The Yellow Folder. A Research on the Periphery of Life
(2019)
author(s): Paolo Giudici
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
During his forty years career as orchestral clarinetist, my teacher Ernesto Olivieri (1905-1985) refaced, revoiced and repaired hundreds of clarinet and saxophone mouthpieces. He began even before he entered Bologna Conservatory with Bianco Bianchini, and continued refacing as a side activity, to meet his professional needs or to make some extra money during hard times (the Great Depression in Italy, World War II across Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, the immediate Post-war in Tito’s Yugoslavia). Often, though, he did the work out of friendship and always for his research and sound experimentation. Soon after he retired from his last position at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, he bought himself a typewriter and started a project he had long been planning: the “Treatise on the Clarinet Mouthpiece”, part memoir part refacing manual for clarinet students, complemented by the “Studies for Research”, a collection of short technical compositions devised to detect problems in mouthpieces and test the progress of the refacing work. When my teacher passed away and his widow entrusted me the yellow folder in which he kept the various drafts of the Treatise and the Studies, I attempted to edit that material for a print publication, guided by what I imagined were his intentions and the recent memory of our friendship. Overwhelmed by the vague structure, elusive content and faltering language of the text, I put the yellow folder in a drawer where it remained for over thirty years, until I recently came to reconsider the Treatise and the Studi in a different perspective.
Not only was his refacing practice marginalised within the conservatory and profession, but also writing remained a secondary practice and in advance excluded from consideration for being carried out autonomously, without formal training and outside the academia and the profession. Accordingly, the knowledge he created through those practices can be easily confused with technical skills, too limited in scope for today’s student and too marginal for the clarinetist, especially now that professional refacing services have become globally available, and that multimedia instructions and expertise are easily accessible over the internet. Thus, it would appear, Signor Olivieri’s knowledge is forever lost, trapped inside his text and irretrievably embedded in his life and practice. Nevertheless, this non-collaborative re-presentation of the Treatise and the Studies shows how his writing succeeds in exposing his refacing practice as research, and why this matters to artistic research today.
Fast Notes!
(2017)
author(s): Wouter Verschuren
published in: KC Research Portal
The purpose of this research is to investigate the different ways of articulating fast passagework on the dulcian in repertoire spanning the period ca.1550 until ca.1700. Prior to 1787, when Etienne Ozi published his first edition of the Nouvelle Methode de Basson, there are no sources known that specifically discuss articulation or (double) tonguing on bass double reed instruments. When we perform music from this era, we are in the dark as how to articulate highly virtuosic passages. What is preferable: Two-by-two slurring? Slurs over more notes, or maybe the use of some kind of double tongue-stroke?
During this research I will focus on primary sources that deal with articulation on various non-reed wind instruments of the period in question, such as the recorder, the cornetto and the trumpet. By studying the indications and recommendations given by masters of the past we can deduce their musical intensions. When we accept these authors as our guides, they may be able to help us imagining what articulation on a double-reed instrument could sound like. The moment we envision this concept, we can start to translate their instructions into articulation on reed instruments.
The output is threefold:
1. A paper describing the different ways on how to articulate fast passagework on the dulcian and on the bassoon in a way that matches the souplesse and speed of non-reed instruments.
2. Two compositions written for the dulcian, with added articulation-markings by the author.
3. Video examples clarifying some musical examples.
With this project I hope to shed light on practical issues of the performance of highly virtuosic repertoire for dulcian and bassoon from the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
Apām Napāt Trio
(last edited: 2020)
author(s): Saman Samadi
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Apām Napāt (آپام نپات) is a trio by Persian pianist, violinist, and vocalist Saman Samadi, clarinetist and saxophonist Blaise Siwula, and Buchla-player Hans Tammen. The ensemble presents improvisational compositions that draw connections between their musical backgrounds. Using Persian modes and poems as well as a structured and recognizable yet free impulsive interaction between the instruments, they set parallel narratives in motion, occasionally intersecting but always accompanying one another. The trio released an album called "Apām Napāt" consisting of the recordings of their first performance, in 2016.