Klarinet Archive - Posting 000047.txt from 1994/11

From: Michael Drapkin <Michael.Drapkin@-----.COM>
Subj: Mouldy reeds & Bay Bass Clarinet Necks
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 1994 08:22:12 -0500

I know people who have experienced mold growth
on their reeds. I also believe that it is a product of living
in damp environments. Also, some people don't wipe off
their equipment when they are done playing, so I wouldn't
be surprised if there wasn't mold growing inside their
mouthpiece as well. The other reason why mold may grow is
that clarinetists who know how to work on reeds, and
are successful in either making them from scratch from
a blank or working them down from harder cuts end up
having reeds that last much, much longer than people
who simply pull them out of their purple boxes. This
probably gives mold a much greater change of growing
because the reeds stay wetter from use over a longer
period of time.

Charles Bay's altered bass clarinet neck is hardly anything
new - he sold me a Buffet bass clarinet with the "clarinetized"
neck back in 1975 - 19 years ago. If anyone is in regular
touch with Dr. Bay, please send him my warmest regards.

I ended up dumping my Buffet a few years later partly
because I got tired of the raised eyebrows I got from
my colleagues and partly because I wanted a Selmer
low-C bass clarinet, which I still use today. The Buffet
did have a nice sound, though. Dr. Bay's clarinet
modifications and alterations are highly inventive and
of excellent quality, but you have to make sure that
he doesn't go wild with them...

When I switched to a Selmer, I didn't find that the
differences in the angle of declension of the bass clarinet
neck made any significant difference, in fact I preferred it,
especially being six foot six inches tall!

As most good doublers between clarinet and bass clarinet
will affirm, each instrument has to be played in it's own
right. Success in switching comes in one's own ability
to "switch gears" and being able to produce the sound
characteristic of the instrument itself. In other words, play
the clarinet like the clarinet and the bass like the bass -
achieve the resonant sounds that best suits the instrument.
I think that's the inherent flaw in re-angling the bass
clarinet neck - you are trying to reproduce a clarinet
environment on the bass clarinet rather than taking
the instrument for what it is - a rich and vastly rewarding
platform for producing robust and plaintive sound.

Pauline Minevich: thank you for your kind words
about my book. I studied with Sidney Saltzman for
a summer at the Chatauqua Institution and enjoyed
him immensely.

A Volume II to "Symphonic Repertoire for the Bass
Clarinet" is currently in the works, but don't hold your
breath - it has been 90% complete for about 11
years now. Bruce Ronkin (of Roncorp) and I have
both been busy. One of the major impediments has
been the reluctance of Schirmer and Boosey & Hawkes
to grant the rights to reprint the excerpts that they currently
hold the copyrights on. Unfortunately, their titles
comprise most of the Volume II material. Maybe when
I start working on it again in earnest we can organize
some sort of letter writing campaign to get them
to accomodate us.