Creating an Online Presence: Advantages and Getting Started

Part 1: Getting Started Today, more and more musicians are creating websites and establishing an online presence as a marketing tool. Current technology offers free or inexpensive options and various outlets for developing personal websites, including sites with built-in features to assist those with limited technological experience. In this first installment of a series of columns on creating an online presence, we will explore ways and share ideas on how to effectively market yourself on the internet.

Why should I have a website? Professors, private studio teachers, students, freelance musicians and ensembles can benefit from maintaining an online presence. Performers will want to promote themselves and their music, while teachers and students may want to incorporate more educational components into their sites.

A very simple website for a clarinetist might serve as a sort of online business card, with an email address, a short professional biography and a headshot (photo). Other features might include audio or video recordings, a calendar of events, and links to other relevant websites. This approach provides a landing place for people who are actively trying to find information about you, but it generally does not attract frequent or repeat visitors.

A blog is a specific type of website, or a part of a website, that is great for providing serialized information, such as articles called "posts" that are published on a regular or semi-regular schedule. Blog “platforms” like WordPress and Blogger are online services that provide lots of other built in features, like the ability to categorize or tag posts, a search function, and automatically-organized archives of old blog posts.

In some cases, a website can become a small source of income. If you have products to sell, your website can be a place to receive orders. You can also make space available for advertising, if that suits your vision for your site. Advertising deals can be made directly with sponsors, or ads can be provided by services like Google Adsense. Advertising can pay handsomely for the very highest-traffic websites, but smaller sites may earn only a few cents per month.

Do I need to be a computer whiz?

Anyone with enough tech savvy to set up a Facebook or Twitter account can set up a very serviceable website or blog in an hour or less using one of the many services that provide quick-and-easy startup (stay tuned for a future column!). These platforms can seems daunting to use, but many have design templates you can choose from, making the creation process simpler and easier for less-experienced users. Those who have a grander or more specific vision for their online presence can find plentiful online tutorials on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other web technologies, and may prefer to build their sites from scratch, or to hire someone to bring their vision to life. Try visiting several types of sites to familiarize yourself with various layouts and design concepts that catch your eye. Just a few minutes of research can help you decide what type of content and look you may want for your own personal page.

Will anybody visit my website?

Social media is a great way to promote new content, like recent blog posts or new performance videos. Start by sharing links to your latest creations on the social media sites that you use most (Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are popular ones for sharing links). Your friends and colleagues are the most likely people to re-share those links with their own contacts, and strong content can, with a little luck, spread to a wider audience.

Syndication feeds, including technologies like RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and ATOM, make it possible for individuals to “follow” your blog using a feed reader (Feedly is a popular choice), so notifications of your latest posts are delivered to them automatically. Syndication feeds also help sites like Google, Facebook, and Twitter present your content to potential readers in an attractive way. Most blog platforms, including WordPress and Blogger, work behind the scenes to provide this feature automatically.

Stay tuned for the next column in our series that offers a comparison guide to help select the right platforms for your online needs.

Website Watch (September 2016 column)

Adam Ballif

Adam Ballif teaches clarinet at Brigham Young University–Idaho. His website, www.adamballif.com, is an excellent example of a professional website, with his biography, audio samples of performances, and materials for his BYU-I students. It also has high-quality general clarinet resources including an annotated repertoire list and information on clarinet conferences and festivals. Ballif’s site is the home of the “ClariNotes” newsletter, a one-page publication with clarinet tips and exercises, as well as a blog covering pedagogical topics. Another interesting and useful feature is “Ballif Beats,” custom-made click tracks for repertoire that is difficult to practice with an ordinary metronome. Several are available for download, including the second movement of the Bernstein Sonata and several works by Eric Mandat.

Anne Bell's ABC

Anne Bell is a clarinetist and educator and the creator of ABC (Anne Bell’s Clarinet) at anne-bell.woodwind.org, which has been in operation since 1998. Bell’s site includes very comprehensive and carefully categorized link lists, pointing clarinetists toward resources related to all aspects of the clarinet and clarinet playing: repertoire, recordings, history, education, acoustics and more. If you are looking for clarinet-related information, try Bell’s site for a meticulously curated collection of high-quality links.

