Klarinet Archive - Posting 000668.txt from 1996/03

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: First Plastic Clarinets: Can you top this?! ;-)
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 20:46:36 -0500

Some have written to tell of plastic clarinets from the 60's or the
mid-50's; my first one was in 1949. Now, Ron Monson has reported a
plastic clarinet from the 1920's and another played by a Victorian-era
clarinetist!

Probably not many people know that Mozart actually composed the Concerto
for a plastic basset clarinet! (Imitation rosewood finish, naturally.)
It was manufactured by the famous Mannheim instrument makers, Heinrich
Gottlieb Ronco and Karl Phillip Emanuel K-tel. It was not available in
stores, but if you bought it they would throw in a folding pocket Ginsu
reed knife for free. Whenever they advertised it, it always cost 49
marks and 99 pfennigs until midnight the next day!

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

   
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