Lovely control, fabulous intonation and IN TUNE! I suppose that the one negative vote came from a person who can't handle a clarinet which is always in tune and produces some of the finest music possible. BRAVO!
Well, Leon, there's no accounting for taste. But the playing is far from perfect...but lots could be better IF I had time to practice---but no time is the present realities on the ground with no let up in sight Just another of the many vicissitudes we all encounter in life on earth....ergo the enduring practice over the centuries of that philosophy known as Stoicism.
@@paultheclarinetist Fix your reeds so they're very well balanced and take the least amount of mouthpiece you can..True French embouchure playing is just like Oboe playing. I don't know any other way to get that silky legato any other way. I just don't hear it from the single lip playing. Even when it's good it lacks those beautiful vocal characteristics I, personally, love so much.
Most clarinet players want a beautiful tone and the ability to phrase expressively. You don't need to buy a ridiculously overpriced and expensive clarinet to have these things---especially if it's made from a material that changes according to temperatures and weather conditions, and also cracks. The clarinet I'm playing these pieces on costs less than. $1000.00, and will play consistently for years. It also has a spectacularly even blowing resistance and arguably the best scale of any Bb clarinet at ANY price. And subjectively speaking, I'll have to say it's ridiculously fun to play. Don't get ripped off. Don't be a sucker. Don't pay massive amounts of money on an overpriced, under performing clarinet that can crack and break your heart. What you need to get a beautiful sound and play expressively is 1. a fine, well-made mouthpiece, 2. a well-balanced reed 3. correctly developed concepts of tone and playing mechanics and 4. Lots of practice. None of these things are beyond the means of most players. Most of these things I've tried to share for free on many previous videos. It's difficult to achieve a high level of artistry. But it's not expensive. It just takes your intelligence and persistent effort.
That homogeneity seems to come along with no extra charge when you play French embouchure. And yea, Jean Jean's music is just that: pretty, pretty, pretty---I love it and think it's the best of the French etude literature. These are NOT technical studies, they're musical studies---phrasing, nuance, subtle expressive techniques, etc. There's a lot you can draw out of them. Jean Jean was a great clarinet player (a double lip player) from that great French school---which, IMO, still remains unmatched for refinement and delicacy and that silky, silvery, glass smooth legato to the point of portamento, vocal intervals, enhanced by the ribbon-like tonal focus of the French school that threads the musical line through the notes, giving the phrases an organic shape and coherence. The modern exponent and highest practitioner of this art remains---guess who??--- that redoubtable, formidable artist of subtlety and nuance, Harold Wright. I'm just grateful to God that I have just enough wherewithal to be able to appreciate his artistry, at least in some degree.
@@avarmadillo Yes, I kept thinking about the HW influence while you were playing. All about COLOR! 99% of pro clarinetists have no idea what that really is, and the push for bigger, louder sounds and equipment that promotes that proves this is true.
You are do right. There's a lot of great technical clarinet playing going on---far, far, far above me. But I don't find it interesting or...dare I say, Musical?!?@@coloraturaElise
Jean Jean was a very fine composer---a man of his time--- a somewhat sentimental and saccharin time, but not without its beauty. I think these studies are not for developing technique, but musicality, expressive color/shape tonal nuance, and phrasing. So, I think they should be approached with a certain freedom, flexibility, and...dare I say romance. So, that's what I tried to do.
![Paul Jeanjean - Arabesques for Clarinet and Piano (1926) [Score-Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aj61CrGYnP0/mqdefault.jpg)
BRAVO TOM!!! Beautiful focused tone and superb flawless technique! Thank you for sharing your artistry!
Lovely control, fabulous intonation and IN TUNE! I suppose that the one negative vote came from a person who can't handle a clarinet which is always in tune and produces some of the finest music possible.
BRAVO!
Well, Leon, there's no accounting for taste. But the playing is far from perfect...but lots could be better IF I had time to practice---but no time is the present realities on the ground with no let up in sight
Just another of the many vicissitudes we all encounter in life on earth....ergo the enduring practice over the centuries of that philosophy known as Stoicism.
