Samuel Berthod

Klezmer Clarinet Duets

Many clarinetists, whether amateur or professional, classical or genre explorers, are keen to take the step towards a different approach to the instrument, as offered by klezmer music. Sonority, technique, style, melodies, typical rhythmic figures and, of course, effects are all areas to be perfected in order to achieve the pleasure of playing. While Klezmer has long transcended the festivities of the Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jewish community, it offers a different approach to the clarinet, its signature instrument. Its deep interiority contrasts with an irresistible festive impact, its historical blending with Baroque, Gypsy and Oriental music, its modern-day flirtation with jazz... so many paths of influence that make klezmer an extremely expressive music. I'd like to draw a comparison with the second half of the 20th century, when the so-called "learned composers" of twelve-tone music were looking for new ways of breaking down melodies and reconstructing them. Using effects hitherto forbidden by harmonic comfort, their avant-garde creativity offered an escape from the norm, from the system? At the same time, klezmer is just as much a music of research. But this time, it's popular. An accessible universe; the paradox being that its mastery is not necessarily so easily acquired. Combined with the classical technique of scales and arpeggios, klezmer is often a questioning of our fundamentals in terms of embouchure flexibility, choice of material, projection, tonal freedom, improvisation, ultra groove... for an expression made of pleasure and singularity. In any case, this is what I wish to share in these Klezmer Clarinet Duets.