Clarineat

Sean Perrin’s website clarineat.com is the home of the Clarineat podcast, a fascinating interview show featuring clarinetist guests like Martin Fröst, Harry Sparnaay and Michael Norsworthy, plus inventors, composers, entrepreneurs and other people involved in the clarinet world. The website is the place to listen to the show or find subscription links. The site also includes web-only content like product reviews, discussion forums and an online store selling many of the products mentioned on the podcast. Be sure to sign up for the email newsletter to be eligible to win giveaways like products reviewed on the site and signed copies of guests’ CDs.

Audition Cafe

Orchestral auditions and vacancies are often announced through social media sites such as Facebook’s public group “Clarinet Jobs,” but another great resource for current listings of open auditions is at www.auditioncafe.org. Here postings from orchestras stretching across four continents are conveniently listed by instrument and easy to search. Each job opening contains links to separate webpages that give dates, deadlines, and other pertinent audition information. Don’t forget to check out the site’s audition tips section where viewers can read Richie Hawley’s article on “Your Next Audition,” which breaks down the audition preparation process into five stages, or listen to Ricardo Morales’s expert advice in his YouTube video on how to prepare for an audition. Even a short video by actor Bryan Cranston, who plays the lead character on the hit TV drama “Breaking Bad,” has good advice for musicians pursuing the orchestral audition circuit.

Sean Osborn

With an extensive personal website at www.osbornmusic.com, clarinetist Sean Osborn has created a site that highlights not only his career as a soloist, teacher and composer, but also provides valuable resources to both educators and performers. His educational links are worth looking into as his lengthy articles on improving technique and legato fingers are very insightful. In the orchestral guide link, Osborn presents mini-master classes written on commonly requested orchestral audition excerpts taken from a paper he wrote on teaching and performing excerpts. Viewers can access the entire 60-page paper or go to individual entries listed alphabetically by composer and excerpt. He covers topics such as phrasing, fingerings, tips and general background information on each piece, lending his expertise as an orchestral player to the reader. All of the master class entries contain links to YouTube videos of Osborn playing snippets of the excerpts. For the entire gamut of Osborn’s videos, visit his YouTube channel at SeanOsborn.

Bulletproof Musician

Applicable to all types of musicians at all levels, Noa Kageyama’s website www.bulletproofmusician.com is a wonderful resource for interesting articles and research on performance methods. As a violinist and performance psychologist on the faculty at Juilliard, Kageyama frequently posts his own articles on topics pertaining to practice techniques and learning processes, including mental strategies musicians can use to overcome lulls or setbacks in their own practicing. Addressing and analyzing commonly shared issues and obstacles faced by all musicians, Kageyama’s writings are enjoyable to read and can help any clarinetist become a better and more confident player.

Stay tuned for more useful and interesting clarinet content on the web, as well as an upcoming series of columns on building your own online presence! As we shift content to the International Clarinet Association's webpage, clarinet.org, you can now access Clarinet Cache electronic columns directly on "The Clarinet Online" component at clarinet.org/tco/.

Clarinet Chamber Ensembles (Sept. 2015 column)

Clarinet Chamber Ensembles

In this column we took a look at clarinet chamber ensembles with interesting resources on the Internet. Using the listing of ensembles at the clarinet.org “Links” page along with other sources, we came up with some standout groups that have good audio files and videos online, and may help you discover new repertoire for small clarinet ensemble.

Carolina Clarinet Quartet

In our research for this column we came across Carolina Clarinet Quartet’s website and were impressed by the amount of information located on their page. The PDF file of their music library covers over three hundred clarinet quartets and many entries include timings and brief remarks on each piece. Several of these works have been arranged by Carolina Clarinet Quartet’s founding members Brent Smith and Jim Williams and are available for purchase on the site. Over half of the entries contain audio samples and recordings made by the group, allowing visitors an opportunity to hear excerpts of pieces. These recordings, coupled with the practical annotations, are a great resource for those wishing to expand their knowledge of the genre’s repertoire.  Also found on the website is a list of the group’s favorite compositions to play and a link to Smith’s informative article “Clarinet Mouthpiece Materials.” Another useful component of the website is an extensive index of clarinet quartet organizations, searchable by both name and location. Despite the index page not being updated for over two years, this list provides further points for exploration of clarinet quartets, and provides links to their websites.

