In a blog post from last week, New York City composer Joseph Phillips discusses his ensemble Numinous and his decision to use woodwind doublers instead of a conventional orchestral woodwind section.
Joseph Phillips. Photos stolen from Joseph’s post.
When I started Numinous back in the fall of 2000, I knew I wanted flexibility of colors in the woodwind section. Even though I’m a saxophone/woodwind player, I didn’t want a saxophone dominant sound to the section. I also didn’t want to have 10 woodwind players to cover saxophones, oboe, English Horn, flutes, clarinets, and whatever woodwinds I happen to write for. So the most natural solution was to have woodwind doublers who would be able to play multiple instruments. Of course with the demands of my music, I didn’t want or need a typical jazz saxophone doubler: someone that plays maybe passable flute or clarinet but not well enough to match their saxophone abilities. In addition to being able to improvise well on all of the instruments, I really need musicians whose abilities on the other woodwind instruments are all fairly equal and could move easily between jazz, classical, and popular genres.
One of Numinous’s woodwind players is Ben Kono, who currently plays the reed 1 book for Jersey Boys on Broadway. In Joseph’s blog post, he interviews Ben about his woodwind abilities:
On Vipassana you play 8 different instruments, but truth be told, how many instruments can you play? What are some of the more unusual or interesting ones?
Ben Kono
As a woodwind specialist, I am classically trained on all five woodwind families of the orchestra: saxophones, clarinets (Bb and Eb soprano, bass), flutes, oboe/english horn, and bassoon. In practice, however, I tend to play some more than others, and I have left bassoon completely behind. About fifteen years ago or so, I became interested in indigenous musics from other countries and started to collect instruments from my travels, some of which I have incorporated into my own music. I have performed and recorded (in various degrees of success) on the “kena” flute from South America; the “khaen” pipes from Thailand; and the “dizi” flute from China. Of course, as a Japanese descendent I have a special interest in the shakuhachi flute which I was exposed to early on by my aunt who performs traditional Japanese music on the shamisen and koto. I played it on a Pulse Composers concert, and the lesson I learned is that playing western music on it is a lot more difficult than I imagined! So in answer, I am constantly adding and subtracting the number of instruments.
Read the whole thing here. And if you’re in the New York City area, hear Numinous perform Joseph Phillips’s Vipassana this week. Ben Kono will be playing piccolo, flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, and soprano and alto saxophones.
Numinous performs Vipassana
Wednesday October 28, 2009 8:00pm
$10 Brooklyn Lyceum
227 4th Avenue (Park Slope)
Take the M or R Train to Union Street
I’d like to address the term “voicing,” which I think is often misunderstood. Here’s my best definition:
Voicing refers to the relative size of the oral cavity, which can change depending on the position of the back of the tongue.
There are a number of other terms that are used to describe this same concept in woodwind playing. I don’t take issue with any of these terms individually, and I think that as a teacher it’s useful to have a variety of possible ways to explain this concept. (These terms can become problematic, however, when they are used in opposition to each other: “Open up, and blow cooler air.”)
Here are some examples of ways of describing voicing. I consider the terms in the left column all to be descriptions of the same thing, and those on the right to be likewise equivalent to each other. Read More “What is voicing?”
The concept of “articulation” in woodwind playing is really a bunch of concepts mashed together. Suppose one of my students comes in for a lesson and I tell them their “articulation” needs work. Do I mean they should: Read More “Aspects of articulation”
I have my woodwind methods classes do a lot of observing of woodwind playing. They comment on each other’s woodwind playing in class, write concert/recital reports, and make written comments on each other’s playing exams (for my eyes only). This is a crucial skill for their future teaching careers.
I try to push them to keep their observations objective. But often the comments are things like:
“Your tone sounds really good.”
“Your articulation was sluggish.”
“So-so finger fluency.”
Remarks like this, especially if detached from technique observations or recommendations, are unhelpful but often also unfounded. “Good” tone is a difficult thing to pin down, even for a specialist in the instrument. Even my college woodwind-instrument majors usually haven’t done enough critical listening in their lifetime for me to fully trust their judgments of what tone is “good,” even on their own instrument.
I find it more helpful to the development of my students’ disciplined, precise teaching to hold them to a standard of objectivity. Tone isn’t inherently “good” or “bad.” (It might be more possible to effectively use a standard like “characteristic,” but even that requires some context.) But it’s fairly straightforward, and more useful pedagogically, to determine whether tone is, say, consistent.
Some better versions of the above observations might be:
“Your tone is consistent from note to note, and also seems characteristic of the instrument.”
“I hear a moment of air noise before each note, especially in the low register. Try increasing breath support to help each note respond immediately.”
“Your fingers seem to move quickly and confidently to most notes, but you seem to arrive late at the F-sharps. Let’s review that fingering.”
Keeping observations factual and non-judgmental makes lessons more efficient and targeted, and keeps lines of communication open for better teaching and learning.
It was completed in 2009 so some things are already out of date. Also, lately I’m trying to steer away from the term “ethnic” instruments (“world” instruments seems slightly less problematic until I can find a better solution).
Enjoy(?).
