Klarinet Archive - Posting 000187.txt from 1993/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Clarinet sound (and David Shea's comments)
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1993 14:18:27 -0500

David, you are very perceptive!! Indeed I think it is impossible
to discuss the sound of the clarinet as an issue divorced from
all the other impedimenta that we take to our playing. And the
whole reason why I brought the matter up in the first place was
because of the multiplicity of notes that I read on this board
that alluded to a search for a sound as if it could be achieved
only through mechanical (i.e. reeds) means, and further, that
once achieved little else was necessary to obtain superior
performances.

I think the search for a sound is no less difficult than the
search for the holy grail and probably a lot less rewarding.

And we have not even begun to discuss some of the more important
issues: terms that have no meaning whatsoever are being used to
talk about sound character and people are trying to play in a
way so as to achieve those meaninless terms. For example: to
play with a "dark sound."

Would you please tell me what the hell a "dark sound" is and how
I get it and when I know when I have gotten it? But that is
the most used buzz word in clarinet playing today. "I want to
achieve that nice dark sound that Cohen gets." I think Cohen
gets a nice sound (God should grant it to me) but "dark" is
not the way to describe it any more than "purple" or "hamburger
smell" or "banana pudding" could be used to describe it.

It falls into the category of what I respectfully call clarinet
players "old wives tales" that everybody talks about and no one
knows anything about (at least not at the level of serious
science in terms of what is meant by "darkness" of sound).

So that is why I began pushing this discussion. Because I read
a lot of stuff from the wonderful players on this board and
then someone says that they have to use brand X reed to get
the right sound they want, and I go all soft in the head. And
I imagine somebody reading that and thinking that, because they
don't use brand X reed, they will never sound good.

I am not sure that we will reach those people who believe that
reeds are responsible for the character of the sound (and who
knows, maybe they are??), but one is not obliged to finish the
work, just start it.

I never ceased to be amazed at the enormous range of opinions on
clarinet sound (from its origin to its character) and no one really
knows very much about how it is made or where it comes from on
the clarinet (me being the person holding the least knowledge of
anyone). I mean, here we are, teachers, professionals, good
amateurs, students, scholars, etc. all playing an instrument whose
source of sound is under heavy debate 200 or so years after it was
invented!!

I'll betthat if I were to get 5 people on this board to begin to
write about how the sound of a clarinet is determined by the
stock price on Wall Street, that within six months there would be
a general Wall Street stock price clarinet sound, and within a
year one of the major clarinet makers would produce an instrument
"for the sole purpose of producing that wonderful Wall Street sound."

There is a lot about playing the clarinet that falls in the realm of
romantic stories and I think sound character is one of them.

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