Chicago Clarinet Ensemble

The Chicago Clarinet Ensemble is a group made up of both professional clarinetists and gifted younger students from the Chicago area. With a flexible approach to instrumentation, the ensemble’s membership ranges from two players to thirty-five or more musicians. Many of the group’s performances have featured guest soloists such as Stanley Drucker and Anthony McGill. Founded by Rose Sperrazza in 2007, the ensemble is in residence at Northeastern Illinois University. Aiding in the promotion of new music, the group has commissioned eight new works and even has a composer-in-residence, Leo Schwartz. His newest compositions are listed on their website, including audio and video footage of two of his works. Visit their website to learn more about their core members, current events and performances, and hear live performances by the group, including a work for clarinet choir and synthesizer.

Clarinetes Ad Libitum

Clarinetes Ad Libitum is a Portuguese clarinet quartet with percussion, performing folk and traditional music of a variety of cultures. The videos on their website show their affinity for theatrical performances -- they often utilize percussion and vocals, and extramusical elements include a fog machine and removal of shirts onstage! You can also stream their entire album “Contradanza” via their website: a good place to explore clarinet quartet repertoire off the beaten path.

Ensemble 54

The clarinet quartet Ensemble 54 (Josh Kovach, Pascal Archer, David Gould and Nuno Antunes) doesn’t have a ton of information on its website, but they they have a Facebook page and YouTube account where you can find some great videos of their repertoire. These video performances include works by Tomasi and Farkas along with less traditional fare, like a work for clarinet quartet and solo ocarina, and even a duo arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” for A-flat sopranino clarinet and contrabass clarinet!

Farallon Quintet

The Farallon Quintet from the San Francisco Bay Area is a unique chamber group that solely performs clarinet quintet (clarinet plus string quartet) repertoire. The group was founded in 2012 and all of the quintet members are active musicians performing in the Bay Area. Clarinetist Natalie Parker is also principal clarinetist of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. The quintet’s repertoire is not limited to the standard works and they have worked with a handful of composers to commission and premiere new works. They also play lesser-known compositions such as film composer Bernard Herrmann’s quintet Souvenirs de Voyage, which can be heard on a video on their website. The ensemble’s website includes a blog that allows the group to expand upon their musical mission and to highlight new or unknown works and their composers. One blog post alerts viewers the large volume of works found on Earsense, an extensive chamber music database, which currently lists 169 compositions for the genre. This database is a terrific starting point for those researching or looking up chamber music with various instrumental combinations that include the clarinet.

Duo Gurfinkel

Turning to literature for clarinet duo, the website of the Duo Gurfinkel is a great place to start. These twin brothers from Israel, Alexander and Daniel Gurfinkel, were born in 1992 and by the age of 12 were performing as soloists with Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The duo’s website has some great performance videos along with a handy repertoire list including works for two clarinets alone, two clarinets with piano, and two clarinets with orchestra.

A Guide to Bass Clarinet on the Web (Sept. 2014 column)

For this special bass clarinet-themed issue of The Clarinet, we created an annotated guide to some of the best online bass clarinet resources.

International Bass Clarinet Research Center
One of the most exciting bass clarinet projects on the web today is the International Bass Clarinet Research Center (Centro Internazionale di Ricerca sul Clarinetto Basso, or CIRCB). This website essentially attempts to gather any and all information relating to the bass clarinet and make it accessible to users in an easily searchable and sortable database of annotated listings and primary sources. There are versions in English, French, German and Italian.

The project’s stated goals are to increase insight into the history and the evolution of the bass clarinet and to stimulate biographical and historical study of players and their works. To that end, the contributors have created a database with more than 7,300 compositions and more than 100 recordings. The catalog of repertoire is easily searchable and includes a discography and publisher for each work. There is also an annotated bibliography of bass clarinet books sortable by subject, as well as dissertations, full-text articles, and scans of original manuscripts for older works featuring the bass clarinet like Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, with much of this material available for download. At CIRCB you can even find information about patents relating to the bass clarinet and a catalog of early models of the bass clarinet. And if you’re not looking for something specific, the homepage includes featured recordings and videos so you can start exploring.

Italian clarinetists Stefano Cardo, Elisa Marchetti, Alessandro Monitillo and Roberto Bocchio launched CIRCB in 2010, and it has since gained contributors like Albert Rice and Keith Bowen, and a video endorsement by Harry Spaarnay. These individuals are to be commended for creating a website that is not only an invaluable resource, but also aesthetically pleasing and well-organized. The sheer wealth of information and ease of use only makes us wish for a similar website for the soprano clarinet.

