Klarinet Archive - Posting 000773.txt from 1997/09

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: Henri Selmer
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 03:02:33 -0400

Henri Selmer?

After the posting by Meirsman, I looked up a little booklet called "My
secrets in Clarinet Playing" written by Selmer. It was Alexandre
Selmer. This little booklet was first published in the USA in 1912.
It was Alexandre who came to the USA, not Henri.

Unfortunately it's out of print. It has some very good pointers about
playing, embouchure, blowing and technique.
According to the forward in the booklet, Selmer's father, Frederic,
studied with Klose, later became a bandmaster in Algiers. Alexandre,
according to this account, studied in Algiers in the" tents of the
French soldiers" of Algiers.

Alexandre tells of his studies, playing long tones and scales and
playing the Klose mechanisms for hours and added that it is owing to
this method of practicing, that although he encountered many difficult
passages, he never saw one that was impossible for him.
SO it was Alexandre that was in Boston but apparently NOT at the time of
the metal clarinet story.
One correspondent, Clark W Fobes, suggested the name of Hamelin and as
to my query why would Hamelin play a metal clarinet, his response, quite
sensible, was that at that time, Haynes came out with the double walled
silver clarinet. Maybe he was trying it.
Unfortunately Mazzeo isn't here to ask.
BUT- it was Kussevitsky, Boston Symphony and a metal clarinet!
I stand corrected re-Selmer.

Avrahm Galper