Klarinet Archive - Posting 000178.txt from 1993/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Clareint sound
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1993 01:37:38 -0500

I have two notes on this subject, one from David Shea at Indiana
University and the other from Tom Ascher at University of Illinois.

David, before I address your question, did you get my note congratulating
you on the wonderful faculty at IU? I sent it but never got my
acknowledgement copy which means it may have gone down some Orwellian
sink-hole.

David asks how can I not hear the difference between Cohen and Drucker?
He believes them to sound so differently that he is puzzled at my tin
ear. Sorry David, my ear is not so precise as yours seems to be. I can't
hear much of a difference. That they are both magnificent players is
not the issue, of course.

But I would throw out as a challenge, the small assertion that you really
couldn't tell the difference in a blind test either. Put both men behind
a screen (or for that matter any two or three or even four first class
players) and have them play in some random order and you write down who's
who. I am prepared to wager some money that you would fail seriously
in your attempts to identify them by name based solely on listening to
them.

And I can make this test a lot more than just theory. I'll make up a
tape with 10 or 15 clarinet players and give you the list of their names,
and you tell me who is who. To make it fair, I would send the list and
the tape to an impartial third party to whom you would submit your
suggestions.

The bottom line is that I do not believe, as you do, that clarinet sound
is as personal a thing as, say, the sound of the human voice. What
passes for differences in sound may be differences in playing styles.

As for your questions on ideal sound, I am not able to deal with something
as abstract or ephemeral as that. I'm not trying to run away from the
question; it is rather I have no idea what an ideal sound is. And I
am not sure that I would like it if I heard it. I want my idols to have
some clay feet.

Tom Ascher suggests that I try a Vandoren 5JB mouthpiece with a 1-1/2
hardness reed. Then he suggests another combination of mouthpiece and
reed. He says he has tried this and is curious what I would think
when I tried it.

Sorry Tom. I can't think of any reason why I should do this experiment
and you have not suggested what the purpose of it would be. Without
a better understanding of what it is you are trying to accomplish, I
am not sure what the usefulness of this experiment is.

Forgive me if I seem churlish, but I am in the middle of 15 services
of the Nutcracker ballet and I always get unpleasant when I have
to play that piece.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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