Klarinet Archive - Posting 000032.txt from 1994/07

From: Cary Karp <karp@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: C clarinet
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 1994 04:21:43 -0400

On Fri, 1 Jul 1994, Conrad Josias wrote:

> For a period of about a year and a half, Bob Gilbert kept touting
> Noblet C clarinets to me as what Southern California professional players
> who wanted new Cs were buying from him . . .

> If the quality has not gone down in the intervening years, I would
> highly recommend the Noblet.

The Noblet C also has a reputation in my next of the woods as being an
exceptionally good horn. I can confirm its quality on the basis of my own
experience. Although I certainly think it reasonable for prospective
buyers to test their way through the full set of market offerings, the
Noblet is so much less expensive than the competition and of such high
quality (in terms of what many clarinetists seem to regard as determinant
thereof) that it might just be the only C on the market worth risking
ordering sight unseen.

The Noblet also differs from the rest of the field (including Leblanc!) in
that it has a wider bore. Although I've deliberately kept away from the
discussion of the significance of bore width, it seems a pretty safe guess
that one of the reasons for the Noblet's design success is this very thing.

The C is not an oddity for which one just as easily could substitute a Bb
or A. There are numerous earlier chamber pieces which were written for the
C and make far better sense when played on it than on the Bb. Since modern
editions of a lot of this stuff comes with alternative parts for Bb or
oboe, a comparative experiment is dead easy.

There are also numerous "folk" contexts where the C clarinet is right
smack at home.

   
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