Jason Alder
Jason Alder’s personal website, JasonAlder.com, has a snazzy interface that first greets viewers with layered tracks of bass clarinet sounds, and with the option to view the site with a high or low-speed connection. Alder is an American clarinetist and bass clarinetist residing in Amsterdam and specializing in new and contemporary music. He has created an extensive quarter-tone fingering chart for Buffet instruments available in PDF format. Multiple links to his videos and recordings on his homepage include music from several ensembles that he collaborates with, including the group Payazen!, a “psychedelic klezmer-jazz band,” where you can hear him wail on the bass clarinet. Alder’s blog is full of helpful, in-depth information including updates about his current projects and reviews of technical gear such as clip microphones. Alder has a knack for writing and his blog narratives are a pleasure to read.

Sauro Berti 
Sauro Berti, bass clarinetist of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, has a commendable website at www.SauroBerti.it with downloadable files of bass clarinet sheet music, as well as audio and video files of Berti performing on soprano clarinet, bass clarinet, and basset horn. In the “downloads” section you can find the introductory page and first etude of his book, Venti studi, which contains exercises tailored to the specific needs of the bass clarinet and basset horn that other standard method books fail to address. His links to both a reed strength chart and a bass clarinet mouthpiece comparison chart prove helpful in comparing commercial reed strength variances and in corresponding facing measurements of many factory-made and handcrafted mouthpieces. For full access to all of the components on Berti’s website, viewers can register on the site for free. And for readers not fluent in Italian, we recommend using an Internet browser that easily allows translation of websites, such as Google Chrome. Although activity on his website and blog has remained dormant for the past few years, we hope that Berti will continue to add more valuable content in the near future.

Michael Lowenstern
We reviewed Michael Lowenstern’s website at Earspasm.com back in our December 2008 column, but a lot has changed since then -- and we would expect nothing less from Lowenstern, whose talent at the bass clarinet is equaled only by his talent for web design. He recently recorded the classic Voxman bass clarinet solo book, the Rubank Concert & Contest Collection, and made the recordings available for free download from his website. Registering to the site for free also allows access to download PDF scores and MP3s of music by Lowenstern and others. He also has a great blog, and bass clarinetists owe it to themselves to explore Lowenstern’s YouTube channel, with about 2,000 subscribers and 40 videos in his “So You Want to Be a Bass Clarinet Player” series.

Edward S. Palanker
Edward S. Palanker, bass clarinetist with the Baltimore Symphony and retired from teaching at the Peabody Conservatory, has written many articles for The Clarinet over the years. He has made these articles available on his website Eddiesclarinet.com, where his section on bass clarinet includes some great information about orchestral excerpts for bass and what can be expected at a bass clarinet orchestra audition.

The [Bass] Clarinet of the 21st Century 
E. Michael Richards’ book The Clarinet of the Twenty-First Century, mentioned in our March 2012 column on contemporary clarinet resources, is available online and has a chapter focusing on the bass clarinet. Richards discusses at length the acoustics of the instrument and its extended techniques, with accompanying spectrograms. The chapter includes fingering charts for altissimo, quarter-tones and multiphonics, with examples from contemporary music.

Aber/Lerstad Altissimo Fingerings
Another resource for bass and contrabass clarinet altissimo fingerings is a website with articles and charts by Thomas Aber and Terje Lerstad. Aber’s bass clarinet chart encompasses fingerings from C-sharp3 to C5; Lerstad’s contrabass chart ranges from C-sharp3 to an impressive G6. Both charts indicate which fingerings work best on different makes of low clarinets.

The Woodwind Fingering Guide 
Timothy Reichard’s altissimo Boehm-system finger chart for alto, bass, and contrabass clarinets at Woodwind.org is easy to read, with commentary on pitch tendencies. Although Reichard’s chart does not reach as high as Aber and Lerstad’s fingering charts, the layout and clean format of the chart makes it a go-to resource for players and teachers alike.

