Colour Studies for Clarinet by Jeffery Wilson

John M. Cipolla, Western Kentucky University

Abstract

Review by John Cipolla Jeffery Wilson, Colour Studies for Clarinet. Camden Music www.camdenmusic.com Colour Studies is a collection of eight etudes that explore the concept of colour. My first inclination was to think of colour as tone and timbre, in which case, I expected to see a collection of slower pieces with longer note values that would give the player freedom to explore the colours of particular notes. Though the clarinet has an inherent spectrum of tonal colours through the registers (chalumeau, clarion and altissimo), these studies consider the concept of colour in a broader sense. Most of these studies contain eighth and sixteenth notes. The pieces cover a wide spectrum of issues that clarinetists encounter, all of which potentially affect the overall colour of individual notes, a phrase, or an entire piece. The pieces examine legato fingers, tone production in various registers, dynamics, use of the pinky fingers and various articulations. It is refreshing to read through studies that consider colouring articulated passages in various manners. Articulation is all too often only considered a technical issue, not a musical/phrasing tool in which the attack and release of a note can be varied for musical purposes. The pieces span from the lowest E to a high G, four ledger lines above the staff. Each piece is given a title and then a brief description of the issues that the clarinetist will focus on while studying that piece. These pieces should not be approached as a comprehensive, all-encompassing collection of tone studies, but rather should be treated as an addition to the players' continual exploration of tone and timbre studies on the clarinet. Technically, this collection of pieces, that progress in level of difficulty, is suited for high school and early college, though it is certainly useful for advanced players.