Klarinet Archive - Posting 000237.txt from 1994/10

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: National schools of clarinet playing
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 10:19:37 -0400

Maybe it is my tin ear, but I could never detect anything French in
Louis Cahuzac's playing, anything German in any German player's playing,
or anything Italian in Gino Cioffi's playing.

The idea that the clarinet sounds different in the hands of a Frenchman
and that that characteristic sound is somehow caused by the nature of the
training, the reed, the mouthpiece, the elbows, has never had any truth
established to it. Personally I doubt if it is true but falls into the
realm of ca-ca that has built up about clarinets and clarinet playing over
the last 100 years.

A subjective observer will assert that Delecluse has a French sound, but
an objective observer will not be able to make specific statements to
support that assertion. On the other hand, I am interested so I ask
someone to tell me what the characteristics are the make Delecluse
sound French. I don't think anyone will be successful because it is
the kind of knowledge that everyone knows is true even when there is no
evidence to support it and in fact it is patently false.

There is a very find English clarinet player in the US who I heard a
conductor refer to pejoratively with the statement, "He has that
awful English sound." I should have such a sound.

God!! The crap that we clarinet players have been led to believe as
truisms. Included within in them are notions such as:

1. The best clarinet is a ...
2. The best mouthpiece is a ...
3. The best reed is a ...
4. The best concerto is ...

etc., etc., etc., as if these things had universal measurement standards.

I fling out the gauntlet: the idea of a national sound is a subjective
statement that has no basis in fact and could not, in fact, pass a blind
test. "Please tell us the nationality of the party behind the screen...
Right!! It's a Frenchman as one can clearly tell by the garlicy character
of the middle E-flat. Next player please. ... Right, it is a German as
one can clearly hear by the Mercedes Benz mechanics of the execution: precise,
accurate, great ride. ... Next player please ... Right, it is an
Englishman as determined by that characteristic English sound that everyone
knows". What a lot of pseudoscientific crap!

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
(leeson@-----.edu)
(dnl2073@-----.edu)
Any of the above three addresses may be used. Take your pick.
====================================