Klarinet Archive - Posting 001050.txt from 1997/02

From: Don Gross <DGross1226@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Stupid Question No. 4
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 22:29:25 -0500

In a message dated 97-02-28 09:27:57 EST, Scott Morrow wrote:

<< 4) Do you really need the reed? >>

Scott,

In all seriousness, at one of the recent Coleman Chamber Music Competitions
held at Caltech in Pasadena, California, for one of their offerings, a
university saxophone quartet actually played a complete 3 minute piece by:
(1) fingering their horns and letting the audience hear the various pads
close (I love to do the same with my contrabass clarinet) , (2) blowing into
the horns without the mouthpieces (playing the the "chicken neck" on my
contra like a tuba mouthpiece makes a sound rather like an alphorn in heat),
and (3) making several other percussive sounds with their horns which I have
no idea how they were produced. It was a great crowd pleaser but they lost.

So the answer to dumb question 4 is NO!

Don Gross
La Canada, California