Klarinet Archive - Posting 000230.txt from 1997/05

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: Step 2 of n (Don Christensen)
Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 08:33:04 -0400

Dan et al.:
I think there is a point here which has been missed - players of today
have all started out using a very different instrument from the classical
clarinet, and then learnt the classical instrument (if they have)
afterwards, The position of a modern player is quite different from that
of a player of the time, and what has to be discovered (though it seems
pretty difficult) is what a player of the time found hard to play.
One can easily believe that they *expected * to use cross-fingerings on
whatever instrument they took up, for instance, and they also were
prepared for key action to be different - slower???
Even on a recorder, by the way, opening the fingerholes in turn doesn't
produce anything like a decent scale.
Roger Shilcock
On Wed,
7 May 1997, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 17:26:16 EDT
> From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
> To: klarinet@-----.us
> Subject: Re: Step 2 of n (Don Christensen)
>
> If Don is correct, there is some heavy duty conflicting information
> that I'm getting on the matter; i.e., that the successive raising
> of the fingers, one at a time, and in the natural sequence, does
> not produce an F major scale on the period clarinet. The
> specific point Don makes is that the transition from low A to
> low B-flat is not accomplished by raising the next successive
> finger (the middle finger) but is instead the index finger.
>
> In effect he suggests that raising the fingers in successive order
> produces no scale at all. (I believe that he also says the
> same thing about the upper register with the notes e to f being
> played the same way they were executed in the lower register).
>
> Well, it is clear I am at a disadvantage having no experience with
> a period clarinet and only ask if others on the list who have
> experience with these instruments concur with Don's assessment.
>
> At a minimum the word "successive" is coming under fire.
>
> Comments from the cognoscenti??
>
>
> =======================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
> leeson@-----.edu
> =======================================
>