18 JulThe Clarinet

Note: I played the clarinet in high school. After 45 years I’ve picked it up again and am finding a lot of joy in making music. The following are my thoughts on the clarinet.

The clarinet is a humble instrument. You rarely find it center stage as you will the piano, violin, or cello. Perhaps this is because it is a much simpler instrument to play. It’s basically just a long wooden tube with holes. To play a particular note, you just cover the right holes. It can only play one note at a time. You won’t get any harmonies out of a clarinet. Yet, the clarinet is ubiquitous like the sunshine on a calm summer morning. It’s persistent like the bird singing outside your window. It’s as beautiful and comforting as your mother’s voice calling you home from her doorstep while you play with friends down the street.

The clarinet is made of wood—from trees once rooted deep in the earth. Its sound emanates from a single vibrating reed which also springs from the Earth. With its wooden body and woody reed, the sound of the clarinet flows from the living planet itself.

The sound of a clarinet is warm and rounded. You instinctively know it could never cut or scratch you. You can wrap its tones around you as securely as your grandmother’s quilt. Its tones bring the comfort of a sunbeam and a cool breeze dancing together. This comforting description belies the vitality a clarinet can create. The clarinet is comforting, but never timid. It is full of the life force found in the woods on a spring morning. Its music can circle your head as impudently as a mischievous Tinkerbell; nudge you from behind like the nose of a horse looking for sugar cubes in your pocket; or run up your pant leg like a frightened mouse. The clarinet is harmless, but you will take notice.

The clarinet is quick and nimble. It can run through three octaves as quickly as children racing from the basement to the second story to retrieve something for their mother’s favor. While doing this the sound of a clarinet is smooth like water in a brook rolling over rounded stones. Its tones inhabit the soil down low where seeds germinate and earthworms crawl; break through the surface with the flowers that bloom and buzz with bees; dance through the sky like a murmuration of starlings. Then, on a whim, it can fold its wings and drop gently back to the earth like a maple leaf coming home in the autumn.

There wouldn’t be many people in the world who could name a famous clarinet player. The clarinet is more of a beloved character actor who makes so many shows memorable, yet never gets a star in the Los Angeles walk. This is right and good. The world needs the fireworks of the solo instruments that wow and amaze. But the world rides on the shoulders of the unsung heroes who gracefully and uncomplainingly hold it all together. Whether it’s supporting a symphony like ferns under a forest canopy, bouncing shrilly and spastically in a jazz tune, or performing a solo ballet in front of supporting strings, the clarinet is intertwined with the music of the ages.

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These books by Tory Anderson are now available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback format: