Klarinet Archive - Posting 000796.txt from 1995/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Crystal Clear?
Date: Sun, 28 May 1995 10:30:11 -0400

Fred Cicetti does what every person on this list should do when examining
a technical topic bothering him/her. He did a search on the archives of
KLARINET and found an enormous range of opinion on crystal mouthpieces
and their use. More than just a range of opinion, he found totally
contradictory opinions, particularly one view that crystal mouthpieces
made the sound darker, while another view asserted that crystal
mouthpieces made the sound brighter. (I found this typical of the
inaccuracies constantly stated about darkness and brightness of sound
and the consequent dangers of using such imprecise terminology.)

And having found this range of views he brings the subject up again, this
time displaying his evidence all of which adds up to the fact that there
is very little reliable information about crystal mouthpieces.

For what it is worth Fred, I used a crystal mouthpiece on two occasions.
One was a Blayman crystal for soprano clarinet and the other a GG crystal
for bass clarinet. I doubt if I used either one for more than a year
because I eventually broke both of them. During the time that they were in
use I also chipped them and probably never really had an opportunity to
examine them dispassionately. I know few players who play them today, not
necessarily because they are inherently bad mouthpieces, but possibly because
they are inherently short-lived mouthpieces. I also did not like the
feel of glass in my mouth and my teeth were sensitive to the physicality
of the material.

The bottom line is that, after my brief experiment, I gave up on crystal
mouthpieces permanently because they have a short lifetime and I don't
want to fall in love with something that is not going to be around very
long. It is not a question of "if" one will break them, it is only a
question of "when."

Whatever their good qualities (and they may have many), I found that they
were not worth the trouble. Like wooden mouthpieces, the deficiencies of
the material from which they were made were so overwhelming that they
completely outshadowed what may have been a number of good qualities.

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