Klarinet Archive - Posting 000577.txt from 1997/02

From: Gary Young <gyoung@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: single reed oboe?/double reed clarinet?
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 1997 00:03:32 -0500

"I shall close my disquisition on reeds by remarking that a suitably
proportioned reed of either class [single or double] can be used on any of
the woodwinds, without appreciably altering the characteristic tone color
of the instrument. That is, an enlarged bassoon double reed can be
attached to a clarinet or saxophone, a saxophone mouthpiece goes well on a
bassoon, and a miniature clarinet mouthpiece is commercially made for use
with oboes. An example of this last appears in the lower right of Figure
45. No self-respecting oboist with serious intentions will be caught dead
with such an immoral device, but the jazz saxophonist who must occasionally
pick up an oboe on short notice during a performance soon learns that a
single reed and properly designed mouthpiece will pull him through safely,
and very few of his listeners will notice the difference. This book is not
intended as a catalog of musical short cuts, but the possibility of getting
nearly the same tone from two radically different kinds of reeds is
interesting and important to musical physicists."

Arthur H. Benade, Horns, Strings, and Harmony (Dover edition, page 200)

Thus Benade. Anyone ever play a clarinet with a bassoon reed?!