The Clarinet Compositions of Meyer Kupferman
by Jenny Maclay
Date Posted: August 05, 2020
“…the modern clarinetist may well be represented as our new hero or musical superman – our true 20th century ‘challenger’! He is not only our new soloist, our new chamber music leader but in many ways our new entertainer or magician…By now all of us realize the clarinet is capable of an impressive spectrum of sonorities. Composers who understand its dramatic arsenal of dynamics, attacks, its huge range and its exquisite legato – can create a plethora of design suitable for any musical gesture. To well disciplined fingers the clarinet’s fluent Boehm system keyboard lends itself to the most remarkable feats of virtuosity.” - Myer Kupferman
About Meyer Kupferman
Despite having written dozens of compositions for clarinet, Meyer Kupferman remains relatively unknown in the clarinet community today. Kupferman was born and raised in New York, and he was a composer, virtuoso clarinetist, painter, poet, international traveler, educator, impresario, and all-around musical icon of the 20th century.
Meyer Kupferman was simultaneously introverted yet larger-than-life (both in personality and stature). He was a quiet genius and unfortunately didn’t gain the international recognition he so deserved. For Kupferman, music and life were closely intermingled, and performing and studying his music feels like having a glimpse into his secret diary and innermost thoughts.
The Life of Meyer Kupferman
Meyer Kupferman was born on July 3, 1926 in New York City and died on November 26, 2003 in Rhinebeck, New York. Throughout his life, he wrote over 600 compositions, although he was superstitious about counting them lest he put an end to this output. Kupferman’s music is greatly influenced by his parents’ lives. His father, Elias Staff-Coopermann, was born in Romania and was a traveling musician. Elias got the money to move from Romania to America when he defeated a circus strongman in a wrestling match. Despite encouragement from his friends to pursue a career as a professional wrestler, Elias became a baker once he settled in America. Kupferman’s mother, Fanny Hoffman, was a Russian émigrée who witnessed the murder of her entire family (except for one sister) during the Cossack raids when she was a young child. She later became a fortune teller, which inspired several of Kupferman’s later compositions. The songs and music both parents shared with Meyer greatly inspired him, which is why many of Kupferman’s compositions are a unique blend of classical, jazz, and international influences.
Kupferman began clarinet at the insistence of his friend:
“The assistant principal of my school used to conduct the school band and one day he asked the children if anybody wanted to study one of the instruments. I had no interest whatsoever, but my friend stood up, and when he saw no response from me, he literally pulled me up by the ears – I was a reluctant volunteer. Then the teacher asked me what I wanted to play, and I didn’t know one instrument from another. All I knew was that the instrument with the slider that went back and forth looked impressive, so I said I wanted to play that. He looked at me and said that my embouchure would be wrong for the trombone, as I had a crooked tooth at the front, and suggested the clarinet. I replied, ‘Fine, what’s a clarinet?’ At that time my parents couldn’t afford an instrument, so I took a broomstick and made little holes in it where the fingers go, and I practiced on a mouthpiece and a broomstick, rather like a witch! In a very short time I became very good at it, and was given the job of concertmaster of the band.” [1]
Kupferman attended the High School of Music & Art (now called Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & the Arts), where classmates included clarinetist Stanley Drucker and composers Ezra Laderman, Morton Feldman, Seymour Shifrin, and Allan Blank. Here, Kupferman studied clarinet with Abram Klotzman. His first composition, Sextet for Winds, was premiered here in 1941, where it received a rave review from Virgil Thomson.
Kupferman began seriously composing during this time, and he also gigged around New York. One notable gig was at the Pink Elephant on Coney Island with his combo group, Buddy Meyer’s Band. A patron came onstage, and the musicians thought it was to request a song, but he slit the pianist’s throat! Kupferman was shaken, but he found another pianist the next day and continued performing and gigging despite this traumatic event.
After his high school graduation, Kupferman attended Queens College to study philosophy, but he spent more and more time composing and performing to help his parents with money, and he never finished this degree. He was hired to teach at Sarah Lawrence College in 1951 at the age of 25, and he taught here until his retirement in 1993.
[1] Devid Denton. "A 75th Birthday Present: An Interview with Meyer Kupferman." Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors. May/June 2001. Volume 24. Number 5.
Music by My Friends
Throughout Kupferman’s life, music and friendship were never far apart. He wrote music for his dearest friends. His music introduced him to many more friends, and he created a society centered around that love of music. His friend convinced him to learn the clarinet so they could be in band together. As a teenager, he arranged popular jazz tunes to play with his friends in a jazz combo. Most of his compositions were written with specific friends in mind – “That’s the way I like to work, writing music for my friends.”
