Klarinet Archive - Posting 000181.txt from 1995/02

From: Donald Oehler <dloehler@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Bellison and his clarinet (re: Donald Oehler)
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 21:15:12 -0500

On Wed, 8 Feb 1995, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> 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)
> ====================================
>
Dear Dan;
Bellison had three "sets" of Oehler clarinets. One was held by a
former student of Bellison, Harold Freeman, I believe: As a student in
New York I remember that he offered to show me these horns as my name was
Oehler. Another set was(or is) in the hands of Bellison's daughter and a
third set is presently in an instrument museum at the conservatory in
Jerusalem, Israel, along with a collection of Bellison's personal music.
An Albert system clarinet has no rollers, only teardrop styled keys
as on the Boehm system. Also, a full Oehler system is loaded with keys
and alternate fingering possibilities. There is a simple German system
clarinet which some often confuse with an Albert.
I have played some of the earlier original Oehler clarinets and they
have fewer keys than the later ones that Oehler developed.

Yours,
Don Oehler