Klarinet Archive - Posting 000128.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re Eddie Daniel's clarinets
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 21:03:38 -0400

Recently there have been several postings that imply that Eddie Daniels'
use of LeBlanc clarinets is a significant factor in his magnficent ability.
Comments are being made that this or that person picks out Daniels'
clarinets for him personally, presumably to increase your confidence in
that person's ability to make you sound like Daniels.

It is hard, very hard, for me to read these statements and not wince both
from pain and embarrassment.

Is anyone on this board so naive to think that Eddie Daniel's playing is
enhanced or made superior by this or that clarinet? He would sound just
as well and be as magnificent a player if he performed on a Bunday
resonite costing $98 and I object to the view that, somehow, the choice
of clarinet is the key factor in his astonishing ability (or for that
matter much of a factor at all).

This is advertsing hype brought to an extreme and offensive posture.

Salespeople must think that clarinet players are particularly stupid if
they are of the opinion that this kind of talk will influence anyone but
the most insecure of players.

The new LeBlanc clarinets are indeed wonderful instruments and I would be
proud to own one. But I have difficulty with the assertion that the
excellence of those instruments is somehow transferable to me the player.
If I can't play well, those instruments are not going to transform me into
an Eddie Daniels. Nothing will do that because God has not given me his
gifts.

And if I can play well, those instruments are not going to do very much to
make me any better. If I buy them the only thing that will happen is that
LeBlanc will become a little richer, and I have no objections to that.

I am appalled by the nonsense that is being suggested on this list, and
it is being suggested as if there were an agreed-upon universal truth to
the statement offered.

It is necessary at times to be a curmudgeon.

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