Klarinet Archive - Posting 000138.txt from 1994/07

From: Clark W Fobes <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Russ Howland
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 1994 01:15:37 -0400

On Wed, 20 Jul 1994, NICK WINKLER wrote:

> To: REEDMAN@-----.COM
> Subject: Russ Howland
>
> R>I was very lucky to have been an undergraduate at Fresno State College
> R>when Russell S. Howland was still teaching there.
>
> As a boy, I took clarinet lessons from Russ Howland, who was then
> teaching at the old FSC campus. Mr. Howland was not only an excellent
> teacher and multitalented performer, but a seat-of-the-pants repairman,
> as well. As an experienced repairman yourself, you might enjoy this
> incident, which I still remember.
>
> After listening to a scale on my wood, student-grade clarinet, Russ
> commented, "Your Eb is a little off. Here, let me look at it."
>
> He removed the Eb key, produced a rat-tail file, and rasped away at the
> tone hole. Replacing the key, he tried the instrument, smiled and
> said, "There, that's better!"
>
> Clark, I remembered Mr. Howland recently, when I did some impromptu
> repairs to the keyboard of my wife's grand piano. It IS better!
>
> --** Nick **--
>
One of the first things that amazed me when I first met Russ in his
studio was the small bench he had for repairing instruments and making reeds.
I had the same experience through my first semester with him of having my
instrument occassionally re-tuned. This was before the days of the
ubiquitous tuner! Russ's approach was very systematic and everything was
done by ear. We would play 4ths, fifthe and octaves together to test pitch.

BTW, he was NOT much of a craftsman by his own admission. Do you remember
the size of his hands? They were huge! In fact, even though he owned an
Eb clarinet he could not play it because his fingers were too large. I
once heard him play the Eb solo from Till on Bb clarinet (In the Fresno
Phil where he was principal string bass.) I recall that at some point
during the performance he put down his bass and picked up his clarinet
and played the "Big Solo" from the side of the stage.

I don't know where you are living, Nick, but if you are in the Fresno
area you might visit Russ. He is at the san Joaquin Gardens retirement
facility at Fresno and Bullard streets. He is not doing very well, but he
enjoys visitors.

Clark w Fobes