CHAPTER 5 - Etudes & Exercises

Alternate Fingerings and Microtones: Composite Fingerings

Etude C addresses composite fingerings: a set of fingerings that requires limited finger movement among 4 pitches and permits swift register leaps with minimal effort, while also providing a dramatic contrast in timbres. Composite fingerings accentuate and extend the ability of the clarinet to abruptly change register and color, to the point of providing multiple streams of simultaneous music (Drake Mabry utilizes this in Street Cries ). This etude presents fast rhythmic (changing meters) and dynamic contrasts among sets of 4 pitches for each of 10 composite fingerings. Slow practice and “chaining” will produce the quickest and most effective results.

The etude explores one composite fingering before seamlessly moving to the next (pitches that do not have fingering indications should be understood to be a continuation of fingerings presented earlier). Measure 1 through the fourth beat of measure 7 utilizes one composite fingering; the fourth beat of measure 7 through measure 12 uses another composite fingering, etc.

In order to build one's technique to flawlessly execute these fingerings, the clarinetist should isolate each composite group and play the patterns in the etude slowly and in a regular rhythm by chaining beats together.

Exercise #20 (click on music for mp3)

In the etude itself, the clarinetist can use rests to move fingers early for the next entrance.

Exercise #21 (click on music for mp3)

The resistance of some of the high pitches (C quarter-tone sharp from m.13-9) requires careful setting of the embouchure, and a good memory of how the pitch will feel and sound. A fulcrum exercise can help accomplish this (see page 28). The first measure below isolates the top pitches of 3 different composite fingerings (groups that follow each other in the etude) in order to allow the player to concentrate on the different resistance, color, and intonation of each. The clarinetist then applies these adjustments to measures 2-3 (taken from the etude itself).

Exercise #22 (click on music for mp3)

click on Etude for mp3:

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