Klarinet Archive - Posting 000761.txt from 1998/05

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Fw: [kl] Re: A new concept in orchestral clarinets
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 04:11:37 -0400

I don't think this proposition stands up. After all, the basic fingerings
now most widely used on oboe, flute and clarinet are now *all* well over a
century old.
Roger Shilcock

On Wed, 13 May 1998, Steven J Goldman, MD wrote:

> Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 11:02:36 -0500
> From: "Steven J Goldman, MD" <gpsc@-----.com>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet <klarinet@-----.org>
> Subject: [kl] Fw: [kl] Re: A new concept in orchestral clarinets
>
> It seems particularly to be a clarinet players disease. Clarinets seemed to
> have changed much more slowly, esp. fingering systems, than the other member
> of the woodwinds and this was because other players were never satisfied
> with the status quo. Oboes and to a greater extent flutes when through a
> flurry of experimentation, trial and error, in the nineteenth centuries.
> Clarinetists were much less likely to try new ideas. By the way, the basset
> clarinet and the basset horn (very different instrument than the modern one)
> died out because technically they were inferior and players just did not
> show enough interest to warrant makers to continue to experiment. Contrast
> this to flutes where until the second quarter of the 19th century
> instruments going down to C were acoustically inferior to those whose lowest
> note was D. But there continued to be a great demand for C instruments and
> this encouraged the makers to do it until they got it right!
> And your right about innovation occurring in an instrument prior to
> composers creating for it. Mozart wrote his concerto for a basset clarinet
> because there was one to write for. He didn't write a concerto out of the
> range of any extant instrument and wait patiently for some maker to invent
> one. Beethoven did not extend the range of the piano. Piano makers were
> busily improving the instrument and this allowed Beethoven to increase the
> range he could write for.
> Steve Goldman
> sjgoldman@-----.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
> To: klarinet@-----.org>
> Date: Wednesday, May 13, 1998 7:48 AM
> Subject: [kl] Re: A new concept in orchestral clarinets
>
> >Jack Kissinger addresses the important question of why the basset clarinet
> >died out, a thoughtful argument central to the entire question of its
> >use.
>
>
>
>
>
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