract, with greater incorporation of devices likemultiphonics, utilization of overtones, and playing in the altissimo register, as well as a mutated return of Coltrane’s sheets of sound. In the studio, he all but abandoned his soprano to concentrate on the tenor saxophone. In addition, the quartet responded to the leader by playing with increasing freedom. The group’s evolution can be traced through the recordings The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, Living Space, Transition (both June 1965), New Thing at Newport (July 1965), Sun Ship (August 1965), and First Meditations (September 1965).

In June 1965, he went into Van Gelder’s studio with ten other musicians (including Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, Marion Brown, and John Tchicai) to record Ascension, a 40-minute piece that included solos by the young avant-garde musicians (as well as Coltrane), and was controversial primarily for the collective improvisation sections that separated the solos. After recording with the quartet over the next few months, Coltrane invited Sanders to join the band in September 1965. While Coltrane used over-blowing frequently as an emotional exclamation-point, Sanders would overblow his entire solo, resulting in a constant screaming and screeching in the altissimo range of the instrument.

Adding to the quartet

Percussionist Rashied Ali helped to augment Coltrane’s sound in the last years of his life.
By late 1965, Coltrane was regularly augmenting his group with Sanders and other free jazz musicians. Rashied Ali joined the group as a second drummer. This was the end of the quartet; claiming he was unable to hear himself over the two drummers, Tyner left the band shortly after the recording of Meditations. Jones left in early 1966, dissatisfied by sharing drumming duties with Ali. Both Tyner and Jones subsequently expressed displeasure in interviews, after Coltrane’s death, with the music’s new direction, while incorporating some of the free-jazz form’s intensity into their own solo projects.

There is speculation that in 1965 Coltrane began using LSD, informing the “cosmic” transcendence of his late period. After the departure of Jones and Tyner, Coltrane led a quintet with Sanders on tenor saxophone, his second wife Alice Coltrane on piano, Garrison on bass, and Ali on drums. Coltrane and Sanders were described by Nat Hentoff as “speaking in tongues”. When touring, the group was known for playing very lengthy versions of their repertoire, many stretching beyond 30 minutes and sometimes being an hour long. Concert solos for band members often extended beyond fifteen minutes.

The group can be heard on several concert recordings from 1966, including Live at the Village Vanguard Again! and Live in Japan. In 1967, Coltrane entered the studio several times; though pieces with Sanders have surfaced (the unusual “To Be”, which features both men on flutes), most of the recordings were either with the quartet minus Sanders (Expression and Stellar Regions) or as a duo with Ali. The latter duo produced six performances that appear on the album Interstellar Space.

Death and funeral

Coltrane died from liver cancer at Huntington Hospital on Long Island on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40. His funeral was held four days later at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in New York City. The service was opened by the Albert Ayler Quartet and closed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Coltrane is buried at Pinelawn Cemetery in Farmingdale, New York.

The biographer Lewis Porter has suggested that the cause of Coltrane’s illness was hepatitis, although he also attributed the disease to Coltrane’s heroin use. In a 1968 interview Ayler claimed that Coltrane was consulting a Hindu meditative healer for his illness instead of Western medicine, although Alice Coltrane later denied this.

Coltrane’s death surprised many in the musical community who were not aware of his condition. Davis said that “Coltrane’s death shocked everyone, took everyone by surprise. I knew he hadn’t looked too good… But I didn’t know he was that sick—or even sick at all.”

Personal life and religious beliefs

Coltrane’s second wife, Alice, performed with him and also challenged his spiritual beliefs.
In 1955, Coltrane married Juanita Naima Grubbs, a Muslim convert, for whom he later wrote the piece “Naima”, and came into contact with Islam. They had no children together and were separated by the middle of 1963. Not long after that, Coltrane met pianist Alice McLeod. He and Alice moved in together and had two sons before he was “officially divorced from Naima in 1966, at which time John and Alice were immediately married.” John Jr. was born in 1964, Ravi in 1965, and Oranyan (“Oran”) in 1967. According to the musician and author Peter Lavezzoli, “Alice brought happiness and stability to John’s life, not only because they had children, but also because they shared many of the same spiritual beliefs, particularly a mutual interest in Indian philosophy. Alice also understood what it was like to be a professional musician.”

Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home, and was influenced by religion and spirituality from childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a minister at an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in High Point, North Carolina, and his paternal grandfather, the Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in Hamlet, North Carolina.Critic Norman Weinstein noted the parallel between Coltrane’s music and his experience in the southern church, which included practicing music there as a youth.

In 1957, Coltrane had a religious experience which may have led him to overcome the heroin addiction and alcoholism he had struggled with since 1948. In the liner notes of A Love Supreme, Coltrane states that, in 1957, “I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.” The liner notes appear to mention God in a Universalist sense, and do not advocate one religion over another. Further evidence of this universal view regarding spirituality can be found in the liner notes of Meditations (1965), in which Coltrane declares, “I believe in all religions.”

After A Love Supreme, many of the titles of Coltrane’s songs and albums were linked to spiritual matters: Ascension, Meditations, Om, Selflessness, “Amen”, “Ascent”, “Attaining”, “Dear Lord”, “Prayer and Meditation Suite”, and “The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”. Coltrane’s collection of books included The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, the Bhagavad Gita, and Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. The last of these describes, in Lavezzoli’s words, a “search for universal truth, a journey that Coltrane had also undertaken. Yogananda believed that both Eastern and Western spiritual paths were efficacious, and wrote of the similarities between Krishna and Christ. This openness to different traditions resonated with Coltrane, who studied the Qur’an, the Bible, Kabbalah, and astrology with equal sincerity.” He also explored Hinduism, Jiddu Krishnamurti, African history, the philosophical teachings of Plato and Aristotle, and Zen Buddhism.

