Klarinet Archive - Posting 000135.txt from 1994/03

From: Kirby Fong <u745%sas.nersc.gov@-----.BITNET>
Subj: Greetings from a new subscriber
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 1994 20:20:35 -0500

I subscribed to the klarinet mailing list a little while ago after reading
Dan Leeson's mention of it on one of the Usenet bulletin boards (probably
rec.music.classical.performing). I am an amateur clarinetist. I played in
bands in college and graduate school (applied math major), a community
orchestra for 3 years, and the San Jose Wind Symphony for 10 years. The last
was a class organized at San Jose City College for adults. Frequent business
travel now precludes me from playing with any group, but I still practice at
home for my own amusement.
My limited experience means I may not have much information to send to the
mailing list; however, one question has come up recently for which I would like
to put in my two cents -- the question of the best clarinet! There no doubt
are differences between brands, but there are also differences between
individual clarinets of the same make and model. When I first decided to
concentrate on Eb clarinet, I bought a Bundy. The highest notes were flat to
the point of uselessness. I then replaced it with an Evette. The altissimo
was okay, but some notes in the clarion register were quite flat, and the
chalumeau register was sharp. When the Eb clarinetist of the Oakland Symphony
retired and offered to sell his instruments, I tried his Buffet Eb. For me at
least, it was terrible; I would have had to struggle to play it in tune. I
finally bought a Buffet Eb mail order from Russianoff Wind Instruments. I had
to wait over a year, but Leon Russianoff chose a good one for me. It is a
pleasure to play because its intonation is unusually good. So my point is that
brands and models may be a rough guide, but the "best" clarinet is the
particular instrument that works best for you (fairly objective criterion) and
makes you happy (totally subjective criterion). After all, isn't this question
similar to asking what is the best automobile? It's a combination of
suitability and personal preference. By the way, I've found the Selmer S
mouthpiece to be quite satisfactory for Eb.
As for reeds, I've long since given up the search for the best reed. In
my younger years I bought as many boxes of Vandoren Bb and Eb reeds as I could
afford. The last time I counted, I had about 70 boxes of Eb reeds and even
more of Bb reeds. This will last me the rest of my life, so I have not bought
any more reeds in recent years. I do not have to play on any reed less than
ten years old. This brings up a question about one of the pieces of folklore
to which I was exposed as a student - namely that reeds improve with age. Is
there any proof (or evidence) that reeds improve with age, or is this mere
nostalgia for the "good old days?" Superficially, it would appear that one
could perform a simple test by trying several boxes of new reeds and several
boxes of "aged" reeds; however, the differences could be due to growing or
curing conditions. A fairer test would have been to buy a large batch of
reeds ten years ago, test and record the results of half the batch then, and
test the remainder of the batch now. This presumes I could be consistent over
a ten year period in how I evaluate reeds, a dubious presumption in my case.
I remember my clarinet teacher exclaiming in the 1950's how he wished he had
saved even the mediocre reeds from the 1930's because the average quality was
higher then than in the 1950's. I therefore resolved as a student that as soon
as I became gainfully employed, I should start building up a cache of reeds
before the quality became even worse. Now, in fact, I don't really know
whether today's reeds are any worse or better than the ones of my youth since
I haven't tried any new ones, and, if aging really does improve reeds, there is
no way to compare a new 1994 reed with a new 1974 reed because there aren't any
new 1974 reeds anymore. So how about it folks, do clarinet reeds, like fine
wines, improve with age?
Kirby Fong