Klarinet Archive - Posting 000317.txt from 1997/11

From: PGAYR@-----.com
Subj: Re: Re: Reed Strengths and types
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 23:45:05 -0500

Ed Lacy wrote:

Does this mean that professional clarinetists in symphony orchestras, the
majority of whom play Buffet, have been playing on "acoustically
unbalanced" clarinets for all these years and didn't know it?

Ed,
The fact is that for almost half a century or more professional clarinetists
played on large bore instruments, which have the inherent defect of extreme
sharpness in the low register. They did this and put up with it because they
thought that this was the way the clarinet had to be. This did not change
until Robert Carree figured out how to make a small bore clarinet sound
better and marketed the clarinet as the Buffet R-13.
Players have always been looking for Buffet's which played better,
acknowledging that one had to play many to find a good one that was
acceptable for an artist.
I, myself, thought that increased right hand resistance was the unalterable
rule for clarinet because:
1. I never tried any other clarinet that Buffet clarinets.
2. Such a large number of them played with that characteristic.
So.....I learned to play it, and it was hard work. I also learned to teach,
developing a whole pedegogy around the general inequities of Buffet
acoustical design. I just accepted it, because I had nothing to compare it
to and thought that right hand resistance and bright left hand clarion tones
were an inherent part of the clarinet, when that was not true. It was just
an inherent defect in Carree's design and correctable.
Tom