In October 1965, Coltrane recorded Om, referring to the sacred syllable in Hinduism which symbolizes the infinite or the entire Universe. Coltrane described Om as the “first syllable, the primal word, the word of power”. The 29-minute recording contains chants from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita and the Buddhist Tibetan Book of the Dead, and a recitation of a passage describing the primal verbalization “om” as a cosmic/spiritual common denominator in all things.

Coltrane’s spiritual journey was interwoven with his investigation of world music. He believed not only in a universal musical structure which transcended ethnic distinctions, but in being able to harness the mystical language of music itself. Coltrane’s study of Indian music led him to believe that certain sounds and scales could “produce specific emotionalmeanings.” According to Coltrane, the goal of a musician was to understand these forces, control them, and elicit a response from the audience. Coltrane said: “I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I’d like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he’d be broke, I’d bring out a different song and immediately he’d receive all the money he needed.”

Religious figure

Coltrane icon at St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church

After Coltrane’s death, a congregation called the Yardbird Temple in San Francisco began worshipping him as God incarnate. The group was named after Parker, whom they equated to John the Baptist. The congregation later became affiliated with the African Orthodox Church; this involved changing Coltrane’s status from a god to a saint. The resultant St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, San Francisco is the only African Orthodox church that incorporates Coltrane’s music and his lyrics as prayers in its liturgy.

Samuel G. Freedman wrote in a New York Times article that “the Coltrane church is not a gimmick or a forced alloy of nightclub music and ethereal faith. Its message of deliverance through divine sound is actually quite consistent with Coltrane’s own experience and message.”Freedman also commented on Coltrane’s place in the canon of American music:

In both implicit and explicit ways, Coltrane also functioned as a religious figure. Addicted to heroin in the 1950s, he quit cold turkey, and later explained that he had heard the voice of God during his anguishing withdrawal. […] In 1966, an interviewer in Japan asked Coltrane what he hoped to be in five years, and Coltrane replied, “A saint.”

Coltrane is depicted as one of the 90 saints in the Dancing Saints icon of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. The icon is a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) painting in the Byzantine iconographic style that wraps around the entire church rotunda. It was executed by Mark Dukes, an ordained deacon at the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, who painted other icons of Coltrane for the Coltrane Church. Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey included Coltrane on their list of historical black saints and made a “case for sainthood” for him in an article on their former website.

Documentaries on Coltrane and the church include Alan Klingenstein’s The Church of Saint Coltrane (1996), and a 2004 program presented by Alan Yentob for theBBC.

Instruments

Coltrane played the clarinet and the alto horn in a community band before taking up the alto saxophone during high school. In 1947, when he joined King Kolax’s band, Coltrane switched to tenor saxophone, the instrument he became known for playing primarily. Coltrane’s preference for playing melody higher on the range of the tenor saxophone (as compared to, for example, Coleman Hawkins or Lester Young) is attributed to his start and training on the alto horn and clarinet; his “sound concept” (manipulated in one’s vocal tract—tongue, throat) of the tenor was set higher than the normal range of the instrument.

In the early 1960s, during his engagement with Atlantic Records, he increasingly played soprano saxophone as well. Toward the end of his career, he experimented with flute in his live performances and studio recordings (Live at the Village Vanguard Again!, Expression). Dolphy’s mother is reported to have given Coltrane his flute and bass clarinet after Dolphy’s death in 1964.

Coltrane’s tenor (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 125571, dated 1965) and soprano (Selmer Mark VI, serial number 99626, dated 1962) saxophones were auctioned on February 20, 2005 to raise money for the John Coltrane Foundation. The soprano raised $70,800 but the tenor remained unsold.

Legacy

John Coltrane House, 1511 North Thirty-third Street, Philadelphia

The influence Coltrane has had on music spans many genres and musicians. Coltrane’s massive influence on jazz, both mainstream and avant-garde, began during his lifetime and continued to grow after his death. He is one of the most dominant influences on post-1960 jazz saxophonists and has inspired an entire generation of jazz musicians.

In 1965, Coltrane was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1972, A Love Supreme was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over half a million copies in Japan. This album, as well as My Favorite Things, was certified gold in the United States in 2001. In 1982 he was awarded a posthumous Grammy for “Best Jazz Solo Performance” on the album Bye Bye Blackbird, and in 1997 he was awarded theGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Coltrane one of his 100 Greatest African Americans. Coltrane was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2007 citing his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz.” He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2009.

His widow, Alice Coltrane, after several decades of seclusion, briefly regained a public profile before her death in 2007. A former home, the John Coltrane House in Philadelphia, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1999. His last home, the John Coltrane Home in the Dix Hills district of Huntington, New York, where he resided from 1964 until his death, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 29, 2007. One of their sons, Ravi Coltrane, named after the sitarist Ravi Shankar, is also a saxophonist.

The Coltrane family reportedly possesses much more unreleased music, mostly mono reference tapes made for the saxophonist, and, as with the 1995 release Stellar Regions, master tapes that were checked out of the studio and never returned.[citation needed] The parent company of Impulse!, from 1965 to 1979 known as ABC Records, purged much of its unreleased material in the 1970s. Lewis Porter has stated that Alice Coltrane intended to release this music, but over a long period of time; Ravi Coltrane is responsible for reviewing the material.[citation needed]

Discography

Main article: John Coltrane discography
The discography below lists albums conceived and approved by Coltrane as a leader during his lifetime. It does not include his many releases as a sideman, sessions assembled into albums by various record labels after Coltrane’s contract expired, sessions with Coltrane as a sideman later reissued with his name featured more prominently, or posthumous compilations except for the one which he approved before his death. See main discography link above for full list.

