The ABC’s of Famous Clarinetists
The other night, I was having some trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned, thoughts racing through my head. Most normal people (aka non-musicians) might count sheep or count backwards from 300 in increments of 3.
What did my eternally dorky clarinet self do?
I tried to name a famous clarinetist for every letter of the alphabet.
I’ll admit, I had to stretch the rules a few times (using first names instead of last), but here are the names I used:
Arrignon, Michel
Baermann, Carl/Heinrich
Cavallini, Ernesto
Draper, Charles
Eban, Eli
Fröst, Martin
Galper, Avrahm
Hermstedt, Johann
Ivy Benson
Juler, Pauline
Kell, Reginald
Langenus, Gustave
Marcellus, Robert
Neidich, Charles
Opperman, Kalmen
Peyer, Gervase de
Queen, The Clarinet (aka Doreen Ketchens)
Rossi, Luis
Stadler, Anton
Thurston, Frederick
Ulysse Delécluse
Voxman, Himie
Weston, Pamela
Xavier (Jean-Xavier) Lefèvre (This one is a stretch!)
Yeh, John Bruce
Zukovsky, Michele
So, the next time you can’t fall asleep or you want to keep your clarinet friends entertained on long road trips, challenge yourself and see if you can name the ABC’s of clarinetists!
2 Comments
Joel Lazar
Try also counting backwards by Köchel numbers, starting with 626, and linking the works to them, or Beethoven opus numbers, backwards from 135, Rachmaninoff or Richard Strauss…although any of these may get you worked up enough to leap from your bed and hit the computer, or your reference library!
jennymaclay
Wow, these are certainly challenging! You’re right – I think they would wake me up instead of calming me down enough to fall asleep! Maybe I’ll use these on my students instead!