Klarinet Archive - Posting 000349.txt from 1996/03

From: Jacqueline G Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: C clarinets, continued
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 11:11:52 -0500

Hi, Lorne,

I suppose you could say that I was playing "devil's advocate" here. The
standard arguments which could conceivably come up, you know. In truth I
am in agreement with you and Dan, and since I would like to further my
opera career especially, am greatly interested in obtaining one of the
Noblets everyone seems to like here. This will probably be the next
major purchase on my list, though, since I bought a Buffet R-13 Eb this
fall and am paying off a bank loan for it. Perhaps you or Dan or Clark
Fobes (mouthpiece pro!) could return e-mail to me directly if you have
any ideas/solutions/etc. for me to be able to carry this off. I plan to
check with the opera company to see what's coming up next season -- any
good C parts. (I think we have "Lakme" and "La Traviata" on the slate,
but I'm not certain, and there are two others as well). I appeal to your
sense of helping a struggling semi-pro in the quest for musical truth and
enightenment! (I also like to have a valid reason for buying new toys!)

Jacqueline Eastwood
University of Arizona/Arizona Opera Orchestra
eastwooj@-----.edu

On
Tue, 12 Mar 1996, Lorne G. Buick wrote:

> Just to pour gasoline on troubled waters, I'll dive in and offer some
> mildly inflammatory answers to Jacqueline Eastwood's answers to Dan's
> inflammatory statement (which was, in case anyone's forgotten: "..it is
> arrogant of clarinetists to presume that
> > they have any authority whatsoever to ignore a composer's request for
> > a specifically pitched clarinet, and to substitute at will some other
> > pitched clarinet of his or her choice."):
> >
>
> >1) Assuming there are two clarinet parts, both players really need to
> >use the same pitch horn or it just won't work.
>
> Except of course in cases where the composer has specified two different
> pitch horns. In any case, the solution is for both players to play the
> right instrument, not for one to use the other as an excuse.
> >
> >2) The added expense of first purchasing and then maintaining another
> >horn could be prohibitive -- that ties in with #1 above also.
>
> I am very sympathetic to the financial plight of amateur and underemployed
> or underpaid professionals (I am under- not to say un- employed myself this
> year), but the Noblet C clarinet (which has been recommended repeatedly by
> contributors to this list) is listed in a catalog I happen to have on my
> desk at US$1195. This is a fraction of the price of a good piccolo, english
> horn, violin bow...
>
> In any case we're talking about a compromise due to financial
> circumstances, not an argument against the basic principle that one should
> use the right clarinet.
> >
> >3) The opera we just did ("Don Pasquale") had horn changes indicated on
> >virtually every page. Constantly having to switch horns in a dark pit
> >would be rather risky -- although I have perfected a technique for
> >yanking the mouthpiece off INTACT and within the span of four average
> >measures! Temperature changes would also cause problems here.
>
> This may be a valid exception in a particular case, but again says nothing
> about the principle. One could ask for an extra stand light to illuminate
> the instrument stands to avoid accidents.
> >
> >4) We'd all have to practice LOTS more to keep in shape on each of three
> >(or four, for me -- or 10 for you!!). Actually, that would probably be a
> >good incentive, at least at the beginning....
>
> Unwillingness to work harder to achieve the aims of the composer is not a
> very convincing argument... I want to emphasize that I fully recognize that
> amateur and semi-professional groups have to make all sorts of compromises
> in order to keep going and presenting concerts - far better they should
> play the music on the wrong clarinet than not play it! But the more I read
> and think about this question, the more I agree with Herr Doktor Professor
> Leeson.
>