Alea Publishing
Alea Publishing at Bassclarinet.org is a company that specializes in bass clarinet sheet music. Created by the group “Duo Alea,” bass clarinetist Michael Davenport and pianist Kimberly Davenport, the website contains a large inventory of bass clarinet music available for purchase. In 1998 they began to compile what is now an extensive bibliography of bass clarinet compositions of solo works, chamber ensembles, concertos, and duet arrangements, with newer works continuously added. An impressive number of entries listed under the “Bass clarinet with tape/electronics” section illustrates how popular this genre of instrumentation was three or four decades ago, with the main group of compositions dating back to the last quarter of the twentieth century. One great feature of the bibliography is the option to purchase music directly from Alea Publishing within the entries (when applicable). Another useful component is the classified section, a wonderful platform for those wanting to buy or sell bass clarinet-related items.

IMSLP
IMSLP.org is always a great resource for public domain sheet music, and it has a mixture of newer original works for bass clarinet and and older transcriptions. Just look under “Instrumentation/Genre” and find the bass clarinet category under “Featured Instruments.”

Contrabass.com 
The Octocontrabass page at Grant D. Green's fascinating site Contrabass.com has a collection of information on the lowest of the low wind instruments.

NewBassClarinetGroup
All you need is a Yahoo! login to join a fairly active Yahoo! group called “NewBassClarinetGroup” with many knowledgeable contributors.

Let us know if we missed any important bass clarinet website and we'll add them to the list.

Clarinet Social Media Roundup (June 2014 column)

Since the Clarinet Cache column began in 2008, social media has in a few short years become one of the primary ways that many people communicate and share information with others. By now most of you are aware that you can connect with your favorite performers and ensembles online; these days everyone from your local clarinet repair technician to the U.S. Navy Band is on Facebook, with more and more joining Twitter all the time.  Here are a few of our favorites on Facebook and Twitter:

Facebook
First, all of our readers will want to make sure they’ve connected with the International Clarinet Association Facebook page. Previously, the International Clarinet Association had a “group,” which still exists and is very active with members posting often. But as Facebook evolved, they introduced the concept of “pages” designed for organizations and businesses, and the I.C.A. decided to take advantage of the new format. Timothy Phillips, professor of clarinet at Troy University, set up this page in February 2013 and continues to do a great job maintaining it on behalf of the I.C.A. “Like” the I.C.A. page for information about clarinet workshops, competitions, clarinet news, and announcements from the I.C.A. -- and look out for photos and reviews from the upcoming ClarinetFest in Baton Rouge!

All the way back in September 2008, our column published an interview with James Zimmerman about his new Facebook group, Clarinet Jobs.  Like the I.C.A., Zimmerman decided to migrate activity to a “Page” which has more than 4600 likes.  This page has really become the place to go for news about upcoming auditions and audition winners.

On the Clarinet Corner Facebook page, Timothy Phillips lets you know what interviews and music he has coming up on his radio show Clarinet Corner, which you can listen to online.

Denise Razzouk created the Clarinet Jazz Point page in 2009 and continues to actively post videos and news about jazz clarinet. The page has nearly 4,000 fans who also share their own links and projects.

We’ve blogged a couple times about the Clarinets for Conservation organization, which combines sustainability efforts and musical instruction in a unique way: they support efforts to protect and plant the mpingo tree from which clarinets are made, while also offering free clarinet instruction for the communities in which these trees grow. Stay in touch with this group’s efforts via their Facebook page, where you can learn about ongoing fundraising efforts and volunteer opportunities.

For the younger crowd, the Clarinet Memes page shares clarinet-related memes including quite a few Spongebob references!

Twitter

Twitter is a great way to keep up with the latest news and find links to clarinet content of interest.  Here are some of our favorite performers on Twitter:

@JBlissClarinet [edit: handle changed to @Julian__Bliss] Julian Bliss, British clarinetist

@earspasm - Michael Lowenstern, NYC-based bass clarinetist

@requinta - Wesley Ferreira, professor at Colorado State University

@multiphonic - Gregory Oakes, professor at Iowa State University

@ThiagoTavares - Thiago Tavares, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra

@ThomasPiercy - Thomas Piercy, artistic director and clarinetist of the Gotham ensemble in NYC

Here are some of our other favorite feeds:

@woodwindninja - Bret Pimentel’s educational feed about all things woodwind.

