Benny Goodman and the Classical Clar Rep

7/27/2019 Benny Goodman and the Classical Clar Rep

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Benny Goodman and the Classical Clarinet Repertoire by Art Marshall

Art Marshall, (artist’s name for Hein van Maarschalkerwaart, March, 15, 1942) clarinetist/bass clarinetist and an

internationally well-known arranger. He is the author of “Take up Jazz” (Chester Music) which he dedicated to the

memory of Benny Goodman. In 1968 he had the privilege to meet BG on Sint Maarten (NA) and to have a number of

private sessions with the master. (www.artmarshal.org).

Invitation from Benny Goodman.

Benny Goodman and Franz Schoepp

Benny Goodman, (Chicago 1909- New York 1986), better known as “The King of Swing’

descended from Russian-Polish Jewish immigrants and grew up in a notorious neighborhood in

Chicago (Maxwell Street ghetto). Benny’s father, who had to provide for his family of 11 kids,

was considering a better future for them and noticed that whenever you could play music, there

was some opportunity to make some extra money. As most immigrant families extra money was

always welcome. When Benny was about 11 years old his father took Benny and two brothers

to join the synagogue band in the neighborhood where free music lessons were given. Very

soon Benny’s extraordinary talent for the clarinet became apparent. In little more than a year

money problems caused the synagogue orchestra to be disbanded. Goodman’s father took hisboys to the Hull House Band. Hull House was a social project for immigrants that also provided

lessons in art, music and a yearly summer camp. While still in attendance at the Hull House

Band Benny was also accepted as a student by a German clarinetist, Mr. Franz Schoeppfrom

1919, who taught him from the Bärmann and Klose books and who let him play from the

Cavallini Capricci studies. Benny started out on a C-clarinet (German System) which was given

to him by the Hull House band, together with a uniform and a hat. Very soon Benny got a Bb

clarinet and at 16 he changed over to a Böhm system clarinet.



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His first privately owned Bb clarinet was a Martin, donated by his sister Ethel. We may assume

that Benny learned to play in the conventional way through long sustained notes, scales and

broken chord arpeggios. He also learned to play with the single lip embouchure. I will dwell on

that issue a little later. It is correct to say that the basics for the discipline of correct clarinetplaying was established with this. Benny started to take lessons with Schoepp at twelve and

continued for two years. Schoepp must have been 70 by that time. After these initial years the

formal clarinet lessons ended and learning through experience in the school orchestra began,

coupled to gigs in semiprofessional wind bands.

About Franz Schoepp himself we do not know very much. But we do know that clarinetists from

the Chicago Symphony Orchestra came to him for lessons. Schoepp himself does not appear

on the list of players of the orchestra. It might very well be possible that he played as a

substitute player. Shapiro/Henthoff (1957) have indicated that Schoepp taught at the Chicago

Musical College and looked upon jazz as “ music from the streets”. The famous Buster Bailey

and Jimmy Noone also got lessons with Schoepp. The latter was in the habit of letting the

arriving students play duets with the outgoing ones. In this way Benny got acquainted with

Bailey and Noone, who were a little older than Benny. In 1950 Schoepp’s grandson donated the

German version of the Bärmann method to Benny Goodman. It was the book from which the

grandfather used to give his lessons. Benny is said to have asked Schoepp why his books

weren’t in English. The answer was: “Dumkopf, very soon everybody will be speaking German

here! We should forgive the man this chauvinistic remark. Schoepp must have been a man with

some social conscience, since he gave lessons to anybody: poor Jewish and black students got

their tuition almost for free; not so common in those days! Benny had the Bärmann book

restored on special parchment paper. All we know from this period has been related by BG

himself.

The development of Benny Goodman’s musical taste.

