Thomas Piercy

Thomas Piercy’s teachers

Gervase de Peyer

TP: My main teacher was Gervase de Peyer, who is obviously an English clarinetist, but he went to Paris to study with Cahuzac.

HM: He was student of Louis Cahuzac, one of the most important representatives of the “old French School” of clarinet. Gervase de Peyer had a very flexible sound. Do you think it is due to his embouchure technique? Did he play double lip?’’

TP: No, he played single lip.

’’HM: He learned with Cahuzac, who was a double lip player.’’

TP: I don’t know if he ever played double lip, we never discussed that when I was studying with him. He was like my childhood hero. I wanted to study with him ever since I was a kid and I studied with him for many years.
Actually, in November I’m going to London for a week. He died last year and his widow, has asked me to come to London to go through his music and his papers with her. She’s not a musician. His papers have been given to the Royal College of Music. She wants me to go and pick out what should go to the College and what could just be trashed, and what do I want to keep, but we never discussed that.
I started playing with vibrato. No one ever told me not to. It was very funny: Gervase and I never discussed how to produce vibrato, because I was already doing it. We would discuss how to use it; like adding a little here or less here but never the physical aspects. De Peyer almost never talked about the approach to the instrument.

HM: He talked more about music. TP: Always about music! And if I would ask him, eventually, after years and years. But you know like the run at the end of Shepard on the rock. E’’ to E’’’ (sings) and if that wouldn’t consistently come out, I’d say: “What can I do?” He would always turn his back on you and go: “why didn’t it happen?”

Voicing? Not in the teaching vocbulary

Gervase in lessons never talked about embouchure. Now, I hear so many clarinet teachers and clarinetists younger than I am, who always talk about voicing. So my three main teachers, de Peyer, Opperman and Leon Russianoff never ever used the word “voicing” Suddenly when I started hearing that about 20 years ago, I was like… I know what they’re talking about, but I’m not sure, was this fashion, or was that emphasis on voicing to get like high note or whatever didn’t come out well justified? These three teachers who were great teachers and players, never ever used the word “voicing”. They may have say: “Push the air faster”. Opperman was very much about “put more mouthpiece in” or “pull in [the mouthpiece]” and sometimes he would talk about raising your tongue, but he never used the word “voicing”. So, I thought that was very interesting.

Kalmen Opperman

HM: You said you were forty when you were ready to start to study with new a teacher.

TP: With Kalmen Opperman, yes! I felt, that I had a little bit on tension in my jaw and the muscles back here. I went to Kal and said: “I’m curious about double lip”.

Changing from single to double lip embouchure

HM: My idea is that when you play double lip, the shape of the oral cavity is changing. Throat, tongue and soft palate feel different than in single lip playing. And I think, if you try to transmit the constellations given in double lip playing to single lip, you’re changing your sound. Do you think I’m right?

TP: Kal said to me: “you can play double lip today, but you won’t know what it really means: you need to take several months off from work and follow my instructions. If you are not willing to follow my instructions, I’ll kick your ass out.”. He was very brutal. I would go and sit in his lessons with other people; most of his students were older working professionals who came to him. I would take three months and after then, I would decide yes or no, I will see what works what doesn’t work, what was the benefit. I really followed his instructions, as frustrating it was for those three months. But, even after one week, I sort of knew, it is going to work. It felt good, more natural for me. My students can choose, I don’t make them play double lip, I will them try to experience it, but I don’t force anyone to switch. I am not of those people who think dogmatically: double lip is better than single lip. It depends on the player. If for me it works, I am the only one I have to live with.

Practice double lip in an upright position

HM: I heard about Harold Wright, he played double lip in a sitting position sitzend and used to put the clarinet on his knee while playing.

TP: And because he did that, a lot of American clarinetists say: ”Oh, if you play double lip, you have to sit”. I stand most of the time, because to me, if I’m moving, it’s kind of weird, maybe it obviously worked for Harold Wright, he can do what he wants, but for me I feel physically constricted and also many of the notes that are coming out of the bell or the lower part, I feel the difference, like [the sound waves are] coming back at me. I don’t think the audience hears it but I do and I react to it; so I want it here.

HM: I think there must be a difference. Sometimes I understand that for double lip players it can be more stable, playing in a sit-in g position. Standing upright the most difficult note is the C’’’, because you don’t have so much stability holding the clarinet.

TP: Yes, you have nothing, but Opperman would have me, playing that or whatever, he would always say that most clarinetists think they play the c’’’ [only with the left thumb]. But he said: with double lip, you also use your right thumb, to push the instrument up.

HM: Yes, as part of the embouchure building.

Transfer all the advantages of double lip to single lip

HM: If somebody tries, can he transfer all the advantages of double lip to single lip?

TP: Yes. Maybe younger players with not much experience and playing single lip don’t realize the advantages of these muscles here (points to his upper lip and the corners of his mouth). They think they have to pull back the corners of the mouth their whole life, forming the vowel “E”. But in double lip you naturally use all these upper muscles and you see how much it helps. And so, they derive some of the advantages of double lip just by being aware of the muscles in their upper lip and also the flexibility that you have, instead of being so obsessed with pulling back and having that flat chin, and nothing moves. I think it’s good for them to experience that.
I know now, I mean before I switched to double lip, when I am playing single lip, I rarely thought of my tongue, except for tonguing. And I just rarely thought about airflow in the context of the tongue position. But after switching to double lip, when I now would switch back to single lip, I would realize: Oh, my tongue is in a different place! And if I want to get it back up, I’m consciously manipulating my tongue, which I find hard to when playing. Whereas when I play double lip, I don’t have to think about my tongue.