@ClarinetJobs - Clarinet Jobs feed about audition postings and winners

@CClarinetist - Curious Clarinetist shares posts from their blog on a variety of clarinet-related topics

@ClarinetNow - Account associated with the Clarinet-Now website, run by West Point Band clarinetist Chris Jones

@ClariperuNews - Clarinet news from South America via Marco Mazzini

Of course, on Twitter you can also find many clarinet-related businesses like @VandorenUSA, @LegereReeds, @BackunMusical, and Phil Muncy of Muncy Winds (@klarinut). Check out everyone we’re following on Twitter by looking us up at @ClarinetCache.

Website Watch (March 2014 column)

The Vintage Clarinet Doctor

Jeremy Soule runs a vintage clarinet repair business out of Staunton, Virginia, and his website is a great resource for lovers of vintage horns. TheVintageClarinetDoctor.com offers information on vintage instrument history, makers, different fingering systems, and historical background on obscure instrument brands.  An overview of the different types of systems is a great tool for understanding the evolution and innovations made to the clarinet over the decades. High-quality photographs accompany the various systems listed and make it easy to visualize and compare the differences between each type of key system.  

You can also purchase vintage clarinets and mouthpieces directly on Soule’s site or send in your antique instrument for repair. The “before and after” pictures offer a close-up view of rare instruments and reveal how the instruments are brought back to life after being overhauled. The instruments pictured include a rare piccolo clarinet in A-flat and a 1928 Kohlert silver sax oboe.

For those interested in the restoration, construction, or the technical side of instrument repair be sure to visit Soule’s blog, The Licorice Shtick Blog, accessible through the home page. Here Soule covers general topics as well as matters pertinent to instrument repair. The entry on swedging and countersinking is particularly enlightening to those interested in the mechanics of woodwind repair.

The Discerning Clarinetist

DiscerningClarinetist.com is a newly designed website by Tyler Zey where you can purchase and sell lightly-used clarinet equipment at discounted prices. Products for sale include mouthpieces, cases, instruments, and barrels with a return policy that gives customers a trial period to test out equipment. Similar to the return policies of larger commercial retailers, returned merchandise is accepted with a return shipping fee and restocking fee paid by the customer. In each product entry, Zey includes a brief description of the product with multiple close-up photographs for closer inspection. All mouthpieces sold on the website have undergone a screening process to ensure that they play well.

An additional component to the site is an active blog with daily entries, many of which center around mouthpieces. Here, you can find useful information on mouthpiece resurfacing, blanks, how to select a mouthpiece, and even a link to a comprehensive article written by Clark Fobes comparing molded mouthpieces to rod rubber mouthpieces.

This winter, Zey offered a clarinet mouthpiece grant to students age 16-25 in need of a new mouthpiece. The grant application required applicants to submit a YouTube video of their playing, along with a recommendation letter and personal statement regarding their goals as a clarinetist. The winner chooses from a handful a mouthpieces shipped to them, or in the event no mouthpiece is selected, they are awarded a cash prize of $125. We hope to see more innovative grant programs like this in the future from DiscerningClarinetist.com!

Robert Marcellus Master Class Files

*** Since the March 2014 Clarinet Cache column has gone to print, we have received notification that some of the information taken from the web regarding this project and the performers involved are incorrect. We thank Steve Cohen, associate professor of clarinet at Northwestern, for bringing this to our attention and for giving us with background information on the project.***

As we posted in an October 2013 Clarinet Cache blog entry, access to hundreds of hours of master classes taught by legendary clarinetist Robert Marcellus is now open to the public through the Northwestern University's Audio + Video Repository which is powered by Avalon Media System, found at http://media.northwestern.edu/. Formerly Variations on Video, Avalon Media System is an open source project that Northwestern, in partnership with Indiana University and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, is developing to manage large university collections of digital audio and video files. The system is slated to be in production as early as Spring 2014.

Sixty-four different recordings of his master classes from 1977 to 1990 are now cataloged on this website. In these master classes, Marcellus coaches various students on fundamentals such as phrasing, air support, and voicing, and imparts his pedagogical wisdom in discussion of repertoire and sequencing of study materials. These newly released archived recordings allow modern-day students and teachers to continue learning from one of the greatest and most influential clarinet teachers of all time.

