Klarinet Archive - Posting 000926.txt from 1998/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: my Leblanc Basset Clarinet
Date: Sun, 15 Mar 1998 12:37:43 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.79
> Subj: Re: my Leblanc Basset Clarinet

> It looks like I will be purchasing a Buffet Basset Horn (they list for
> $10,600.....I think the discount puts them at about $6600). If anyone is
> interested in a mint, Brannenized Leblanc Basset Horn with leather pads,
> mint case - please contact me privately. The new Leblancs are expensive!
> I will let this one go for $3500 plus shipping/insurance....considering
> the custom work, it is a steal. Will be available in early April if
> anyone wants to try it.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Roger Garrett

Roger, I cannot tell you the joy that your note brought to me. May you
have many, many years of playing the Gran Partitta, the Requiem,
Frau Ohne Schatten, Rosenkavalier, Prometheus, Magic Flute, Al Desio,
and all the other great works that use basset horns with your new one.

But let me add a brief suggestion to you. Don't sell the old one! I
found that having two basset horns (when I had them) was the single
greatest incentive for people to hire me to play all over America.
Whenever I would get a call to play this or that, the next question that
always arose was "And do you know where we might get a second basset
horn?" To that question I always answered, "You have come to the right
place..." I don't even play any longer but I still get calls from all
over America inviting me to play if I couldhelp them find a second
instrument. The subject came up in Amarillo only 4 weeks ago.

I would often get a handsome rental fee for my second instrument, sometimes
I even got hired BECAUSE of my second instrument, I would get to meet
nice people, the 2nd basset horn player (usually a local guy or woman)
would be very grateful to me, and I had a hell of a good time. I cannot
tell you how many gigs I got because I owned two instrument and was
prepared to be generous with the second.

It was Louis Cahuzac who gave me this suggestion in Paris and I never
regretted following his advice. He said, "If you have one instrument
you will work more, but if you have two basset horns "You will never
stop working." Of course I had to be able to play the thing
reasonably well, but I had such good instruments that the rest was
easy (to say nothing of my natural talent, good looks, spiffy
behavior, and amnesia whenever the conductor made a dumb remark
about something he did not know - do you know how many conductors
made remarks about the basset horn being invented by someone named
"Horn"?).

Don't sell it. You will regret it every day of your miserable
basset horn playing life.

Listen to me or expect a lifetime of guilt!

>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

   
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