Tech, Travel, & Tuning Up: From Web3 Amsterdam for Hive to My New Gig with British Clarinet Ensemble

For almost as long as I have known him, @bitterirony keeps an active subscription of Poetry magazine. He still has the issue from that includes this intimate verse from the Poet Chera Hammons. How perfect to find it for today's post.

Clarinet

Apart, we are two quiet things:
a person and an instrument.
I in my body,
the clarinet in its case.
We are like good friends.
The clarinet takes nothing away from me.
It lets me borrow its notes.
If I loan it my breath,
I can speak with its sweet voice.
Together, we will make a world full of song.

This poem was published in the March 2021. Four years later I walk into a rehearsal hall and take my seat as the newest Clarinetist of the British Clarinet Ensemble.

British Clarinet Ensemble is a group made up of 25-30 professional and amateur players, teachers and enthusiasts, that are all accomplished musicians.

The Ensemble rehearses only once a month for a full day in Ashwell, Rutland, UK. We fill the 100 year old Ashwell Village Hall, which was renovated during lockdown to enhance its existing warm acoustics.

Each year two concerts are performed in proper English concert halls and in the fall the ensemble moves in together for four days of professional recording.

I captured photographs of each clarinet that filled the hall on my first day.

This is the Eb Sopranino Clarinet, the smallest of the clarinet family. Some refer to it as the "hell whistle," because in the wrong hands...shrill!

This is our concertmaster holding her Bb Soprano clarinet, augmented by a premium barrel and bell that greatly enhances the timbre.

This clarinet is the Eb Alto Clarinet, voiced one octave lower than the Sopranino.

This is the Bb Bass Clarinet, voiced one octave lower than the Soprano.

One of the ensemble Alto clarinets with another in its case for our "take five" from the conductor. In the background rest the 1st Bass Clarinets.

What a beauty, this Bb Bass Clarinet struts a brass neck to further warm its already luscious tone.

In the foreground is the Eb Bass, the Contralto Clarinet.

The boss of the ensemble, the majestic Bb Contrabass Clarinet.

Mind you, there are more clarinet voices that go bigger and lower, but no worries (I have to go here, forgive me) as we have our basses covered! 🤣

Thanks for coming along with me to the rehearsal hall today. Here I am with my Bb Soprano Clarinet doing my best to hang in there sightreading music for the sixth and final hour of my first BCE rehearsal.

Let me credit today's Creative Work Hour Crew!

@andysporring
@bitterirony
@bobbyb58
@creativegray
@dr-timeka
@gregscloud
@expansivelove
@n4trix
@shadowspub
@wailing.fong

Tomorrow I'll come to you from the @hivespaces account as @shadowspub and I prepare to feature @arcange on the March Hivespace, airing Tuesday, 25 March, 2025 in our HiveSpace Studio on GoBrunch.