Website Watch (December 2013 column)

ClarinetCentral.com

Greeting viewers with the beautiful and languid sounds of Harold Wright performing Richard Strauss’s Duet-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon, the homepage of ClarinetCentral.com has much to offer clarinet enthusiasts. Webmaster Russell Harlow has done an excellent job in providing a unique platform that allows viewers to listen to and compare various national styles of clarinet playing. The abundance of rare photos and excerpts of audio files of distinguished clarinetists from around the globe make this website an invaluable resource.

Tracing the lineage of clarinet teaching originating with European-American players such as Daniel Bonade, Gustave Langenus, and Simeon Bellison, Harlow conveniently categorized musicians by their nationality, including a set of links for easy comparison of the national styles of sound associated with Austria, France, England, and America.

Over fifteen countries are represented on the website, each with numerous listings of clarinetists including biographies, photos, and audio samples. Many of the sound files are of symphonic solos or exposed sections of chamber music, and many of the recordings span across several decades, giving listeners the opportunity to hear the evolution of the clarinetist’s sound and style. A handful of entries also include famous pupils of teachers.  

One notable entry is on Gustav Langenus. His biography highlights his innovative approach to teaching as he may have been one of the first clarinet teachers to help students via long-distance learning. Langenus would record himself playing his own etudes and studies on 78 rpm records and mail them to students lacking access to a local clarinet teacher. The student would then listen to the recordings, fill out the accompanying questionnaire to document their progress, and return it to Langenus, who would then respond accordingly. On these archived recordings, you can hear Langenus’s voice as he calls out the etude number and plays the musical line.*  [Edit: the voice is not actually Langenus; see note below]

The “Embouchure and Technique” section features a comical group photograph of the principal woodwind players of the Philadelphia Orchestra whimsically playing their respective instruments, followed by a second snapshot of a similar pose, this time with serious expressions. Daniel Bonade’s expression in the humorous photograph is priceless! In this section Harlow has compiled articles by Ralph McLane and James Collis on playing with a double-lip embouchure. He also includes Tom Ridenour’s three-part video explanation of double-lip embouchure and an audio file of oboist Marcel Tabuteau explaining the art of supporting the air. Anatomical diagrams of the chest, abdominal, and facial muscles further explain the concepts taught by Tabuteau. One interesting component of this section is the application of double-lip techniques by multiple clarinetists in different manners, highlighting the benefits and usefulness of playing double-lip.

An accompanying blog, also run by Harlow, mirrors content found on the main site and can be accessed from the home page. Although the blog contains many broken links or repetitive material borrowed from the main site, there is a handful of photos worth pursuing and also an interesting article on Louis DeSantis. Various clarinet-related merchandise, clothing, and printed music are available for purchase from the Clarinet Store section.

Only few hiccups were encountered when accessing the Clarinet Central website. As noted on the homepage, viewers using PCs or Google Chrome as their Internet browser may experience troubles accessing the toolbar for the audio files. Harlow recommends using Internet Explorer for access to all of the audio files. Hopefully Harlow is working towards fixing these technical issues as this site is a definite must-see for all clarinetists.  

ClassicalConnect.com

ClassicalConnect.com is a streaming audio and video website for fans and performers of classical music.  All content is user-generated -- anyone can upload tracks, and the online community can leave comments and vote on the quality of each selection. A search for “clarinet” brings up more than 150 recordings by performers as accomplished as Alexander Fiterstein and John Bruce Yeh, along with many lesser-known players.

While visitors to the site can listen to the first three minutes of any selection, the free registration allows users to hear the full versions, create their own playlists, vote on recordings, and maintain an individual artist profile. Artists can upload MP3 files and link YouTube videos to the site, with all their recordings linked back to a profile page with biographical information. Users can also enter their concert information into an online calendar, though feature is somewhat lacking in that you can browse by instrument or performer but not location.

One useful aspect of the site is the ability to create playlists which can be shared and embedded on other websites. Teachers can create playlists for students to listen to, and performers are able to create a playlist of their own performances that can be embedded on their personal website. Better yet, these embedded playlists update automatically when the playlist is updated at ClassicalConnect.com.

Because users upload the content, recordings range widely in quality of audio, performance quality, and even volume level. Like YouTube and other websites where content is user-generated, the quality and usefulness of the website is directly related to the activity of the users. If many high-quality recordings continue to be uploaded, and clarinetists rate recordings thoughtfully, it could prove to be a much more refined resource for listening to clarinet music than YouTube, where low-quality recordings often have high view counts. But as is, many tracks on ClassicalConnect.com are currently unrated, and there is a lack of variety and quantity (there is only one recording of the Mozart concerto, for example).