Prestige and Blue Note Records

Coltrane (debut solo LP) (1957)
Blue Train (1957)
John Coltrane with the Red Garland Trio (1958)
Soultrane (1958)
Atlantic Records

Giant Steps (first album entirely of Coltrane compositions) (1960)
Coltrane Jazz (first appearance by McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones) (1961)
My Favorite Things (1961)
Olé Coltrane (features Eric Dolphy, compositions by Coltrane and Tyner) (1961)
Impulse! Records

Africa/Brass (brass arranged by Tyner and Dolphy) (1961)
Live! at the Village Vanguard (features Dolphy, first appearance by Jimmy Garrison) (1962)
Coltrane (first album to solely feature the “classic quartet”) (1962)
Ballads (1963)
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (1963)
Impressions (1963)
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (1964)
Live at Birdland (1964)
Crescent (1964)
A Love Supreme (1965)
The John Coltrane Quartet Plays (1965)
Ascension (1966)
New Thing at Newport (live with Archie Shepp) (1966)
Kulu Sé Mama (1966)
Meditations (quartet plus Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali) (1966)
Expression (posthumous and final Coltrane-approved release; one track features Coltrane on flute) (1967)

Who are Anthony McGill and Demarre McGill?

Anthony McGill and Demarre McGill are brothers who, although born and raised on Chicago’s tough South Side, have both achieved stellar levels of success in the world of classical music. While Anthony currently serves as the principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York City, his older brother Demarre serves as principle flute of the Seattle Symphony. Both brothers have famously played as members of prominent orchestras across America, including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony between them. They got their start as part of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra…(Read more)

The bass clarinet – A personal history

El Clarinete bajo – una historia personal

Published by Periferiamusic -Barcelona

www.periferiamusic.com

The Bass Clarinet – a personal history    Book and CD

ISBN: 978-84-938845-0-5 / Price: 69 EUR

El Clarinete bajo – una historia personal,  Libro y CD

ISBN: 978-84-938845-1-2 / Precio: 69 Euro

                                     Excerpts from the book

                                    page 7 – Table of Contents

page 14 – Chapter 3: From the very beginning until now

page 31 – Chapter 4: Concise history of the bass clarinet

page 57 – Chapter 6: Range

 Part 6b:The high notes

page 138 – Chapter 8: Special techniques/effects

Part 8n: Multiphonics

page 143 – Chapter 8: Special techniques/effects

Part 8n: Multiphonics

page 248 – Chapter 15: Biography

Comments, Critics and Reviews

 Ana Lara – composer / Mexico

I’ve always admired Harry Sparnaay.

First of all because he has convinced everyone that the bass clarinet is a great instrument capable of doing everything imaginable and unimaginable and has created a very extensive repertoire. And then also because he formed a new generation of not only virtuosi, but also of great bass clarinettists.

He is the great master of the bass clarinet.

Everything about the instrument he knows and is using all his sound possibilities with an immense enthusiasm.

All he needed to do was writing the long-awaited book on his instrument and he did so.

And the book is wonderful, funny and profound. All you have to know about the instrument is included, written with the same lightness and depth it’s author has. Many examples, many stories but mostly this book is him, with his charm, intelligence and talent.

This is a must for music lovers and musicians (performers and composers).

Harry Sparnaay has the great talent to combine his personal experiences (not without humor) with essential information for those who want to write for or to play the bass clarinet.

Thanks Harry for this book. The title says it all, it is a reflection of the passion for your instrument, music and life, a life you have spent to share with us the beauty and power of the bass clarinet.

Thank you so much for this great gift you gave to us all.

Luiz Rocha – bass clarinettist / Brasil

I have been fortunate to read your book already, I bought the first edition in English.
I loved the quality of your book, the depth of the technical part and the personal tone of the narrative. Many congratulations.

Ernesto Molinari – bass clarinettist / Switzerland

Your book arrived a few weeks ago and I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading it.  It is not only informative but entertaining as well!  Your passionate journey and your quest to fathom new worlds of sounds, notations and techniques has inspired clarinetists and bass clarinetists (including myself!) and continues to do so.  I wish there had been a book like yours while I was beginning my own quest over twenty years ago.  I will recommend your book to all of my students and introduce it in my master classes in Darmstadt and Graz  because it is a genuine personal history of the bass clarinet journey still under way.  Thank you for taking the time and effort to write a book while still continuing a full concert and teaching schedule and for sharing your experiences, your discoveries and your passion for music!  

Congratulations, Harry!!!

David Bennett Thomas – composer / USA

I just finished your amazing book.  I can’t imagine a more informative
and helpful book for anyone wanting to play or compose for the bass
clarinet.  I read all of the text on the train, and finally had a minute

to listen through the musical examples.  I’m so glad I did!  It
was amazing to hear those sounds.  There were some effects that I
didn’t even know were possible.  The book is very well written, in an
enjoyable and sometimes humorous style.  Who would have thought that a
book about the bass clarinet would be such a page-turner!
Now if we can just get someone to write a similar book for every other
instrument to help those wanting to compose.

Sungji Hong – composer / Korea

A vast amount of experience is collected within this book, where we find a wide range of extended techniques explained with diverse examples of contemporary music.

