Klarinet Archive - Posting 000520.txt from 1996/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Metal clarinets and ash trays
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 20:51:42 -0500

I am really disappointed and somewhat saddened at the references to making
lamps and ash trays out of metal clarinets. Such a view bespeaks (to my
mind, at least) an arrogance unworthy of clarinet players.

It is an elbow-in-the-rib, "You and I know how awful those instruments
were" perspective that they do not deserve. Now that we are all rich
and can afford wooden instruments, the excellence of metal instruments
has somehow been relegated to the "unworthy" category.

What I perceive as unworthy is the attitude that such instruments are
obviously so inferior as to have become a universal joke. They are not
now, nor were they ever, though I am certain that many poor ones were
made, a phenomenon no different from the many poor wooden clarinets that
are made to this day.

Were I still playing, I would not have the slightest compunction against
using such an instrument in the most professional of circumstances provided
it were worthy of being some employed. But I would insist that any
instrument have those characteristics. And if I were playing such a horn,
my sound would have been no different than had I been playing on the
most contemporary wooden instrument of considerable cost.

I, along with my mouthpiece, make my sound. The metal instrument neither
hindered nor helped in that respect.

I admit that wood is a beautiful medium. It is thrilling to look at and,
as such, probably allows the player to execute in a more refined fashion,
but not because it is wood. It's beauty excites us. But metal instruments
can be as effective in performance as wood any time. You just need to find
a good one.

What needs to be made into ash trays are the heads of those who work under
the presumption that a metal clarinet cannot be a fully satisfactory
instrument good for all professional use.

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

   
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