Edward S. Palanker: Eddiesclarinet.com

In the December 2008 edition of The Clarinet, we reviewed the excellent personal websites of Michèle Gingras, Michael Lowenstern, and John Cipolla. Well, now we have another one to add to the list, as Edward S. Palanker has created a personal website, Eddiesclarinet.com, that is equally interesting and informative.

Palanker, bass clarinetist with the Baltimore Symphony and (soon to be retiring) professor at the Peabody Conservatory, has written many articles for The Clarinet over the years. He has now made these articles available on his website. Subjects include maintenance (including helpful hints to keep your clarinet working when something suddenly goes wrong), tongue position, fingerings, and intonation (with comments about tuning a middle school clarinet section). Palanker has devoted a section of his site just to reeds, with well thought-out comments on adjusting and breaking in reeds. His section on bass clarinet includes some great information about orchestral excerpts for bass, and what can be expected at a bass clarinet orchestra audition. In general, Palanker's writings emphasize that there is no "one right way" to do things, and encourage the player to experiment with equipment, techniques, and fingerings to determine what works best. However, Palanker does outline his own methods in detail, and he gives reasons for why he dries reeds a certain way, or uses certain fingerings.

Another great feature of Eddiesclarinet.com is the audio from live performances. On the site, you can listen to Palanker performing the Mendelssohn Concertpiece No. 2 with former student Ricardo Morales, the Bela Kovacs Hommage a Kodaly on bass clarinet, and much more of the standard clarinet repertoire.

We welcome this great addition to clarinet resources on the web, and hope you enjoy Eddiesclarinet.com.