It leads us into the musical journey of Harry Sparnaay, whose career is a true history of contemporary bass clarinet music.
‘The Bass Clarinet’ by Harry Sparnaay will certainly be an inspiration for all clarinettists and composers who are seeking for a deep knowledge of the instrument.

Oğuz Büyükberber – bass clarinettist / Turkey

I remember the day my uncle brought a student model bass clarinet for me from Paris. It was the first bass clarinet I had ever seen in my whole life until then! In Turkey, it was so hard to have access to the right material in those days: Instruments, recordings, books… I was so lucky to travel all the way to study with you personally. But this book you wrote gives the possibility to musicians from all over the world to enjoy and benefit from your incredible knowledge, unprecedented experience and great personality. The high standard you set for this lovely instrument that I have so much passion for will only be clearer and better understood as a result of this book.

Thank you so much!

Jane O’Leary – composer / Ireland

A great reference book when writing my next piece for bass clarinet! It is a
wonderful achievement-congratulations.  With a life as full and rich as
yours, it’s so important to have it recorded in this way. Great fun to read
and hear all your stories. It feels like having a conversation/meeting with you when reading it….very nice!

It’s lovely!

Hugo Queirós – bass clarinettist / Portugal 

Thank you very much for writing your book. So easy and so exciting, for me it has been a pleasure to read and follow the great adventure that was your life with the bass clarinet!

Thank you for sharing so much valuable information and I hope you will continue sharing so much knowledge that you have about this noble instrument…

During your live you inspired great musicians and composers and with this book you will reach much more…

Congratulations for this masterpiece!

Daniel Schröder – (bass) clarinettist / Germany

I really enjoyed that your book is written from such a personal point of view. It is so much nicer to read if you got an impression what a special subject means to the person who is telling you about it. Then it is like a story that is told and you like to listen to.

Al Wegener – composer-bass clarinettist / USA

It is a great book … like all your reviewers say. And I have found it very useful for my bass clarinet composing and performance. The book cost me $135 U.S. dollars. That, here in the U.S. and now, is just a lot of money but the book is well worth. Perhaps a good idea to put up some selected pages from the book on your web site to give folks a taste, perhaps including some audio too? Buying the book blind this will make sales easier.

Thanks for everything you do for the bass clarinet!

Roderik de Man – composer / the Netherlands

“Maybe the bass clarinet has been waiting all these years for Harry Sparnaay” wrote William Littler (Toronto Star) in the seventies.

We may now add: This certainly is the book bass clarinettists and composers have been waiting for all these years.

The book is a real gem!!!

Sarah Watts – bass clarinettist / England

When you would expect that as it is Harry Sparnaay writing a book it will be absolutely full of contemporary music and nothing else, than you will be really pleasantly surprised that it is so much more. It isn’t just a personal history; it covers everything about the bass clarinet.

Harry Sparnaay – a personal history, is really a must for everyone who wants to know more about the bass clarinet. It is a huge wealth of information from the history of the instrument to information on general techniques, contemporary techniques and repertoire. Also it is full of information about other players and I like the way that contact details are included for many players from around the world and products associated with the instrument. It is written from the heart with much affection and humor.

Luc Lee – bass clarinettist / Taiwan

This book is bass clarinetist’s gift!!

It includes so much bass clarinet information.

Let me learn more about bass clarinet. I enjoyed it very~~~ very much!!

I love this book.

Bravo!! Bravo!!!!

Sergio Blardony – Sulponticello, Revista on-line de música y arte sonora / Spain

Periferia Sheet Music surprises the music world with this book by the bass clarinettist Harry Sparnaay, that, far from being limited to mere theoretical and technical treatise, introduces the composer, performer and musician in general, to the world of his instrument from a personal and analytical point of view. It is a very well presented edition that includes a CD with multiple examples of the techniques discussed.

 To write a review about a theoretical treatise on an instrument (if that is indeed what we can call this book!) can tend to be complex and often be boring for the reader. However, the present case, the Periphery Sheet Music edition of “The Bass clarinet”, bass clarinetist Harry Sparnaay, dispels these fears from the very first page. Firstly, it is observed from the very beginning that this is a personal approach, living up to the caption that accompanies it (“a personal history”). Secondly, the author (without doubt, one of the most important players of the bass clarinet) has managed to reconcile, on the one hand, extreme seriousness and technical rigor with irony and a frequent sense of humor, which makes the reading quite agreeable, on the other hand. This is something highly unusual in a book of this kind. These factors give to the written text something which, as I shall try to convey in this article, makes this editorial proposal both atypical and quite valuable. It is definitely a book addressed equally to performers and to composers, but the later will always be indebted to it. I will try to delve into why this is observed to be so, and precisely from the composer’s perspective, about which I am able to speak from experience.

Usually, when faced with an instrumental treatise, the composer’s main concern is, and in this order, 1) if it deals with the extended or contemporary techniques (something which that is generally not rare in any text of this kind) in case our own language proficiency is limited, 2) in which language is written and if it is “readable” (this generally is not considered a major problem); and finally 3), the abundance of tables and examples of the techniques (one is always on the hunt for a good table multiphonics …). If the text meets these needs, and does it well, it will be eligible to sit on the shelf of reference books in instrumentation. However, time and experience tells us that many treaties, for various reasons are not as useful as they might seem at first sight. In many cases, it is not so much that they contain incorrect or inaccurate information (of which there is generally a bit of that), but that over time the current techniques become a bit moldy or out of date. It is not uncommon to find that a multiphonics example cannot be realized due to small changes in the instruments or in the reeds, that are no longer used as commonly as in the time the books were written. These aspects are of great importance for the composer, as an inadequate organization of multiphonic examples in  a publication can mislead the composer into believing in a deceiving kind of soundscape where practically everything that appears in a table can be done exactly as the book says. We must also bear in mind that many of these books have been made in research settings in which the starting point was “possible” rather than “reason”, primarily because the motive was to study the physical and acoustic potentials of the instrument, rather than from the perspective of genuine usefulness for the composer (in these cases, good judgment and experience are to be expected of the composer, since there is no reason to limit a comprehensive technical or investigative text out of concern for the composer’s lack of understanding about the instrument).

