Klarinet Archive - Posting 001260.txt from 1998/03

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: This business of instrumental substitution
Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 17:39:34 -0500

On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> And while I'm on a high horse, the E-flat clarinet being called
> an "eefer" is creeping into our discussions more and more.
> Shall be now call the B-flat clarinet a "beefer" and a D
> clarinet a "deefer," etc. Dignity, ladies and gentlemen,
> dignity. It is an E-flat clarinet. Anything that makes money
> for us should be called by its real name, not a nickname
> that sounds as if it were invented in the hills of Appalachia.

There is no dead inventor rising up from the grave to protest
our nomenclature here, Dan. You can cite all of the historical
context and performance practice that you like in support of
proper instrumentation, but no such substance exists -- be-
yond your personal opinion and physical girth perhaps -- to
lend weight to the assertion that we should call an instrument
by its "proper" name. Saying "eefer" also helps us understand
that the discussion is about the Eb soprano clarinet, as opposed
to the Eb alto or contralto clarinet. I don't like seeing the
clarinet called simply a "stick" -- which I assume is itself an
abbreviation for the old nickname "licorice stick" -- but the
intention of the word still comes across without any confusion,
and the discussion continues onward.

Neil