Interesting discussions of late on both lists regarding Clamsaa,  
intonation, quarter tones.  These are all related.
 
The origin of using the word "clam" to describe a missed note is rooted in  
the theatre TTBOMK.  As I understand it, actors would describe an  untimely 
entrance or forgotten line as "making a clam."  Certainly, if  that was the 
case, horn players in the pit would have readily taken up the use  of the 
word and spread it around the musical community.  As to when this  occurred, 
I really don't know but I will guess it would have been in the late  
19th-early 20th centuries as theatre was in its heyday with vaudeville and  
Broadway musicals.  I heard the word used for the first time in my career  at 
the 
age of 13 when I joined the "Original Hobo Band" in Pitman, NJ.   This group 
was comprised of amateurs and semi-professionals who actually  played quite 
well and wore "rags" instead of band uniforms.  The group was  popular in 
the area and we performed many outdoor concerts and at many parades  during 
the summer and marched in the Mummers Parade in Philly on New Years  Day.  We 
even got paid now and then, lunch money, for the many baby parades  we did 
at the Jersey Shore.
 
As to using tuners, they are of great help in the practice studio and to  
the oboists who give the A to the orchestra.  In MN, we had co-principal  
oboists and they had a tuner on the stand to ensure a consistent A was  
produced.  Giving two A's, one for the strings then one for the  winds, assured 
that everyone performed the ritual consistently and then went  about playing in 
the usual manner with the usual differences, strings  consistently sharp 
and winds, well, you know.  My slides stayed in the same  place for years, 
same as Phil's.  We also use a tuner in our chamber  group to keep the pitch 
consistent and to make fine adjustments when performing  with piano.  They are 
handy and useful devices but they are only an aid,  like the metronome, in 
helping musicians to perform better.  You have to  have a good ear in order 
to be a successful musician and especially a decent  horn player and there 
is no substitute for the study and practice of solfege and  ear training to 
achieve that.  I can also recommend Steve Colley's  Tune Up System and the 
computer course Aurelia published by Sibelius to provide  help.
 
I have been called upon to play quarter tones at times in contemporary  
works.  Like anything else, some practice and experience is required.   I'm 
looking forward to seeing Dan's etude book at some point and I will  speculate 
that it has use particularly to students and others interested in  the 
subject.  If you can get paid to play quarter tones, what the  heck?!   Even if 
you don't get paid, it might be fun.
 
Now, the origins of CLAMSAA are a much greater mystery and here there  can 
be nothing but speculation and it is also a "chicken or egg" theory as well  
since we really don't know for sure whether the cave man or south sea 
islander  missed or played correctly the first note emitted from the termite 
hollowed  out log, ram's horn or conch shell that they blew into that fateful 
day in  prehistory when our noblest o farts was discovered and its eventual 
evolution to  what we do know no as the so-called "Art" of horn playing was 
started but  my educated guess is that the note was missed and I was trying to 
remember the  first day I ever played the horn and whether or not I missed 
the first note I  ever played but since it was Christmas Day when this 
occurred, it is only  natural that my teacher, Prof. I.M. Gestopftmitscheist, 
started the official  celebration of Clamsaa some years ago and please 
remember, that Clamsaa is  celebrated by horn players every friggin day they 
play 
but the official yearly  anniversary celebration is around the time of the 
Winter Solstice so that's why  we are having all of these discussions now and I 
am happy to tell you that  I have not missed a note in public since August 
but I will have the opportunity  soon as I have some recitals coming up so I 
am practicing the horn again in will  go public in short order in February 
and if you want to see and hear the Denver  IHS lecture on Clamology, you 
can go here 
_http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Professor+IHS+40&aq=f_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Professor+IHS+40&aq=f)  for  
the whole story.
 
Two feet of snow here yesterday!  Time for me to get shoveling the  white 
stuff and stop shoveling the other stuff here!
 
A Happy, Successful and Prosperous New Year to all and I hope to see you  
the NE Horn Festival in March and/or at KBHC or an IHS event somewhere,  
sometime!
 
Kendall Betts
 
 
 
 
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