The Bass Clarinet emerges from a completely different point of view than that of a purely investigative text or compilation of material. It emerges from the perspective of ​​being a useful book for composing precisely because it warns the creative mind of the illusions, very precisely setting limits on those techniques and aspects of the instrument that may be conflictive. One could argue that this route is dangerous or limiting because it tends to restrain the impulse to create and explore freely on the instrument, but nothing is further from the truth. Sparnaay makes it clear that almost anything is possible on the instrument, and what is not possible, can be generally be achieved with work and inquiry. This may be. However, the concept of “almost anything is possible” should be taken into careful consideration, because it is not productive to expected-limited possibilities from the instrument, or to cultivate an excessive confidence in the capabilities of the player to solve these challenges. Because the composer then falls into the trap of trespassing the very real technical impossibilities of the instrument.

From this perspective, I can cite a number of passages that clearly illustrate the focus of the book. For example, Mr. Sparnaay says of trills, tremolos and bisbigliando: “In general, playing trills does not pose major problems for us, but a trill c to c sharp in the low register is-on almost all bass clarinets-almost impossible”. Another example about the quarter-tone: “Also playing a phrase in an insanely high tempo, flying over three octaves, fortissimo and ‘Flatterzunge’, and full of quarter tones is meaningless. The result will be a terrible roar hawking without any discernible pitch. It looks nice and well thought-out, but it does not function at all! ” Or on multiphonics:” There are completely written out books with multiphonics which may give the impression to composers that actually all the notes sound clearly notated and equally and that you as composer can just go ahead. However this is a fallacy and seems to be misleading for many composers.” These quotes make clear the points about the book that I have tried to expose and explain, and the importance of a book like Sparnaay’s for realizing a logical and effective manner of writing for the instrument.

In addition to these aspects, perhaps the most relevant from a practical point of view, including the important collection of samples and examples contained on the CD that accompanies the book, and as I mention at the beginning of this article, is the particularly pleasing style in which the book is written. We feel as if we are privy to a very personal musical experience, and this implies the risk of coming across at times as excessive But Sparnaay dispels this through an effective combination of the essential objectives of the text. In other words, it is both completely original and personal and, at the same time equally effective from a “technical” point of view, all the time not coming across as labored or contrived. In this sense, it comes across as seamless in a very satisfactory way.

In regards to the organization of the book by chapter: in addition to a significant amount of text devoted to forms of notation, instrumental ranges, extended techniques, use of the instrument in an electro-acoustic context, etc., we also find chapters which are to be considered less common and which result very interesting and entertaining.  From the “Personal introduction” and “From the very beginning until now”,  to a journey through the history of the latest music, going all the way to a chapter devoted to programming of works for bass clarinet, there is even a section dedicated to stories and anecdotes that will give the reader a good laugh. On the practical level are the sections dedicated to repertory, publishers and music information centers, or to composers who have written works for the instrument, with various references to them, including the web.

In short, this is an essential book on the bass clarinet for the composer or performer, but it is also highly recommended to other music professionals who can find in this text transversal aspects which, above all, offer the occasion for reflection on ideas that transcend the specific study of an instrument.

Núria Giménez Comas – composer / Spain

For me it was the discovery of a fascinating personal history closely tied to development and sound research for an instrument that is (thanks to the dedication) very rich in possibilities. Consequently I think it is a practical tool for composers and performers through numerous examples and comments, resulting out of a huge experience in the field, making it a very important tool, we could say an obligatory one. I’m using the book very often now, it is very clear and practical!

Thanks Harry!

Marij van Gorkom – bass clarinettist / the Netherlands

I have read your book several times and enjoyed it very much. I find it very personal and very recognizable.

I dreaded a little bit to go through a multiphonics chart again, since it usually takes ages and ages because not everything works etc. 

But it only took me a quarter of an hour!

Great and really wonderful to have a chart which you can just pass on with the message that it really works and also for me as a Selmer player. 

Without doubt it’s clear to me that I will strongly recommend this book to every composer.

So, thanks again and again. 

Jacobo Durán Loriga – composer / Spain

Books on instrumental techniques can be very dry and boring. Lucky are they who are interested in the bass clarinet, because with “The bass clarinet” by Harry Sparnaay they have a book which is comprehensive and entertaining as well. On almost every page there’s a reason to smile, or laugh even, for example when he lists various remote regions of the globe that are ideal for studying the very high notes that can usually cause problems with family and neighbors.
The advice given to composers and musicians is priceless. Advices based on experience, not just on theory. It is the strength that comes from knowing what you are talking about and to argue from practical experience. With his guidance composers will know what can be done and how, and what best to be avoided, the way to use notation with advantages and disadvantages explained. All documented with photos, sheet music, fingering chards and a CD.

There is only one thing that would surpass this book. To have the author at your side to be consulted at any time, although I suspect that he would sometimes use his own book to have the most complete and reliable reference.

