Klarinet Archive - Posting 000158.txt from 1993/12

From: "Dr. Ronald P. Monsen" <RPMONS00@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: The wooden clarinet
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1993 08:13:56 -0500

I have a five piece (plus metal mouthpiece) Selmer (Paris) Bb soprano
clarinet. It was released on December 5th, 1935. It plays quite well.
Haynes of Boston also made Sterling Silver soprano clarinets--double wall
construction--a valve at each end--blow the breath in to warm it up.
It is my understanding that the Selmer project dried up because of the
image a metal clarinet would create. The ones generally available then
(20's-30's) were all student, etc etc.

Laree the French oboe firm makes their top model with the upper joint
of Delrin--it costs considerably more.

My wife is a flutist--she owns a very old Powell and a 1947 Haynes--she also
has a wonderful wooden flute in modern system fingering--there are exceptions
but how many times do we see flutists performing regularly on wooden flutes?
They used to. I know the Concertgebauw flute section still does. But it is
something to ponder--do we listen with our eyes or our ears?

Ron Monsen