The Goodman family barely had enough money to survive, so spending money on a record

player was not on the priority list. Much later when the elder brothers and sisters went out to

work, things took a change for the better and a record player made its entry in the Goodman

family. We must assume that the records the family bought were not of the classical repertoire,

but the music of that era and their particular class! Vaudeville, waltzes and jazz bands (Original

Dixieland Jazz Band 1917). On Sunday afternoons there was the odd concert in the park and

that was it! In the Hull House Band Benny and his brothers became familiar with the popular

overtures, marches and the classical repertoire as transcribed for Symphonic Wind Band. Another important source was formed by the melodic calls with which the many Jewish vendors

hawked their wares in his neighborhood. There were also the frequent small bands of yiddish

fiddlers who played their tunes in the alleys of Benny’s neighborhood.We must not forget the

influence of the melismatic cantors from the synagogue. But in short BG did not really grow up

with the classical repertoire for clarinet.

It is also not very likely that Benny in the 2 years with Schoepp had made a beginning with the

serious clarinet repertoire; the lessons will have been limited to studies and technical exercises.



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The first serious brush with classical music

It was Benny’s promoter and brother-in-law to

be John Hammond who invited him in 1935 to

come and play the Mozart Clarinet Quintet with

an amateur string quartet in which Hammondplayed the viola. Benny is reported to have said

that this was the first time he’d heard of KV

581. The quartet practiced for three months

once a week and gave a chamber music

concert in Hammond Mansion for 200 invited

guests. In the audience were also a few

prominent jazz players present.It was around

that time that Benny’s fame as a swing band

leader started to gain momentum. Benny was

looking for a new challenge which he found in

the classical repertoire. The chamber music

concert led to a next step and an opportunity

presented itself to record the Mozart quintet

with the Pro Arte Quartet. D. Russell Connor

relates what happened as follows: BG walked

into recording studio cold after playing a one-nighter and almost immediately realized that he

was not properly prepared, and walked out in considerable embarrassment.

He then began to study the piece more thoroughly and in April 1938 het felt confident enough to

record the work with the Budapest String Quartet.

This recording was received politely by the classical reviewers and by the jazz press it met with

with a lot of hoopla, because this time it concerned a jazz soloist playing “serious” music. This

would help raise the status of swing music!

The first classical lessons.

Yet Benny himself was not so satisfied with the recording and it made him decide to take

classical lessons with Simeon Bellison of the NY Philharmonic. Benny’s own rating of the

recording follows here: “I (had) just plunged into it. I had a kind of jazz vibrato, but I just played.

Later it struck me that I really would like to know what the hell I am doing.”

Playing classical music on the clarinet requires a different “ embouchure” (the way to hold the

mouth piece in the mouth) than playing jazz. Most jazz players use a more open facing at the tip

of their mouth piece and play with a softer reed which offers a better possibility to bend and twist

the tone. Yet this is not always true for everyone.



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When one has learned to play correctly from the start in the classical way and is gifted with a

flexible embouchure, it is possible to play with the same equipment in both styles. A similar

problem presents itself when one has to alternate playing in a marching band and a symphony

orchestra. Wind band playing means that you have to blend with the clarinet group, whereas

symphony orchestra playing requires a more individual manner of tone production, tone color

and tone projection.

What was the result of the lessons?

The lessons had as a result that BG became more aware of what it takes to play classical music

and he familiarized himself with the tradition. In 1940 BG and the violinist Joseph Szigeti

commissioned Bela Bartok to write a trio piece with piano. This piece, Contrasts, had a

movement that required the violin to tune its strings differently. In 1940 Contrasts was played in

Carnegie Hall, and later it was recorded with Bartok himself at the piano. In that same year BG

recorded the Mozart Concerto. For unknown reasons that recording was never released. On

that same day Benny Goodman recorded the Première Rhapsodie by Debussy. This recording

was released and rated by a lot of people as very good. These concerts and recordings mark

the start of Benny Goodman’s classical career!