Petra Stump/Heinz-Peter Linshalm – bass clarinettists / Austria

We received your book about a week ago and read all the chapters by now.

It is not only a comprehensive encyclopaedia about the bass clarinet and its techniques but also an inspiring story of a life dedicated to the bass clarinet.  Complete in every respect!!!                Thank you for all your efforts!!!

Laura Carmichael – bass clarinettist / USA

You have written a superb book, with comprehensive examples, fingering charts, repertoire lists and stories of his forty-plus years of work with the bass clarinet. What stands out the most to me is the way your personal voice is heard throughout; the reader is exposed to the various sides of you: demanding and focused, funny and self-deprecating, energetic and sharp. Your stories, opinions (often dosed out with humour), and way of living with the bass clarinet are interwoven with a plethora of technical information. You let the reader in on your personal perspective, your thinking, motivations and drive. I cannot think of another clarinet book which achieves this combination of practical information with such a compelling informal voice. In the section about notation, “The Confusing Notation” and “The Really Bad Notation” I had to laugh out loud. The book is a rich resource, definitely a must have reference for bass clarinettists and composers, and no doubt useful to anyone interested in the development of the bass clarinet as a contemporary music solo instrument over the last forty years.

Montse Martínez Gracía – Consultant Feng Shui Traditional / Spain

What fantastic reviews and comments your book received!
Surely the fundamental value of the work is YOU, your personality and LOVE, in capital letters, your feelings for the music and your instrument.
This love is in everything you say when you speak about them, or during teaching or through anecdotes and it is certainly reflected and transmitted through reading your book.
Hence it isn’t an other music book . . . it is something different and very special.

Josep Barcons Palau – Revista Musical Catalana – / Spain

It is no exaggeration to say that Sparnaay has opened Pandora’s Box of the bass clarinet, giving the instrument a privileged place in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, thus redeeming it from the secondary role it was sentenced to in the orchestras. This Pandora’s Box is now presented in a book that is like a Bible of the bass clarinet.

Like the Bible, consisting of several books, Sparnaay’s book contains several books in one: a technical book indispensable for both composers and instrumentalists (covering everything from the reeds to the notation of multiphonics), a history book, a catalogue of compositions, a collection of special effects and examples (with a CD attached), a multimedia reference source, and an autobiography.

The novel approach of the book is that even though the paragraphs and chapters are fully indexed and sorted, the contents know no boundaries and circulate freely from the beginning until the end.

 The text is like a sponge, having absorbed the lively, provocative and humorous style of the author; in the midst of a technical explanation, anecdotes and personal assessments appear.  

This book is suggested for anyone who wants to approach the world of contemporary music, the bass clarinet, or musical culture in general.

Sparnaay’s book crosses the same borders that the bass clarinet itself has crossed. He is the most authoritative voice on the art and history of bass clarinet, and now the fact that he has written about the instrument has become a significant historical event itself.

Ilse van de Kasteelen – singer-composer / the Netherlands

I have spent the past days with your book. BRAVO, what a wealth of information, what an adventure. And written as you are, driven and with a great sense of humor. Many people here will, like me, learn a lot from it. It is a privilege to be included.

Ainhoa Miranda – bass clarinettist / Spain

Not only seeing all what you have done for this amazing instrument but also to read all your experiences adds joy and fun to play it.

You make playing not difficult but interesting. Any new challenge becomes a trip through the sound and possibilities of an instrument that thanks to you is admired.

I am so happy for you writing this book!

A book that makes the bass clarinet to be alive

Gérard Pape – composer / France

How nice to find a book on the bass clarinet that does not
forget that there is a person behind the instrument! Not only the history of the instrument but also that of the instrumentalist! That your book is a “personal” history means a lot for me as it makes your advice to young instrumentalists to play with their soul, to find a sound that comes from who they are all the more important!! While your book is very helpful as to what is possible or
not on the instrument, you admit that the impossible does exist!

While you have found and describe many wonderful possibilities for the instrument, you also tell that certain things are really not so possible which is also quite honest and helpful!
So, I come to the conclusion thanks to your book that writing for an instrument should also include a phase of testing one’s ideas with the player. Research in music is a real collaboration between player and composer. Your book is an invaluable report on many years of research and collaboration with composers.
Best wishes and thanks.

Stephan Vermeersch – bass clarinettist / Belgium

I have been enjoying your book for the last two weeks; a must for every bass clarinettist and composer who wants to write for this beautiful instrument.

 I cannot think of any item that is not included, the recordings also are straightforward: no tricks.

Thank you very much for this beautiful work!

Jaap Bosman – bass clarinettist / the Netherlands                                                                   

I immediately copied the support strap Harry describes in chapter 7, “Playing position”. In this way the book paid itself. The strap is really great, much more comfortable than all the other ones. The bass clarinet literature list is the solution for the lonely bass clarinettist searching for new pieces. Everything you cannot find on the net is in the book, and the personal way of writing makes it an enjoyable book to read and use.

Didier MASSIAT – Copyright Department, Gérard Billaudot Editeur SA / France

I have just received your book, and all I could say can be summed up: congratulations for such a work!

The result is really marvellous.

Jetle Althuis – bass clarinettist / the Netherlands

The book is grand in many respects: it presents a good overview of not only the possibilities- but also the impossibilities of the bass clarinet. (For me as bass clarinettist is comforting to see some things are just not possible).

Here someone speaks with not only a wealth of knowledge and experience, the passion for the bass clarinets radiates from every passage you read.
On every page you sense the bass clarinet holds no secrets for Harry Sparnaay. To me it is most remarkable the book reads as if the writer is speaking directly to you. 

