Klarinet Archive - Posting 000649.txt from 1998/05

From: GTGallant <GTGallant@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] A new concept in orchestral clarinets
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 21:41:02 -0400

In a message dated 98-05-12 19:02:12 EDT, you write:

<< I think that what the manufacturers have no sense of is how to
exploit the market for musical instruments. They are generally
good technicians, good mechanics, and good players, but they
have no marketing imagination. They are allowing a first class
opportunity to slip away from them (i.e., the potential
replacement of every B-flat and A instrument in the U.S. and
elsewhere with basset clarinets) because they have no vision. >>

I totally agree that manufacturers lack marketing vision most of the time, but
a set of bassetts for modern playing? The basset clarinet is a great
instrument and deserves the right to be manufactured for PERIOD performances.
I think using bassets every day would be a little tiring. There is little
music written for them outside of Mozart, so all the extra notes/weight/keys
are useless. Manufactures also reflect the times and current trends...how
else could you describe the Greenline! The basset clarinet was great in its
day but somehow fell out of favor with composers. You would have a wonderful
point if the basset was is favor today and nobody was willing to build it, but
that is not the case. For the money it would cost to buy a set of A, Bb, and
C bassets, you could easily have a craftsman build extensions for the "normal"
instruments at a lower cost. This whole subject is irrelevant since the 19th
century.

Don't get me wrong, it would be cool to own a set of those instruments!

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