ABSTRACT
Woodwind doubling is the practice of playing instruments from more than one woodwind family. In musical theater and film music, woodwind doublers are valuable for their ability to produce the sounds of a varied woodwind section for a fraction of the cost of hiring a specialist musician to play each instrument.
Since the 1990’s, composers and orchestrators in musical theater and film scoring have shown increased interest in instrumental sounds from outside the traditional symphony orchestra. Many have featured folk, ethnic, or period instruments as solo instruments, bringing authentic sounds to scenes set in faraway locations or historical periods, giving an exotic flair to fictional locales, or simply adding new colors to the usual palette of instrumental sounds.
Composers of film and theater scores have used ethnic woodwinds, in particular, in their scoring. To meet the demand for ethnic woodwind sounds, many prominent woodwind doublers on Broadway and in Hollywood have adopted these instruments, in addition to their usual arrays of modern Western instruments.
Eight folk, ethnic, and period woodwinds recently employed in film and theater scoring have been selected for study in this document: bamboo flutes (especially the Indian bansuri and flutes used by some flutists in Irish traditional music), the Chinese dizi, the Armenian duduk, the Native American flute, the panflutes of Romania and South America, the pennywhistle, the recorder, and the Japanese shakuhachi.
For each instrument, a representative example of use in theater or film music has been selected and transcribed from a commercial audio recording. Each transcription is discussed with emphasis on demands placed upon the ethnic woodwind musician. Additional discussion of each instrument includes suggestions for purchasing instruments, fingering charts, description of playing technique, description of instrument-specific performance practices, discussion of various sizes and/or keys of each instrument, discussion of instrument-specific notation practices, annotated bibliographies of available pedagogical materials, lists of representative recordings (including authentic ethnic music and other music), and information on relevant organizations and associations of professional or amateur musicians.
These are questions I am often asked about clarinet or saxophone ligatures, by blog readers or by my students.
Is there a ligature that can accomplish _____ for me? If you are looking for something to hold the reed onto the mouthpiece, then yes. If you are hoping to achieve something loftier, then probably not.
Should I get one of the rigid (usually metal) kinds, or one of the soft (usually some leather-ish synthetic) kinds? The very cheapest options are usually metal, and they generally work fine. If they are of especially low quality, they might break quickly, or scratch your mouthpiece or dig into your reed. The soft ones are a little more expensive, but have the advantages of (a) better gripping an oddly-shaped mouthpiece or reed and (b) surviving being stepped on.
What about a fancy one, with jewelry metals or cryogenic treatment or inset “tone jewels” or some other expensive gimmick? Won’t those make me sound better? This is extremely doubtful. There’s a possibility that you will sound a little different inside your own head, and that might make you play a little differently. Or that platinum plating (or just having spent a lot of money) will increase your confidence. But it’s very questionable that the ligature has some inherent sound quality that your audience can hear, unless you plan to hit it with a drumstick. Remember that in some parts of the world, top orchestral clarinetists use shoelaces. (I heard a story of one of these clarinetists being asked what kind of shoelace he used. His response: “Black.”) If you are deeply invested in the idea that a ligature needs to be fancy or expensive, Michael Lowenstern has a video you might find enlightening.
But doesn’t a ligature affect the reed’s vibrations? The vibrate-y part of the reed is the thinner part, away from the ligature.
Should I use the kind with one or two screws? What about those ones with no screws? Any number of screws is fine, as long as it holds the reed on the mouthpiece.
Should I get the kind where the screws go on top of the mouthpiece or underneath? I really cannot emphasize enough the unimportance of the screw situation.
How tight should my ligature be? Tight enough to hold the reed securely in place.
How far back or forward should I put the ligature? You could try some different positions and see if one feels better to you. Some mouthpieces have a line on them to suggest where the ligature should go. You are not obligated to follow this guideline, but if you are having difficulty deciding where your ligature should go then I suggest using this as a starting point.
If you would like to purchase something that will improve your tone quality or your articulation or whatever, I recommend getting some recordings of very fine clarinetists and some lessons with an excellent teacher. Enjoy!
Thanks for posting this! Your site is a great resource for woodwind players. One thing I left out of Joe Phillips’ interview was the concept of the “schlep”. After you add all those instruments together, plus their cases, you have an enormous mountain of horns to haul! Having a car is one thing, but my gig tonight is in Brooklyn via subway during rush hour—and it’s pouring rain! If I’d thought ahead, perhaps a zipcar would have been in order. It’s worth it though because the music is gorgeous—be sure to check out Joe’s sound clips on the Numinous website. Ben
Hi Bret,
Thanks for posting this! Your site is a great resource for woodwind players. One thing I left out of Joe Phillips’ interview was the concept of the “schlep”. After you add all those instruments together, plus their cases, you have an enormous mountain of horns to haul! Having a car is one thing, but my gig tonight is in Brooklyn via subway during rush hour—and it’s pouring rain! If I’d thought ahead, perhaps a zipcar would have been in order. It’s worth it though because the music is gorgeous—be sure to check out Joe’s sound clips on the Numinous website. Ben
Ben – Thanks for stopping by and for the additional behind-the-scenes peek. Good luck tonight with the subway and the music!
Bret, it has been good reading some of what you are up to in the blogworld; thank you for posting about Numinous and my interview with Ben.
why is the woodwinds off beat