Klarinet Archive - Posting 000822.txt from 1997/02

From: Gary Van Cott <Gary_VanCott@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Clarinet popularity
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 13:32:54 -0500

Gary VanCott = NHIN
02/24/97 10:42 AM

Yossi wrote:

I have the feeling, that in Israel the Clarinet is less and less
popular.

Is this the situation in other countries?

****************
How would you measure this?
Quantity of clarinet related CDs recorded?
Quantity of clarinet related CDs purchased?
Number of full-time/part-time professional clarinetists?
Number of adult amateur clarinetists?
Number of student clarinetists?
Number of clarinets sold?
Quantity of clarinet sheet music sold?

Are we talking about what proportion of musicians play the clarinet or
total numbers of clarinetists?

My opinion:
- The relative number of musicians playing the clarinet has declined since
the mid-1950s when the role of the clarinet in popular music declined.
- However, I would speculate that population growth and relative prosperity
in the developed countries has made (expensive) musical instruments
available to greater number of people than ever before.
- The clarinet world is now better organized and access to information is
much more readily available now than when I left around 1970.

My guess would be that in the United States the number of people playing
the clarinet is at least as large as when I started in the late 1950s.

A few observations on Las Vegas (I am an amateur, but I have a number of
friends who are/were working professional musicians. My son (7th grade)
also plays the clarinet):

Despite the growth of Las Vegas, there are less full-time professional
musicians than when I arrived in 1988. This, of course, has resulted in a
loss of "reed" jobs not clarinet jobs.

However, there are quite a few civic and college related groups that draw
players from both the amateur and professional ranks. Unfortunately, the
enthusiasm and size of the audiences are less than what might be hoped.
(Isn't this really the root of the "problem.")

The school music programs here in Las Vegas are big and generally
successful. They started a performing arts high school four years ago and
it has been doing well. The only thing I have found disturbing is that
there seem to be fewer middle school students taking private lessons than
when I was that age.

My 2 cents +.

Gary Van Cott
Las Vegas, NV

Gary_VanCott@-----.com