Colin Lawson (Editor) - The Cambridge Companion to the Clarinet

Illustrations

(a) in C by Heinrich Grenser, Dresden, c. 1810

(b) in B by Heinrich Grenser, Dresden, c. 1810

(c) in B by Jacques Franois Simiot, Lyons, c. 1815

(a) in B by Franois Lefvre, Paris, c. 1835

(b) in A by Eugne Albert, Brussels, c. 1860

(c) in A by Wilhelm Hess junior, Munich, c. 1870

(a) in A by Godfridus Adrianus Rottenburgh, Brussels, c. 1760

(b) in B by Stephan Koch, Vienna, c. 1825

(c) in B by Richard Bilton, London, c. 1840

(d) in A by Oskar Oehler, Berlin, c. 1935

(e) in C by Auguste Buffet jeune, Paris, c. 1850

The contributors

JOHN ROBERT BROWN is a member of staff at Leeds College of Music, where he is currently Postgraduate Course Leader and Head of the External Relations Unit. His published transcriptions include Jazz Clarinet 1 and 2, Pure Wynton Marsalis, Pure David Sanborn and Pure Courtney Pine. His published compositions include Quintet for Brass (1994).

MICHAEL BRYANT trained as a metallurgist, but switched to broadcast engineering and has worked for the BBC World Service for over twenty-five years. Having taken a special interest in rediscovering forgotten and unpublished chamber music for the clarinet, basset horn and bass clarinet, he has provided advice on rare repertoire and research methods to students, collectors and professional players.

NICHOLAS COX is Principal Clarinet of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. As a soloist he has appeared at Britains most important festivals and concert halls, and several composers have written him commissions, including Hugh Wood, Richard Rodney Bennett, Jonathan Lloyd and Andrey Eshpay. Solo tours and masterclasses have taken him to Europe, the Far East and Russia.

GEORGINA DOBRE From early in her career, Georgina Dobre took an interest in the more unusual members of the clarinet family, and in 1951 the firm of Henri Selmer undertook to make a basset horn especially for her. This instrument accompanied her summer visits to Darmstadt, where for almost ten years from 1953 she gave performances of new music. In recent years the repertoire written especially for her has increasingly been specifically for the basset horn and has been premired in Britain, the USA and what is now the Czech Republic.

MICHAEL HARRIS is principal bass clarinet with the Philharmonia Orchestra. He also pursues a vigorous freelance career in orchestral and chamber music, appearing regularly with groups such as the Nash Ensemble, the London Sinfonietta and London Winds. He has developed a keen interest in early clarinets and is professor of classical clarinet at the Royal College of Music.

PAUL HARRIS studied clarinet, composition and conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and music education at the University of London. He has now established a reputation as a teacher, composer, writer, performer, examiner and adjudicator, with well over one hundred publications to his name, many of which deal primarily with stimulating and helping young players to develop their musical skills. Paul Harris has also undertaken research into specialist music education for the highly talented an interest that has taken him to many musical institutions around the world.

ROGER HEATON has worked closely with many leading composers, including Feldman, Bryars, Volans, Ferneyhough and Henze, and has performed with the Arditti and Balanescu Quartets, Ensemble Modern, the London Sinfonietta, the Gavin Bryars Ensemble and many other groups. Since 1982 he has been Clarinet Professor at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse fr Neue Musik and was Music Director of Rambert Dance Company, 1988-93.

COLIN LAWSON has played principal clarinet with most of Britains leading period orchestras, notably The English Concert, The Hanover Band and the London Classical Players. He has given period performances of concertos by Mozart, Weber and Spohr at a number of international venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, New York; he has also published widely on various aspects of historical performance practice. His writings on the history of the clarinet include The Chalumeau in Eighteenth-Century Music. He is currently senior lecturer in music at the University of Sheffield.

JO REES-DAVIESs life has been fairly equally divided between the worlds of libraries and of music, the latter as performer and teacher. She has been librarian of the Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain since 1984 and is currently editor of the societys quarterly magazine. Her clarinet repertoire lists, translations and compilations cover most of the countries in Europe.

ANTONY PAY was born in London, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and read Mathematics at Cambridge University. He has been principal clarinet of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the LondonSinfonietta (of which he was a founder member) and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and a member of several chamber ensembles. Since 1984 he has concentrated mainly on solo playing and conducting, recording Spohr concertos and period performances of Mozart, Weber and Crusell concertos on specially reconstructed instruments. He currently plays in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.