Vol. 1, No. 38

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Vol. 1, No. 38

13 September 1996


Author: Francis Firth
Date: 9/12/96 9:52 AM
Subject: Contrabass-l

Grant,

Our post must have crossed as I just sent you the same information about the Kent Farbach score.

On the subject of subcontrabass clarinets I have already received a reply from Terje Lerstad.

His triosonata including octocontrabass clarinet is a theoretical work in that there is currently only the 1 instrument made and the work will not be playable until another is made.

However, he tells me that in the days when Leblanc (France) was based in Paris he had an opportunity to play both the octocontrabass and the octocontralto clarinets which he had seen in Mr. Leblanc's office. He says that "the sound was fantastic, going down to a B Flat under the lowest B Flat of the piano on an acoustic instrument".

From this we learn 2 things:

  1. That the octocontrabass goes down to its written C sounding B Flat.
  2. That when composing his "theoretical" work for octocontrabass Terje Lerstad had not only heard but played the instrument and so was writing from aural experience for an instrument that would play and whose tone colour he knew.
Terje Lerstad says that he has included the instrument in 2 other compositions:
  1. De profundis Op. 139 for contralto voice, clarinet (octocontraalto/octocontrabass w/electronic effects), strings and tape
  2. Mirrors in ebony for clarinet choir. Apparently this latter piece includes parts for both octocontralto and octocontrabass clarinets and they have important solos. this choir with these instruments should sound fantastic. Just imagine the bass line!
So, all we have to do now is to persuade Leblanc to make a recording of these pieces to show off their instruments. If leon Leblanc were not so old I am sure that he could be persuaded because he has always been so enthusiastic about his Leblanc clarinet range.

Francis


Francis,

I must have missed that message: I received the one regarding the octocontrabass clarinets, but not the flutes. Do you want to resend it?

I would love to hear a clarinet choir with subcontrabass clarinets. Hell, I'll take a clarinet choir with EEb and BBb contrabasses: know of any recordings?

Grant


From: (MR MARK A TRINKO)
Date: 11 Sep 96
Subject: Contra-L

I want to buy a recording of; Triosonata Op. 28 (1982) by Terje Lerstad

Where, How, Help?


Sounds like it has never (yet!) been recorded. Maybe someday the lot of us will petition Leblanc (the man or the company) to sponsor a recording.

Grant


Author: Francis Firth <Francis.Firth@uce.ac.uk> at SMTP
Date: 9/13/96 1:15 PM
Subject: Octocontralto Clarinet

Grant,

I've just received a copy of the special issue of the Leblanc Bell of May 6, 1996, Vol XIX, Nos. 2-3 Spring/Summer, 1996 Commemorative Issue. It has a much better picture of Leon Leblanc playing his octocontralto clarinet than the one I send you before from Woodwind World. I'm sending you a TIF of it in case you want to include it on your page.

Francis

[[ LEBLANC.TIF : 3392 in LEBLANC.TIF ]]


Francis,

How do you manage to get Leblanc's Bell before I do?

Anyway, thanks for the image. I've taken the liberty of trimming it down to a web-friendly size, and converting it to GIF (~61K) and FIF (~13K) formats. (The original TIF file was about 1 MB decoded.) CRL still has not enabled transmission of FIF files as images, but you can download the file directly and view it outside the browser (typically by right-clicking on the link).

If anyone would like a copy of the image by email, just let me know.

Truly an awesome beast!

Grant



 
 

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