There is an interesting observation that was once made by a musicologist on the musical

contents of Contrasts:

“ …. “Contrasts” is more Bartok’s using Goodman than the other way around. Goodman is given

his virtuoso turns on the clarinet but is otherwise taken through a busy survey of Hungarian folk

music. The first movement bounces with the inverted dotted rhythms that give Hungarian music

its singular identity. The finale dances wildly. Those who discover jazz in Bartok’s more

seductive syncopations may be imagining things. I hear more Central Europe than 52nd Street.”

At the end of the forties and in the beginning of the fifties Benny started to expand his classical

repertoire with the Weber Concertos and with the Grand Duo Concertante by the same

composer. There is a video where Benny plays this piece with his daughter. Benny’s activities

on classical clarinet playing all coincided with his very busy schedule of Big Band Concerts, The

desire to master and play the classical repertoire did not become less. On the contrary! But this

time he called in the help of the British clarinetist Reginald Kell who had settled in the USA in

1948.

The Reginald Kell episode

Reginald Clifford Kell (June 8, 1906 – August 5, 1981)

was a York born British clarinetist. He was one of the

first outstanding clarinetists to use vibrato in his playing

much to the dismay of his orchestral colleagues. He was

inspired to do so by the oboist Leon Goossens (Oboist of

Belgian origin who worked in England) and the many

male and female opera singers that he knew. He also



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had a special style of playing, modeled after the interpretation of the great singers. In this style

he allowed himself more liberties than were usual in his days; again much to the dismay of his

colleagues

In addition to that he was also a strong advocate of the so called double-lip embouchure that is

still used by clarinetists in the US. Kell played Hawkes (later Boosey and Hawkes) instrumentsthat are still kept in Edinburgh and the remarkable feat is that there are hardly any teeth marks

on the mouth piece: most likely the result of double-lip playing.

Kell was surely not just one of many clarinetists; he had been principal clarinet in the Liverpool

Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras and he was the only

British musician who was invited by Toscanini to take the first chair in the Luzern Festival

Orchestra .In addition to that he has left us a great many of recordings on his name of the major

clarinet works that can still be heard on YouTube (the Brahms Sonatas!!)

He also wrote clarinet studies and his Interpretative Studies en Staccato Studies are much in

use among serious clarinet students.

Disappointed by the meager acceptance of his English colleagues of hisinterpretative style - in

particular his use of vibrato- Kell emigrated to the US in 1947. Interesting to know now is - that

some 25 years later – vibrato in the British style of clarinet playing is more “en vogue” as can be

heard in the beautiful singing style of Jack Brymer who could play with such a beautiful light

vibrato!

It was to Reginald Kell that Benny Goodman applied for advanced study of the classics in 1948.

However, Kell realized that it would mean a complete change of Benny’s playing style that might

affect his jazz style. Kell who was afraid to become the one in history of the US ”as the

(English)man who ruined our Benny Goodman” was reluctant to teach Benny. When Goodmankept insisting, Kell consented in 1952 and the two started to work on the arduous task.

What did BG learn from Reginald Kell?

Until 52

1. Single-lip embouchure: upper teeth on the mouthpiece; lower lip over the lower teeth

2. Staccato with the tip of the tongue against the tip of the reed

3. Certain unorthodox fingerings

4. Avoiding the throat register notes as much as possible

5. Interpretation of the classical repertoire by concentrating on playing the right notes

instead of the musical ideas behind the notes





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In all these matters Benny knew his own shortcomings which he sought to change. A good look

at what has been described above willmake one realize what this must have meant for BG after

having played for more than 25 years as an acclaimed jazz soloist: he had to learn to play again

from start. Inevitably it would create a setback. It shows determination and courage to reflect on

one’s shortcomings and seriously address them.

As Benny Goodman has a very busy schedule with his jazz formations, he indicated to Kell that

he would use double-lip as much as possible but that he in the beginning would have to go back

to single-lip playing. Kell did not agree with Benny’s vision that he could change of embouchure

at will. Benny took lessons twice a week and continued to do so for 2 ½ years. It became less

frequent after 1958 when Kell moved back to England

What did Benny Goodman learn in the Kell episode?