The votes should not be anon, nor should profiles/ID’s. That would stop most of the random hits that people do. It’s vicious.
You sound amazing, Tom!
french embouchure helps a LOT!
@@avarmadillo I'm working on it for a couple of months. :)
@@paultheclarinetist Fix your reeds so they're very well balanced and take the least amount of mouthpiece you can..True French embouchure playing is just like Oboe playing.
I don't know any other way to get that silky legato any other way. I just don't hear it from the single lip playing. Even when it's good it lacks those beautiful vocal characteristics I, personally, love so much.
@@avarmadillo I will try your new A clarinet later this week and the other two 576b! Will send you a recording or maybe will be posting it too!
Perfect sound! Thank you!
Most clarinet players want a beautiful tone and the ability to phrase expressively. You don't need to buy a ridiculously overpriced and expensive clarinet to have these things---especially if it's made from a material that changes according to temperatures and weather conditions, and also cracks.
The clarinet I'm playing these pieces on costs less than. $1000.00, and will play consistently for years. It also has a spectacularly even blowing resistance and arguably the best scale of any Bb clarinet at ANY price. And subjectively speaking, I'll have to say it's ridiculously fun to play.
Don't get ripped off. Don't be a sucker. Don't pay massive amounts of money on an overpriced, under performing clarinet that can crack and break your heart. What you need to get a beautiful sound and play expressively is 1. a fine, well-made mouthpiece, 2. a well-balanced reed 3. correctly developed concepts of tone and playing mechanics and 4. Lots of practice. None of these things are beyond the means of most players. Most of these things I've tried to share for free on many previous videos.
It's difficult to achieve a high level of artistry. But it's not expensive. It just takes your intelligence and persistent effort.
Thanks for sharing!
Pretty, pretty, pretty..the sound is so fluid and pingy! And you just don't hear different registers....they all sound like they're the same.
That homogeneity seems to come along with no extra charge when you play French embouchure. And yea, Jean Jean's music is just that: pretty, pretty, pretty---I love it and think it's the best of the French etude literature.
These are NOT technical studies, they're musical studies---phrasing, nuance, subtle expressive techniques, etc. There's a lot you can draw out of them.
Jean Jean was a great clarinet player (a double lip player) from that great French school---which, IMO, still remains unmatched for refinement and delicacy and that silky, silvery, glass smooth legato to the point of portamento, vocal intervals, enhanced by the ribbon-like tonal focus of the French school that threads the musical line through the notes, giving the phrases an organic shape and coherence.
The modern exponent and highest practitioner of this art remains---guess who??--- that redoubtable, formidable artist of subtlety and nuance, Harold Wright.
I'm just grateful to God that I have just enough wherewithal to be able to appreciate his artistry, at least in some degree.
@@avarmadillo Yes, I kept thinking about the HW influence while you were playing. All about COLOR! 99% of pro clarinetists have no idea what that really is, and the push for bigger, louder sounds and equipment that promotes that proves this is true.
You are do right. There's a lot of great technical clarinet playing going on---far, far, far above me. But I don't find it interesting or...dare I say, Musical?!?@@coloraturaElise
Great Tom!!
It did not sound like an etude but a masterpiece!!!
Jean Jean was a very fine composer---a man of his time--- a somewhat sentimental and saccharin time, but not without its beauty. I think these studies are not for developing technique, but musicality, expressive color/shape tonal nuance, and phrasing. So, I think they should be approached with a certain freedom, flexibility, and...dare I say romance. So, that's what I tried to do.
Nice playing! Is this the new version of your Bb?
No. But it has a similar acoustical design. Our present Bb plays, tunes, and sounds better than any Buffet I ever owned in 25 years of teaching.
@@avarmadillo it’s Bob Straka here. I already own two of them. I’m waiting for the new one now to go with my A.
this is a random question but is his name pronounced jean jean?? or is there another pronunciation for it???
His name was Paul Jean Jean---and a bunch of other names as is traditional in Catholic families in France and elsewhere.