Klarinet Archive - Posting 000106.txt from 1997/03

From: "J. Lawrie Bloom" <l-bloom@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: who played it first???
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 17:45:24 -0500

>Everyone here has been taught how to play the clarinet by a director,
>teacher, book, or even just listening to another clarinet player. If we all
>have learned from someone, who was the first clarinettist to set our
>standards? Someone had to set the pecedents for us and every future
>clarinettist. I do realize that differrent styles came from all sorts of
>places and times, but someone had to play the clarinet first. Who invented
>it? TIA
> --<-{= Kathi =}->--

You can read in lots of books "who played it first", but your question is
interesting in the late 20th century. Before the advent of recordings
there were very clear "schools" of clarinet playing-German, with Oehler
system,dark and rather inflexible,- French, which was very different at one
point,brighter, lighter sound- Italian, with the mouthpiece on "upside
down", and then an emerging American school, led mainly by students of
Daniel Bonade.

Now with recordings these lines have become much more hazy, as we can all
listen to the very best, or at least most famous, of each of these
countries, and new generations take what they want from each and create a
more "international" school. Is this better or worse? Not necessarily
either, but it is a change. Probably the general level of competence world
wide has gone up, and the level of individuality has gone somewhat more
flat. Equiptment has gotten better, thanks to competition from new makers
making the older lines pay more attention to detail and innovation, many
more talented mouthpiece makers abound, pushing design to new levels of
sophistication, and cane growers have learned to control some of the
variables of their difficult business.

So, back to the question, who did it first? Depends a lot on what you mean
by "it".

This is not meant as a definitive answer, but a beginning of conversation.
I look forward to other postings.

--
J. Lawrie Bloom
clarinet and bass clarinet Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Northwestern University l-bloom@-----.edu