Klarinet Archive - Posting 000210.txt from 1998/02

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Was it elitism...?
Date: Thu, 5 Feb 1998 04:41:46 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.37
> Subj: Re: Was it elitism...?

> Dan, how many professional clarinetists do you know of --
> not even personally -- who play on a plastic clarinet?
>
> Neil

I had a magnificent plastic E-flat clarinet on which I
did Till for a number of years. And I had an excellent
A clarinet in plastic that I used as a spare when my
regular A was in the shop. I never looked down on plastic
instruments except to say that the material was not
aesthetically attractive to the eye.

And what difference does it make how many professional
clarinetists do or do not do something to your behavior
when playing the clarinet? Don't you do things because
you like doing them?

I find that doing something because "others do it that way"
is a herd mentality.

>
> On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:
>
> > But I sensed in Tani's comments something that makes my spine
> > shiver; i.e., an elitism, a looking down the nose at something
> > that Tani considers inferior for no reason other than the fact
> > that the instrument is made out of plastic as opposed to some
> > other material.
> >
> > In effect that kind of thinking does not credit something for
> > what it is, but what it is not. To presume that an instrument,
> > ipso facto, cannot be good because it is made of plastic, is
> > an intolerant statement to make because some very fine
> > instruments are made out of plastic and some very bad clarinets
> > are made out of wood.
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================