If It Quacks Like A Duck:
Teaching Characteristic Tone Quality
Music teachers and conductors are generally well equipped to teach most aspects of musical performance. We use our major instrument, singing voice, baton, and speaking voice to demonstrate or explain how to correct a rhythm or pitch problem, better define a style, or shape a phrase. But few of us are capable of demonstrating the specific timbre that every instrument should produce.
So, what makes a clarinet sound like a clarinet, or a trombone sound like a trombone? And how can the conductor-educator teach characteristic tone quality for each instrument?
Teaching the key points that help produce characteristic tone quality is certainly a necessity. Good posture, consistent breathe support, proper use of the bow, a decent instrument, a better mouthpiece, and a properly adjusted reed of the appropriate strength are all important components.
But there is one concept that is even more important. Students need aural models of how their instruments should sound. As teacher-conductors we must seek out opportunities for students to hear their instruments played by mature players. When there are professional or college musicians willing to visit student ensembles, younger players will benefit by hearing their sound. Giving up part of a rehearsal to have the faculty string quartet or wind quintet, or the university wind ensemble perform for students is a terrific investment in tone. If the guest performers then sit in with your ensemble for part of a rehearsal, students will have the opportunity to hear the mature tones they are striving for from the standpoints of both audience and player.
In addition to having players come to our students, we can keep students apprised of concerts and recitals featuring solo instrumentalists in our region. If Wynton Marsalis is playing in the next town over, pack the trumpet section in the mini-van and get them there! If he isn’t, a senior trumpet recital at the local college will do.
When live players are not available, compact discs can be helpful. Every instrumental rehearsal room should have a good stereo system, and creating a collection of compact discs featuring solo playing on each wind and string instrument can be helpful and motivating. Students might listen to the compact disks during rehearsals, before and after school or at lunch, and at home by signing a CD out for a few days. Consider using part of one rehearsal each week to have everyone listen to a recording of the “instrument of the week” for a few minutes. A judicious choice of compact discs can also show students that the professional music-making world consists of players of various ethnicities, nationalities and generations, and can help break down gender stereotypes that tend to exist for some instruments.
Here are my suggestions for beginning a collection of compact disks that contain examples of lyrical tone production for each instrument:
Flute
Hyeri Yoon’s “Elegia” (Samsung Classics SCC-018HRY), including Debussy’s Clair de Lune and works of Poulenc, Schumann, Bach, Mozart and Ibert.
Eugenia Zukerman’s “Aria” (Delos, DE 3209), featuring pieces by Bizet, Humperdinck, Offenbach, and Puccini among others.
Oboe
Rene Prins’ “The Vocal Oboe” (Centaur CRC 2369) contains works by Mozart, Donezetti, Haydn, and more.
Wayne Rapier’s “Oboe Recital (No. 3)” (Boston Records BR1016CD) containing two Bach arias, Howard Hanson’s “Pastoral,” and works by Telemann, Etler, and Jacob that contain slow movements.
Clarinet
Richard Stoltzman’s “Visions” (BMG Classics 09026-68072-2), with music from movies ranging from Puccini, Mozart and Bernstein to Elton John, Neil Young and Peter Gabriel.
Richard Stoltzman’s “Arias” (BMG Classics 09026-68817-2), consisting mostly of Italian opera arias, with some Gershwin for good measure.
Richard Stoltzman’s “Romance” (BMG Music 60198-2-RC), with familiar classical works of Debussy, Satie, Saint-Saëns and others, some accompanied with harp, the others with piano.
Bassoon
David DeBolt’s “Bassoon Music of 20th-Century America” (Crystal Records CD 347), containing works by Heiden, Osborne, Etler, and Garfield.
Saxophone
Kenneth Tse’s “Kenneth Tse Saxophone” (Crystal Records CD 656), featuring works by Benson and Heiden, as well as Eugene Rousseau’s arrangement “West Side Story Medley.”
Horn
Hermann Baumann and Dale Clevenger on “Virtuoso Horn” (Teldec 4509-94525-2), containing concerti by Haydn, Danzi, Rosetti and Mozart, each with a slow movement.
Trumpet
Wynton Marsalis’ “Classic Wynton” (Sony Classic SK 060804), containing lyrical examples such as the Adagio from Michael Haydn’s “Concerto for Trumpet in D Major” and “’Tis the Last Rose of Summer,” as well as the more athletic “Flight of the Bumblebee” and “Carnival of Venice” variations.
Sergei Nakariakov’s “Trumpet Works” (Teldec 9031-77705-2) containing “Rhapsody in Blue” and Pavane pour une Infante défunte.
Sergei Nakariakov’s “Carmen Fantasy” (Teldec 4509-94554-2) containing, in addition to the title work, Saint- Saëns’ “The Swan,” and works by Arban, Paganini and Tchaikovsky, among others.
Sergei Nakariakov’s Élégie (Teldec 0630-15687-2), on which he is accompanied on piano by his sister, Vera Nakariakova, in a collection of vocal works transcribed for trumpet and dedicated to the memory of her husband.
Trombone
Christian Lindberg’s “10-Year Jubilee” (Bis CD-638) containing works by Saints-Saëns and Prokofiev, and “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You.”
Christian Lindberg’s “The Criminal Trombone” (Bis CD-328), offering two of the three Schumann “Romances” arranged by Lindberg, the Albinoni Adagio, and additional works by Bach, Rossini, Mozart, and Schubert.
Euphonium
Mark Fischer’s (Albany Records, Troy 162) with works by Gordon Jacob and Jan Bach, adaptations of music by Telemann, Brahms, and J. S. Bach, and Arban’s “Carnival of Venice” variations.
Tuba
Roger Bobo’s “Bobissimo! The Best of Roger Bobo” (Crystal Records CD 125) with the Hindemith tuba sonata and Alec Wilder’s “Effie the Elephant.”
Floyd Cooley’s “The Romantic Tuba” (Crystal Records CD 120), with works of Bach and Brahms, and additional selections accompanied by overdubbing and a woodwind quintet.
Violin
Sarah Chang’s “Simply Sarah” (EMI Classics CDC 7-2435-56161-28), with “encores” by Paganini, Fauré, Mendelssohn, Gluck, Sibelius, and Sarasate.
Anne-Sophie Mutter’s “Romance” (Deutsche Grammophon 447-070-2), with andantes and adagios by Mozart, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, and Brahms; accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic.
Itzhak Perlman’s “Bits and Pieces” (EMI 7 54882 2 ), containing many brief, attractive works by Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn, Debussy, and others, plus Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”
Viola
Mela Tenenbaum’s “Melaviola” (ESS.A.Y. Recordings CD 1055), containing brief pieces by Bach, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Villa Lobos, and others.
Cello
Han-na Chang accompanied by the London Symphony with Rostropovich conducting (EMI 56126 2) containing well known ‘cello repertoire by Tchaikovsky, Fauré, Saint- Saëns, and Bruch.
Yo-Yo Ma’s “Portrait of Yo-Yo Ma” (CBS Records MK 44796), with Saint- Saëns’ “The Swan,” works of Bach, Beethoven, Kreisler, and Paganini, and Sakura, Sakura.
String Bass
Jean-Marc Rollez’ “Bis (Encores!)” (Magueline 350.507), containing lyrical works by Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Fauré.
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