Color, Texture and Spice: When Winds and Strings Meet to Play

At the February CMNC workshop we programmed a most enjoyable assignment: a quintet by Robert Kahn for piano, violin, cello, clarinet and horn. This seemed like the purest benefit of attending a workshop—the opportunity to play a brand-new (to all of us, including the coach) piece with such an unusual combination of instruments.

It seems that Kahn was a young admirer of Brahms who presented himself and his music to the Master. Brahms was impressed and invited Kahn to study composition with him. Kahn declined—whether because he was too modest or too arrogant is unclear. Certainly the piece we played had a rather Brahmsian character, and was quite lovely in its own right. Now, how would we have ever known that if we hadn't attended CMNC?

We had excellent coaching from Rebecca Hang, the violinist of the Felici Trio. This experience got me wondering why I don't spend more time playing outside of my usual round of string quartets and piano-string works. I've been to enough workshops to have gotten to know many fine wind players. Why not get together with them at home?

Shortly after the workshop I put the idea into practice by inviting Bob Goldstein to join our string quartet for an evening of clarinet quintets. We played three amazing works: quintets by Mozart, Brahms and Max Reger. The Reger is interesting, and the Brahms and the Mozart are among the greatest pieces of chamber music ever written.

Afterwards we talked about the experience of playing in a mixed wind-string group. I asked Bob, as the representative wind player, what he thought winds and strings did differently when they met. “Winds play more softly, and strings count,” he said. We laughed at this nod to the stereotype of wind players as accurate tooters and strings as emotional sawers. However, we did agree that winds have as their stock in trade the ability to make crisp, clear and well-coordinated entrances and to play together rhythmically. Many wind players grew up playing in bands, where rhythmic accuracy is of the very essence.

All the string players at that session noticed how the presence of the clarinet altered the balance and the dynamics of the string quartet. Tom Fowle, in his role as audience, pointed out that the two violinists played as more of a unit than they do in string quartets, perhaps to balance the strength of the solo clarinet. The opening of the Brahms and the start of the 4th movement of the Mozart are two sublime examples of this.

I found as a cellist that the presence of the clarinet tilted the balance strongly to the lower register, making for the kind of richness I associate with viola quintets. The clarinet's range is very close to the viola, and Brahms, especially, pairs the clarinet with the viola and/or the cello in many striking passages.

For a string player, the best part of playing with a wind is the wonderful colors that the solo instrument adds. And of course, as Sue Fowle pointed out, the clarinet (like all wind instruments) is capable of much more volume than a string instrument, especially a viola. She had recently played the Bruch Double Concerto for viola and clarinet with clarinetist Asher Davison. She found that with the orchestra, the clarinet was easily audible, while she as a violist had to seek out the loudest strings she could find (she decided on Zyex, with a Larsen A). She tried to play close to the bridge and frog, used a faster bow stroke and changed bow more often, and worked on a faster and narrower vibrato—all to find color and volume to go with the clarinet. Sue said that during rehearsal Asher talked about his need to breathe, which affected his phrasing. Very occasionally she needed to allow for his need to take another breath. She felt the lack of experience of singing or wind playing, as it would clearly aid in phrasing. Running out of bow is certainly less of an issue than needing to inhale.

At rehearsal Asher commented to Sue that the clarinet can readily play effortless sounding runs, while a string player has to work to achieve a similar effect. He expressed admiration that a string instrument could be played in tune—a comment all string players can appreciate, as it is a difficulty we all face!

Asher contributed these additional comments via email: “In playing with strings, I tend to find synergy--strengths pair with strengths, weaknesses get lifted up. The string players are encouraged to breathe naturally by my very necessary habit of breathing, hopefully usually between phrases or at other appropriate points. I'm encouraged by the expressiveness of string playing to make my sound resonant and non-static, in whatever ways I am inspired to devise. And then there's the tempering of pitches--would I have discovered the glory of this subtlety through orchestral and wind quintet playing alone?”

“One of my teachers talked about phrasing the way an opera singer would,” Sue responded. “For a string player who is not vocally inclined, this was a concept to be noted, but difficult to put into practice. String players often observe that good wind groups in workshops sound more unified in their attack and release of notes. Part of that is the need to inhale together before starting a piece.”

We all agreed that our times playing in string-wind groups at workshops have been highly memorable. Everyone had a Schubert Octet story to tell. This great piece, for four strings and four winds, is one of the glories of the wind-string literature, even though (as Alison Corson pointed out) it has no viola solo (an unfortunate omission!) There are so many great wind-string chamber works, from the Beethoven Septet to the Brahms horn trio—all crying out to be played. Yes, we really must do this more often!

When Winds and Strings Meet to Play
(Part 2 of a Two-Part Article)

by Asher Davison and Sue Fowle

Ed. Note: Asher, a clarinetist, and Sue, a violinist-violist, continue the conversation they began in the previous issue with a discussion of some of the many ways winds and strings can learn from each other.

