Klarinet Archive - Posting 000655.txt from 1998/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] A new concept in orchestral clarinets
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:59:03 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.69
> Subj: Re: [kl] A new concept in orchestral clarinets

> 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.

I could not agree less. The minute such instruments entered into the
orchestral world, composers would start writing for them. Consider
what happened to the bass clarinet with extension to low C. At first
no one needed it except for a rare piece here and there. Now you can't
hold a job without one.

To say that "this whole subject is irrelevant since the 19th
century" is just another example of lack of vision.

>
> Don't get me wrong, it would be cool to own a set of those instruments!
>
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>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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