Klarinet Archive - Posting 000163.txt from 1995/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Bellison and his clarinet (re: Donald Oehler)
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 09:50:36 -0500

Donald Oehler's posting on the Oehler system clarinet suggests that
Simeon Bellison, 1st in the NY Philharmonic until the 1940s, played
the Oehler system. While Donald may be correct, when I was growing
up in that environment, Bellison was always said to have played
Albert system clarinets.

Personally, I don't know the difference between the Oehler and
the Albert system or if there is any. Perhaps the words are
synonymous. But if there is a difference, and if the word on the
street in NY during the late 1930s and early 1940s was correct,
then Bellison played something other than an Oehler system.

Bellison's training was in Russia and he was a prominent clarinetist
there in the 1920s. That does not preclude his playing an Oehler
system, of course, but I thought that this background might be helpful
in understanding what it was on which Bellison played.

I was at one of Bellison's annual recitals when I was a kid. And as
a clarinet player myself, I stared at his instrument. All I remember
was that it had rollers on it and my clarinet did not.

Can anyone confirm Donald Oehler's statement on Bellison's clarinet?

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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