If there is one question that will give surprising answers, it will be this one question. In jazz

playing Benny was admired for the seemingly effortless ease with which he did it. Seemingly,

yes! Notwithstanding his talent he was known by his fellow musicians (and in the family circle)

for his constant practicing that went on even in the intermissions of his big band concerts!

Benny was not always able to transfer the seemingly flawless ease to his classical playing. This

observation keeps appearing in many comments. Technically Goodman played flawlessly, but

he could not always free himself from the written parts. Although Kell’s lessons have changed

that for a great deal, Benny has never earned the unanimous praise for classical recordings and

concerts that he received for his jazz playing. In the judgment about Benny’s classical playing

we must make a distinction between the pre –Kell and post-Kell episode.

Pre- Kell comments

Comments on the 2nd Brahms Sonata in 1945 with Nadia Reisenberg at the piano were as

follows: “He seems hesitant, stiff, more like a student than an accomplished clarinetist. In 1940

a review in the New York Times described Benny’s rendering of the Mozart Concerto in

Carnegie Hall in Carnegie Hall in these words: “Mr. Goodman approached the Mozart rather

warily. Its most difficult passages were met with utmost ease and accuracy; the phrasing was

impeccable the legato smoothest. As for the tone produced it was somewhat more open to

question…” Debussy’s Première Rhapsodie was better received at that occasion

About the Post-Kell period I will let a number of critics/musicians have their say:

Gertrude Hindemith, after BG’s rendering of the

Hindemith Clarinet Concerto in 1950:

“marvelous with flawless technique, but rather

academic and I was astonished to detect a certain

dryness in his playing.”

Mell Powel, Benny’s pianist in the trio, later

teacher of composition at a conservatoire:

“His jazz playing has not suffered from the lessons;

in fact the proper technique has allowed him to play

till the end of his life”. On interpretation of the



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Hindemith: “ I don’t think he heard these things

well; it’s complicated stuff and the questions is who

does hear it terribly well”

Leon Russianoff, the eminent teacher who helpedBG in 1971 with the selection of mouthpieces:

“I had an enormous respect for his talent. Bennyhad impeccable time and gorgeous fingers. His

genius could have been used to play classical

music well.”

Benny Goodman himself on his double musical

life:

“The greatest exponents of jazz are those with the

most originality in ideas and the technique to

express them. To play classical music naturally

requires long hours of preparation and practice. I

have learned to accept this fact over the past few

years. I don’t think you’re ever through learning an

instrument!”

Anthony McGill, Principal Clarinetist of the

Metropolitan Opera and the clarinetist who played

at Obama’s inauguration said this:

“I grew up listening to all of [Goodman's]

recordings. His recordings of works by Aaron

Copland, Morton Gould, Igor Stravinsky and others

are still available, so he's still enormously

influential. Goodman was such a superstar that you

really have to listen."

What has been Benny Goodman’s significance for the classical clarinet repertoire!?

All pro and contra advocates cannot but admit that BG has been instrumental in adding new

pieces to the repertoire. These pieces were commissioned an paid for by him. Not counting

pieces such as Clarinet á la King and Clarinetitis they are the following works:

1. Contrasts, Trio for Clarinet Violin and piano. Bela Bartok 1939

2. Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra , Paul Hindemith, 1947

3. Concerto for Clarinet , Aaron Copland, 19474. Derivations for Solo Clarinet and Band ,Morton Gould, 1956

In addition to that BG has left us some twenty recordings of the classical clarinet works. We also

know that he played concerts with Leonard Bernstein (the Poulenc Sonata in 1963), Bartok,

Szigeti and many other prominent musicians from the classical world who appreciated his

playing . He has a small treasure chest of his favorite repertoire that he used to perform when

asked: the Mozart Concerto and Quintet , the 2 Weber concertos, the Quintet and Concertino,



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Benny Goodman and the Classical Clar Rep