Despite these issues -- and the fact that the interface could use updating -- it’s a great place to discover new repertoire and performers.  With more participation from performers and listeners, it has the potential to become a valuable resource for clarinetists.

*Note from David Ross:
I did want to make a little correction to what you wrote about Langenus. His “Clarinet Correspondence School” is certainly a fascinating document of a world long gone. I have a complete set of these discs and they make interesting listening. But the voice announcing the etudes is certainly not Langenus. The practice in early (pre-WW1) discs and cylinders was to have a loud-voiced speaker (not the player) announce the pieces to be played, and this is what Langenus did.

Clarinet Dissertations Online (Sept. 2013 Column)

Many dissertations which sat for years in obscurity on the granting institution’s library shelf are now being digitized and made publicly available.  A process which used to involve filling out an interlibrary loan request and waiting several weeks is now as easy as downloading a PDF.  In this column, we explore online resources for finding full-text digital versions of clarinet theses and dissertations.

Graduate students and faculty researchers will find these resources useful to survey scholarly literature about clarinet-related topics, but they are not just for academics.  At a time when much dubious information is available on the Internet, theses and dissertations provide a trustworthy source for information that has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by a student’s major professor, university committee and deans or other school officials. These documents are a logical place to turn when looking for more information than Wikipedia or articles in past issues of The Clarinet can provide.

One of the largest open-access databases for scholarly research is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). This international organization’s website yields a listing of over 2,500 full-text electronic theses and dissertations involving the clarinet. Although it is bit tricky to navigate at first, begin your search for clarinet-related documents by clicking the “Find ETDs” on the home page. From there you will utilize the “Scirus ETD Search” located a few paragraphs down. Here, a helpful side-menu offers keyword suggestions to refine searches or you can limit your search with additional keywords of your choosing. Each document’s entry is linked to the respective university’s database, from which you can access the full text directly. The "Find ETDs" page also has a list of links to other databases that may be helpful in an extended search.

Many university libraries are beginning to post full-text dissertations that are publicly accessible through their websites. These individual university databases often overlap with NTLTD, but may have more up-to-date collections.

A few examples are the University of Rochester, with digital dissertations from Eastman students beginning from 2008; and Florida State University, which grants access to electronic theses and dissertations dating back to 2003. The OhioLINK ETD Center currently lists over sixty-five dissertations involving the clarinet from Ohio State University, University of Cincinnati, and Bowling Green State University.  The UNT Digital Libraries contain full-text dissertations of clarinetists who received their DMA from the University of North Texas from 2000 to the present. UNT was one of the earliest institutions to begin requiring electronic submission of theses and dissertations (along with West Virginia University and Vanderbilt University), so its collection is extensive.

EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) is a database of numerous participating UK institutions with several dissertations on the clarinet available to download. To access the digitized documents, you must complete the free registration process. Although many of the documents are open to the public, the required programs necessary to view these documents include Adobe Acrobat Reader and software to unzip the compressed files. In addition to the free downloading options, you can also order paper copies (bound or unbound) and CD/DVDs of dissertations for a fee.

Electronic dissertation records have the added benefit of including supplemental audio and visual materials. Michele Ann Bowen Hustedt’s 2010 University of Iowa dissertation “The Life and Career of Himie Voxman” includes a film of her interview with Voxman, while Ray Wheeler’s 1967 study of clarinet tongue position through X-ray analysis is now available through the University of Rochester’s website, including the original videos collected as part of the research. Many clarinetists are also now posting their own dissertations for public viewing on their personal websites, including Rachel Yoder’s 2010 dissertation on interactive computer music for clarinet together with a supplemental spreadsheet of interactive works.

There are countless theses and dissertations accessible on the Internet and we have touched upon only a few. If you have a link or web address to your full-text dissertation and would like us to add it our blog posting of this column, please email your information to clarinetcache@gmail.com.  Thanks to Tracey Paddock for suggesting this topic!

Updates:

Allison Yacoub, who teaches clarinet at Morgan State University, has sent a link to her University of Maryland dissertation "Compositions for Clarinet Influenced by Non-Western European Musical Traditions".

Tracey Paddock sent a link to her Florida State University dissertation, "A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Clarinetists."