Kupferman felt that composers must operate strongly within their communities, and music was a binding force. He developed a role as a fatherly figure throughout various social circles in New York, saying, “I love to encourage young players to relate to a community, to play at schools and museums. It will be a kind of a party, and I’ll be acting as host, trying to get a good-cross-section of the community to come and hear their music.”
He created a concert series called Music By My Friends (which was also the name of the ensemble that played at these concerts), and invited his composer and musician friends to premiere their new works. At these concerts, he broke the barriers between audience and performers, and he invited listeners to think and hear from different perspectives. These concerts often lasted well into the evening, but there was an overall conviviality to the atmosphere. One listener describes: “The ambiance of the concert was that of a cocktail party at which small clusters of people seemed at home with each other and Kupferman was the overly generous host.”
Cycles of Infinities
Musicians are probably familiar with the Second Viennese School and introduction of atonality via 12-tone rows. Using this compositional style employed a different row of all chromatic pitches to be arranged systematically throughout a piece of music.
Meyer Kupferman eschewed the idea of creating a new row for each new composition. Instead, he developed his Cycle of Infinities, a personal tone row which he named for the infinite possibilities available within these notes. Kupferman felt that using the same tone row would make his music more recognizable, and it would also serve as a kind of musical moniker. Although there are only 36 numbered Infinities, Kupferman estimates that he used this tone row in over 100 of his compositions. Even though there are many different pieces using this technique, he felt as if these are “a single work suspended in time, as if having no fixed beginning and no conclusion.”
Clarinet Compositions
As a virtuoso clarinetist himself, Meyer Kupferman knew the instrument’s capabilities intimately. Kupferman’s clarinet compositions are intended for advanced or professional musicians, and they include a wide variety of extended techniques such as pitch bending, glissandi, extreme altissimo and dynamics, vibrato, flutter tonguing, quarter tones, and even choreography, lighting, and other theatrical effects.
While one should never judge a book (or piece of music) by its cover (or title), Kupferman uses whimsical and intriguing titles for all of his compositions. He felt this was important to capture the imagination of both the performer and audience. Additionally, Kupferman created the cover art for most of his compositions and CDs.
Because Kupferman published many of these compositions using his own company, Soundspells Productions, many of these pieces are currently out of print or difficult to find.
Note: I have only included the solo clarinet compositions of Meyer Kupferman. He also wrote dozens of chamber pieces which prominently feature the clarinet.
Unaccompanied clarinet
- Five Singles
- Five Little Infinities
- Four Flicks
- A Heroic Infinities
- Infinities #33
- Moonflowers, Baby!
- Cadenza for Beethoven Bb Duo
- Dreamer’s Playground
- Four Jazz Etudes
- Soundspells Fantasy
- Silhouettes
- Motherwell Fantasy
- Poor Little Buddha’s Gate
- Ebony Fingers
Clarinet and tape/electronics
- Morpheus
- Superclarinet, Who?
- Soundspells #6
Clarinet etudes
- Modern Jazz Etudes
- Perpetual Licorice
- Atonal Jazz
- Ten Last Etudes
Clarinet and piano
- 4 on a Row
- Sound Objects #4, #5, #6
- Five Flings
- The Magician
- I Remember Morton Feldman
Clarinet concerti
- Clarinet Concerto
- A Little Licorice Concerto
- Double Concerto
- Fly By Night
Performances
Here are a few of my performances of Meyer Kupferman’s solo clarinet music:
Poor Little Buddha’s Gate (Kupferman wrote this as a birthday present to himself and performed it once. This recording is the only other performance (besides the composer’s).
Moonflowers, Baby! (a jazz essay for solo clarinet featuring many extended techniques)
Soundspells Fantasy (a rhapsodic dreamscape for solo clarinet)
Motherwell Fantasy (based on the paintings by Robert Motherwell)
Five Singles (one of the earliest solo clarinet works by Meyer Kufperman)
Beethoven Cadenza for Bb Duo (based on Beethoven’s Duo for Clarinet and Bassoon, WoO 27, No. 3)
About the Author
Dr. Jenny Maclay enjoys a diverse career as a clarinet soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, pedagogue, and blogger. In 2021, she was the Visiting Instructor of Clarinet at Brandon University (Canada) and was Visiting Lecturer of Clarinet at Iowa State University in 2020. She is currently the Adjunct Instructor of Clarinet at Harper College. Online, she is known as Jenny Clarinet, where she created her eponymous popular blog.