Harry Sparnaay is speaking!

This book is a must have for every (bass) clarinettist and is strongly recommended to composers.

Hans Joachim Hespos – composer / Germany

Many thanks for the wonderful book, the compendium of your life’s work
– you and your instrument -. It will be a standard work for many young musicians.

Many congratulations!

Gabriel Brnčić – composer / Spain

An excellent book. Amongst so many absurd and badly composed books this truly is a breath of fresh air. Many congratulations to you and your co-workers.

Anton Willems – bass clarinettist / the Netherlands

Congratulations on your beautiful book. I have it and I’m still reading it with great pleasure. It is an inspiring book, especially because it has a relaxed and often humorous personal style (I think so, but so your lessons often were), but really to the point regarding the possibilities and impossibilities, and everything is told with passion. The CD sounds very beautiful and natural in terms of sound. For me it is a very valuable addition to the bass clarinet literature. Often these books are quite business like and dry thus boring to read. It really surprised me.
I hope the book finds its way to the musicians well.

Frans Moussault – bass clarinettist / the Netherlands

I adore your book. The best thing I bought over the last years.
When I read it I hear you talking. The next week I’ll go through it and study the
standard techniques in the book and they will undoubtedly inspire me.
I am a proud disciple of the writer.

Sarah Watts – HARRY SPARNAAY INTERVIEW FOR CASSGB (Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain – www.cassgb.org)

In May I went to see Harry Sparnaay perform a concert in Barcelona and also to interview him about my research on multiphonics. During my trip I also made time to talk to Harry about his new book ‘Harry Sparnaay, the bass clarinet – a personal history’.

SW: My first question to you is why did you decide to write this book?

HS: Why did I write it? Well first of all I have to be honest already years ago they asked me  to do something and I said no. Now this is very interesting – it has nothing to do with music. I have one problem. When I have to do something in my house or something else I make a list. And I love to do this! So I make a list and when I have finished everything on the list … the satisfaction!! And that is the mistake of what I did!! Two years ago Roderik de Man (the composer) asked me and said you have to do it! I said no. The next day I was sitting at the computer and I made a list of what I thought had to be included in the book. And that was the mistake! The next day I was speaking with my wife about something and I said wait a moment and I went to the computer – that was a mistake and from that moment on it was nearly every day and of course I have so many things that have happened, so many pieces written. So first I wrote what came in my mind and then I was doing this until the day before going to print. So that was the reason.

SW: I expected and I think many people in the UK would expect that as it is you writing a book it will be absolutely full of contemporary music and nothing else. And it was really pleasant that it was so much more. It wasn’t just your personal history, it covers everything about the bass clarinet … was that your intention?

HS: Yes. That was my intention. That’s why I am really pleased and I am especially pleased with the critics and comments on the book because everybody is mentioning what you are saying and that was what I wanted. I have read a lot of serious books and that’s not me – I love jokes, I love life. I cannot write a complete serious book because when I was writing for example about quarter tones immediately I was thinking of the bad things! That’s why I said that I didn’t want to write a book about the bass clarinet – I wanted to do it a personal way. I think I succeeded quite well. Still when I look at it and read it I am still laughing.

SW:  You have many musical examples in your book. How did you go about selecting them?

HS: I was talking for example about notation and then I thought wait a moment I have a memory that is incredible. You say slap tongue on high F sharp and I remember a piece. I was writing quarter tones and I thought that piece is a beautiful example or there is that piece where they are not working. So it was always about what I wrote and then the piece came. I did not choose because it was a friend .. no no no. Or sometimes I had a piece that was so badly written down- but I love the composer. One piece for bass clarinet and harp was handwritten – so I cleaned it myself. It is very important that the music is very good in a book so the paper is beautiful, the book is beautiful and also the examples have to be beautiful.

SW: I also thought it would be full of contemporary extracts, but you have chosen all types of music from orchestral, to lyrical…

HS: But when you listen in my car I have Jazz music. I love Jazz music. I play contemporary music because I like it very much to play, but believe me in my house we nearly never listen to contemporary music.

SW: Looking to the future. One aspect I really like about the book is that it is full of information about other players so it is not at all a book just about you. I like the way that contact details are included for many players around the world.

HS: That is important and really I mean it.  When I started and became more known the only thing I always had in mind was that I was afraid that when I stopped there would not be another idiot who is going on with the instrument. I do not worry anymore.  I said in my book that we really have so many who are playing bass clarinet.  But that was not when I started.

SW: I always say to my audiences that to be a bass clarinetist you have to be crazy!

HS: Yes you have to be crazy, but you will see I did not mention everybody that would be impossible. But you can see how many players we have now. People who are really playing bass clarinet and not just just because they have to play in orchestra. They really go on and influence composers. The only really selfish thing in the book is the repertoire list. It is my repertoire. That is the only thing that is me alone. Already that is 14/15 pages.  But the rest  … I was so happy when your recording came and I included it immediately in the book because I thought this is interesting because I don’t have a recording of that piece as it is not my repertoire.  Do I ignore them? No, that would be stupid. I have an ideal of what is good – but that may not be others ideals. I don’t play Schoeck (sonate), but that doesn’t mean it is a bad piece of course – my students play Schoeck. I don’t play in orchestra, but my students are using Michael Drapkin’s orchestral excerpts books.

