Klarinet Archive - Posting 000136.txt from 1995/05

From: SCOTT MCCHESNEY <scmcchesney@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Is no one to touch my posting?
Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 02:14:15 -0400

Actually, such things as these were not quite what I had in mind.

Mostly, my questions of before gravitated to a more technical nature,
to some extent. Setting aside Saxophones (mostly because they, too, seem to
possess about thesame characteristics as Clarinets do), it seems that all the
other Orchestral Winds have some technical deficiency to them; Flutes have
impossible tremolos in the extreme lower register; Bassoons have a multitude of
impossible trills and tremolos; and Oboes...well, they really don't have any
technical limitations.
Also, Flutes have projection problems in the lower register - thus
requiring special handling to accomodate it; Oboes and Bassoons have dynamic
problems in the lower register, as well as the upper (to a certain extent),
also requiring a certain "juggling" of parts in order ot compensate for it.
Clarinets, on the other hand, have no impossible trill/trmolo
combinations - some are harder than others, but pretty much all are playable
with a little thought and practice. Also (as I've seen in many Orchestration
books [and what started this query in the first place]) Clarinets have a wider
range od dynamics, as well as dynamic control, than any of the above-mentioned
instruments - again, save for Saxophones.
I'm not suggesting the world turn entirely to Clarinets. What I'm
wondering is, how did the Clarinet evolve into its present state of ability
while the others "lagged behind", so to speak? Technical limitations used to
exist on Clarinets; they are now gone. Dynamic problems similar to Oboes (or
so I've been told) used to exist on Clarinets; they are now gone. Why did the
other instruments - particularly the Bassoon - not "evolve" farther, as the
Clarinet did? Are there no solutions to the problems posed by other
instruments? Is it a "tradition" thing? Or has no one simply done it?
As for "people gravitating to the instrument that best suits them", I
say well done! I am a TERRIBLE Flute player, and my Oboe & Bassoon skills are
not much better. Probably, with some work at it, I could improve, but I don't
think I'd ever attain the level that I did with my Clarinet, even if I switched
full-time.
Any ideas out in netland?

-- Scott