Klarinet Archive - Posting 000019.txt from 1994/07

From: David Lechner <lechner@-----.US>
Subj: metal clarinets
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 18:23:16 -0400

I have been thoroughly enjoying your collective, fascinating discussion for
a couple of weeks now, though I am really a rank amateur clarinetist and
badly out of practice. I'm going to risk further revealing my ignorance
and add this to the discussion of metal clarinets. When I was an under-
graduate at Yale University in the early 1970's, I was a member of the concert
band, playing a metal B flat contrabass clarinet. As one might imagine, it
resembled nothing so much as an old radiator, but played easier and sounded
better (subjective judgment, I realize) than the wooden E flat contrabass
which the university also owned. Unfortunately, I have no idea of the maker,
though I would guess the date of manufacture as roughly 1930-1940. But for
all I know, it may the case that most or all B flat contrabass clarinets were
made of metal. I've never seen another horn like it, though.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
--David Lechner LECHNER@-----.us
or dlechner@-----.com