Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 1993/12

From: sabinson%ccvax.hepnet@-----.GOV
Subj: Re: The Wooden Clarinet
Date: Mon, 13 Dec 1993 09:25:33 -0500

> of you out there who wouldn't believe Dan's tale...yes, Harold Bennett
> HOMOGENIZED wind instruments. As an old New Yorker, I knew of Harold's
> antics, but never even wanted to let him try this on my horns, not even
> once! It seemed so BIZARRE. But, Dan, you say it helped...maybe Harold
> was on to something...I've lived long enough to not quite believe
> everything--and, I've lived long enough to not quite disbelieve
> everything either!

Isn't clarinet playing a kind of magic? This does not mean that clarinet
playing is not also a skill. I do not think the two are in contradiction.
If clarinet playing is an art, it is because there is an element that goes
beyond skill, that is magic.

Mozart didn't really like the flute. He loved the clarinet. If the
clarinet _is_ the flute, then it makes sense that Harold Bennett could
"organize the currents" of particularly magical pieces of wood.
Sure Schikaneder wrote the play. ;-) I think Mozart takes the following
words very seriously. He knew about this stuff:

Spiel' du die Zauberfl"ote an,
sie sch"utze uns auf unsrer Bahn.
Es schnitt in einer Zauberstunde
mein Vater sie aus tiefstem Grunde
der tausendj"ahr'gen Eiche aus,
bei Blitz und Donner, Sturm un Braus.
Num komm und spiel' die Fl"ote an,
sie liete uns auf grauser Bahn.

Wir wandeln durch des Tones Macht
froh durch des Todes durstre Nacht.

When I play well, it is not I who play. I am the instrument. The
clarinet plays me.

ERIC