In addition to teaching and performing, Jenny is also interested in travelling and researching clarinet cultures around the world. To date, she has visited and performed in over 35 countries, and she enjoys meeting other clarinetists during her travels. Recently, she was selected by the Council of Faroese Artists as an artist-in-residence in Tjørnuvík, Faroe Islands, where she performed and promoted clarinet compositions by Faroese composers at the 2022 and 2023 Summartónar Festivals. In 2022, she was named an Artist-in-Residence Niederösterreich, where she studied the clarinet compositions of Ernst Krenek and his wife Gladys Nordenstrom during her residency in Krems-an-der-Donau, Austria. Inspired by her travels, Jenny often programs music from around the world, including Faroese clarinet duets, music by female Baltic composers, and clarinet music of the Balkans.
Jenny was the recipient of the 2015-2016 Harriet Hale Woolley Award for musical study in Paris, where she was an artist-in-residence at the Fondation des États-Unis. She received her Master of Musique, interprétation, et patrimoine at the Versailles Conservatoire in the class of Philippe Cuper and her Doctorat en musique interprétation at the Université de Montréal in the class of André Moisan. She has achieved a number of other notable musical honors, including selection as a prizewinner, finalist, and semi-finalist for such international competitions as Concerts Artists Guild and Astral Artists, and other recent prizes include 1st prize at the Clé d’Or international music competition and highest-ranking clarinetist at the Tunbridge Wells International Young Artist Competition in England. Recently, she has performed at the American Single Reed Summit, Ernst Krenek Institut, Listasavn Føroya (Faroese National Gallery), Alte Schmiede Vienna, Köchel Gesellschaft, Österreichischen Klarinettengesellschaft, among other venues. Jenny performed a virtual recital at the International Clarinet Association’s ClarinetFest 2021, featuring a transcription of Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge, Op. 91 for clarinet, theremin, and piano. Past performances include a virtual recital for the U.S. Embassy France and a collaborative duo recital with Sauro Berti, solo bass clarinetist of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma at ClarinetFest 2019.
Jenny has performed with orchestras throughout Europe and North America. In 2017, she toured with the Jeune Philharmonie franco-allemande et hongroise, an international orchestra comprised of musicians from over 20 different countries. During past seasons, she has performed with several orchestras, including the Ensemble Orchestral Les Voyages Extraordinaires, Écoute Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine, Orchestre d’Harmonie de Levallois, Florida Orchestra, Valdosta Symphony, and Ocala Symphony. As a chamber musician, she has performed several masterworks in prestigious venues, including the Mozart clarinet quintet at La Seine Musicale and the Messiaen Quatuor pour la fin du temps at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris.
Jenny received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Clarinet Performance from the University of Florida, where she graduated summa cum laude and was a Fulbright Scholar alternate. Her teachers include Philippe Cuper, Karl Leister, André Moisan, Mitchell Estrin, Todd Waldecker, John Cooper, and Donald Dowdy. She was the youngest presenter of refereed research at the 2014 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest. Recently, Jenny has been an invited artist and presented lectures on musicpreneurship at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, Eiði Musikkskúlin, Louisiana State University, University of Memphis, University of Iowa, Loyola University, Millikin University, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Alabama Birmingham, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of Southern Mississippi, and has been a featured soloist at the keynote ceremony of the Alabama Music Educators Association Conference.
Jenny Clarinet has been featured in The Clarinet and the Clarineat podcast and has been named one of Feedspot’s “Top 20 Clarinet Blogs, Websites, and Influencers to Follow.” To date, she has published over 380 articles which have been read in over 180 countries and translated into multiple languages, and she has contributed articles which have been featured in The Clarinet, Vandoren WAVE newsletter, Deutsche Klarinetten-Gesellschaft, Rodriguez Musical Services blog, and Lisa’s Clarinet Shop blog. Her first book, an examination of unaccompanied clarinet repertoire, is currently in publication. Jenny Maclay is a Henri Selmer Paris Artist and Vandoren Artist-Clinician.
In addition to clarinet, Jenny is also learning to play the theremin, an early electronic instrument and the only one played without physical contact. After writing this blog post, Jenny became interested in the theremin and has collaborated and performed with theremin virtuosi Grégoire Blanc and Charlie Draper. You can listen to some of these collaborations here and here.
When she’s not onstage or in a practice room, Jenny enjoys travelling the world and has visited over 35 countries. During her travels, she likes to befriend the local cats and enjoys reading books at kitschy cafés. Her caffeination of choice is espresso or Earl Grey tea.