Asher: The last time we talked, Sue, I expressed my appreciation for the synergy that happens when winds play with strings. Strengths reinforce strengths, and weaknesses get noticed and addressed.

Sue: Is this synergy different than what you find when you play with other winds, or with piano?

Asher: Playing with other woodwinds in our classic grouping, the woodwind quintet, certainly provides timbral challenges--enough to explore for endless years. If you consider five instruments each with distinct sounds, there are 26 multi-instrument combinations for composers to use! Add a percussion instrument of such remarkable subtlety
and range as the piano, and the terrain for strings or winds is expanded tremendously.

Sue: That's very true. I always appreciate hearing the variety of attacks a piano has, and the natural decay properties of piano notes give us string players a guide to accents and decrescendi.

Asher: When I think of wind/string synergy, I think of the flashes of insight I occasionally have in orchestral playing, but are all too rarely explored deeply in that kind of setting--certainly not at an intimate level, unless in small often-conducted pieces like Appalachian Spring. Mixed chamber groups compel us to explore the complexity of orchestral colors without the constraint, or crutch, of a conductor.

Sue: Relying on a conductor can sometimes inhibit us from using our listening skills, I fear. In a sense, even the finest conductors only show us what we are capable of achieving on our own!

Asher: On the other hand, this summer at the San Diego workshop, I had some rich learning experiences just watching strings playing and being coached at master classes. New approaches occurred to me about ideas I try to explore as a coach.

Sue: For instance?

Asher: I like that strings are encouraged to generate energy with their initial bow movements. It reminds me of learning to begin a phrase that has a crescendo with a declarative note that gives impetus. And the way string players keep their bows moving is a close parallel to our use of the air column. We both need to use speed (whether of the bow or of the air), not just for regulating volume, but for expression—for example, to give long notes life.

I also heard string coaches talk about "pulling" the bow rather than pressing it. This is a lot like the gut support we need to provide our air: not forcing, but releasing.

Sue: I certainly learn a lot when I listen to winds, as well. The fact that you use your breath to produce sounds promotes a very natural and beautiful approach to phrasing.

Coaches often encourage string groups to breath together, and sometimes advise the player with the lead part to inhale audibly to start the group together--and exhaling with the attack can help too.

Asher: When I coach, I also work with groups of all kinds this way: for instance, to inhale and get physically prepared to begin with good timing after downbeat rest. Impulse is so important, no matter what instrument we play!

As for the quality of the inhalation itself, winds can learn from strings too. For string players can "inhale" with bow movement alone. Seeing this done, alone or in conjunction with an actual in-breath, help us winds to explore our two purposes in inhaling: gathering breath capacity, and preparing to create sound at the desired moment
You comment that our breath can guide our phrasing. We all should work at this, if you agree that Western instrumental music is ultimately inspired by song. The image of a vocal line, or even a sub-text, for our "notey" phrases can be so fruitful—as can be thinking of sonata form as similar to the struggles and resolution of an operatic plot. So every phrase we play can have some kind of vocal shape.

Even a murmuring accompaniment figure should, after all, murmur. Maybe I'm biased now as a singer, but I don't mind!

Sue: That's intriguing. A way that occurs to me to explore it is to look in the library for lieder or arias. I could play a piece on violin or viola in as vocally expressive a way as possible, then listen to a singer's rendition for more inspiration.

Asher: Excellent idea, though a faster approach is to clap and sing our own string and wind parts!

Sue: Perhaps string players tend to lose sight of this because we don't have to use our breath to play.

Asher: You also have the freedom to breathe in whatever manner you please, along with your own playing. So you can use your breathing while playing without being hemmed in by the particularities of your sound production. You have such freedom to get your whole body involved in the use of air.

I think we wind players can also learn from you strings by imagining the breath as an arm that moves back and forth gently, but with control. Our outward flow should be just as slow and steady, with the instrument (e.g., the reed) providing resistance just as the friction of the bow on the string does.

Sue: It's fascinating to me how a sympathetic wind player views the string player's bowing. There are some very practical aspects to bowing, too. For instance, as I alternate up- and down-bows in a repetitive passage, the direction of the bow may aid me in keeping track of where I am, rather than purely keeping my eye on each iteration of the pattern.

But you're right--bowing is the basis of our expressiveness just as breathing is for yours. To prepare a piece for performance I often need to play a passage many times, listening carefully and critically to the results I obtain with different bowings. I experiment with alternatives: up- or down-bow, of course, but also in other ways. What portion of the bow should I be using here? Where should I slur or hook notes? Should I change my bow to the next string here or there, be brave/ foolhardy and stay on one string or be less expressive but more accurate and stay in one position instead?

Asher: The ways you can use up- vs. down-bows for crescendi, arrivals, decays, and natural accents can be fascinating. When I see the incredible matrix of decision points juggled by string players as you select fingerings and bowings, I am encouraged to think more about sub-phrase transitions and pacing of rubato in a more kinetic way than the nature of wind playing inspires.

Sue: So we inspire each other. We must play together more often!