SW: Do you have any nice memories of concerts in the UK

HS: What I loved was the series with the composer Barry Anderson.  He was the director of the West Square Electronic Music Group. And also Stephen Montague was there. I played a beautiful piece by Barry Anderson for bass clarinet, string quartet and electronics. I loved it very much and we played about 20 concerts all over the UK with the Arts Council. I also played the SOLO by Stockhausen and Monodies by Jonty Harrison. I love to be in England to play and we did a lot of things like when Jonathan Harvey wrote his Trio (Riot for bass clarinet, flute and piano).  But I must be honest – the last ten years I did not visit England

Harry Sparnaay – “ A Personal History”,  is really a must for everyone who wants to know more about the bass clarinet. It is a huge wealth of information from the history of the instrument to information on general techniques, contemporary techniques, repertoire, players from around the world and products associated with the instrument. It is written from the heart with much affection and humour.

The book is published by Periferia Music www.periferiamusic.com                                            It can also be purchased in the UK at Howarths Music Shop in London.

Herbert Noord – music critic / the Netherlands

In pop music, especially in English a biography or autobiography of a famous pop star or group, is an accepted phenomenon. In recent decades dozens of those books have appeared. Keith Richards, Patti Smith and Sammy Hagar were recently responsible for this kind of book. Also in jazz it is not unusual to write a book about the live and times of an interesting musician. I have books in my library from Mingus and Miles to Chet Baker and Ben Webster

Biographies or autobiographies of Dutch (jazz) musicians are very rare, the only one I own are those of  Cees Schrama and Rein de Graaff! In front of me is now a special edition. Special in multiple meanings. It is an autobiography of a Dutch musician who wrote at the same time a biography about an unusual instrument: the bass clarinet. The book is originally written in Dutch, translated into English and then published by a Spanish publisher.

Books written by musicians are not that usual, they are rare birds. Harry Sparnaay is such a rare bird. In this fascinating book, he describes his development to become an internationally acclaimed musician, his discovery of the bass clarinet and his contribution to the recognition of this instrument, often regarded with suspicion by the established musical elite.

What makes this book a special book? Not just the fact that in the Netherlands almost no books are and were written by musicians and published, but also the fact that reading is fun even for those readers who don’t belong to the order of bass clarinet players .

Why a review of this book is in a magazine that is mainly involved in jazz, is due to the link which exists between the writer and jazz. Harry made music for years with celebrities in the Amsterdam Bohemia Jazz Quintet and brought it later to performances with Theo Taldick’s famous big band. Although Harry’s musical life started with an accordion on his belly, his first love was the tenor saxophone. To become a jazz saxophonist was his dream. Young Harry heard the music of all the saxophonists that he could get his hands on, from Stan Getz to Coltrane and Hawkins to Young, to make that dream a reality. When he took his first steps in the Dutch jazz scene, it was with a tenor saxophone tied round his neck. But not after his father had decreed that he also should gain a solid musical background by studying at the Amsterdam conservatory. At that time, late fifties, early sixties, the tenor saxophone was a highly suspect instrument at the conservatories. The overall thought was that those kind of instruments were essentially played in dark cellars. It was “not done”.

Harry was allowed to do an entrance exam and played on his sax “Well You Need It” composed by Monk. His choice raised the eyebrows of the examination committee. Fortunately a member of the committee recognized a true musician and on the condition that Harry switched to clarinet they admitted him to become a conservatory student.

He studied clarinet diligently when at one point the teacher came in with a bass clarinet and invited his students to try this instrument. Harry tried also and discovered at the same time that this should become ‘his’ instrument. He became hooked on this wonderful instrument. The bass clarinet originated sometime between 1730 and 1750. It was the great Adolphe Sax in 1835, who made some important modifications and who set the standard that led to the current instrument.

Repertoire

Harry describes in his book, his relentless struggle for adequate modern repertoire for the bass clarinet. There were almost no written pieces for bass clarinet, and if they were aware of the instrument they had to be forced to compose for this instrument. Because of this lack of written material Harry created a self-imposed task, namely to encourage composers to write for his instrument. He succeeded wonderfully well. Keep in mind that the first concert for bass clarinet dates from 1955! There are now hundreds of compositions written for this instrument and more appear on a weekly basis. Harry may be blamed for this success.
There is an ample amount of this material by Harry recorded on sound carriers. So he is also featured on the newly released recordings of the Theo Loevendie consort. In this last group he had made his move to the bass clarinet and played with the tenor Hans Dulfer.

On another CD Harry had recorded a tribute to Eric Dolphy a bass clarinettist highly admired by Harry. The beautifully illustrated book includes many examples of notations, fingering diagrams for directions and advice concerning ‘How to build a repertoire’ and a clear explanation of the techniques of  “circular breathing” and “multiphonics”.

What makes the book attractive not only for bass-clarinet musicians but also for a general reader is the clear but curiosity provoking way this matter is made accessible.

And for those who thought it was all very serious there are a lot of pages with wonderful stories and anecdotes.

“At the first rehearsal the conductor greeted me with the smell of a Scotch whisky distillery around him that almost floored me. It seemed to me that he already swallowed half the annual production of this Scottish distillery. I hoped that he would skip his drinking before the concert, but that was a bit naive, to put it mildly.

Indeed my hope proved to be thoroughly idle the next day. The conductor had consumed the other half of the annual production. There was a strong Scottish influence on changes and tempo. A strict supervision from the conductors-stand was out of the question.

As a soloist you can still get away at such a disaster but how about an entire orchestra? It ended up in one big cluster”.

Harry Sparnaay -The bass clarinet / a personal history                                                                   Published by

Periferiamusic 

www.periferiamusic.com

ISBN 978-84-93884-50-5