Klarinet Archive - Posting 000176.txt from 1995/06

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Leeson on Eddie Daniel's clarinets
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 1995 09:19:03 -0400

Andy Grenci and someone who did not identify him/herself (though the
message carried the cryptic address JSBtens) took issue with my
remarks about Eddie Daniels' clarinets. It is a complicated argument
and I don't want to recap it all.

Andy suggested that I could not possibly mean that Daniels could sound
as well on a Bundy as on the LeBlanc that he uses. I meant exactly that
Andy, have been saying that on this board (though not with respect to
Eddie Daniels, whose playing I think to be magnificent) for almost
two years, and if you look at the history files of this list, you will
find a continually identical posture on this point, so it should not
surprise you that I am saying this now. Eddie Daniels sounds great (I
should sound that well), and except for his body and mouthpiece, you
could put anything else in his hands - ANYTHING - and he would sound
essentially the same. Please do not come back and suggest that a
large, bored out zucchini would not work. You know to what I am referring.

That does not mean that he cannot play better on his LeBlancs. Playing
is dependent on many things, some of them very ephemeral. But sound
different? No.

Personally I prefer wood to metal because I think it looks more beautiful.
I don't know if it is more beautiful. It just looks that way to me. And
because I think this way, I believe myself to play better on a wooden
clarinet than a metal one. I prefer the elegance of the key design on my
Buffets than the cruddy looking sloppy design of a plastic piece of junk
from Thailand, and because of that belief, I think I play better on my
Buffet. But I also have two Selmers, one of which has chrome plated keys
and I think I play best on that! But it has intonation difficulties so
I don't use it very much.

All of this is not to tell you my life's story but simply to assert that
playing better requires a better instrument. Sounding better does not.

JSBtens' note said that nothing untoward was suggested by mentioning
Daniels' use of LeBlanc clarinets, nor the fact that someone picked them
out for him. Well, if he says so, I'll have to accept his statement at
face value. But the syntax and grammar of the text used to tell me this
message fairly bristled with the kind of media hype I see when I look at
a LeBlanc catalog, or a Selmer catalog, or a Buffet catalog.

I am very rubbed raw by that kind of media hype: "ONLY WITH THE XYZ
CLARINET WILL YOU SOUND LIKE ANYTHING BUT A PILE OF TURD!!! SO BUY
OUR CLARINET AND NOT THE COMPETITOR'S CLARINET BECAUSE WE HAVE AN
ELECTRONIC FRAMISTAMM ON OURS AND THAT WILL GIVE YOU THAT 'NICE DARK
SOUND'".

I am exaggerating, to be sure. Excuse my poor attempts both at humor and
in trying to communicate my message. I am not an old man, but I am not
young either. Someone out there will read this message and begin to think
about the kinds of things that we are told by manufacturers. And that person
will question those statements as hard as I do now, because they are mostly
ca-ca. So, when I go, and everyone is sitting around saying, "The nut is
gone!", that replacement will come right at your jugular and say, "Prove
it! Where is your evidence? Opinions do not count on technical issues."

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