Klarinet Archive - Posting 001195.txt from 1998/07

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Mozart and the right clarinet
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1998 22:42:42 -0400

Roger Garrett raised the issue of the Mozart Trio lecture-demonstration at
ClarinetFest. (This session, one of my favorites, conflicted with the
beginning of the Klarinet list pizza and beer bash, but I wasn't about to
miss either of those events. Oh, and, Roger, I'm sorry I missed meeting you
at the festival.)

In any case, Roger mentioned that the instrument "was either an original (I
doubt) or a reproduction of a basset clarinet." And then "but the guy did a
great job of demonstrating on it." It was, in fact, a *reproduction* that
Eric Hoeprich (the guy) was still working on. He explained that fact early
in the session (or perhaps at one of the evening concerts). Actually, "it"
wasn't an "it"; "they" were a "they." My recollection is that he had
reproduced (and demonstrated) copies of a clarinet in Bb and a basset
clarinet in A at that afternoon session. He used the A instrument when he
played excerpts from the concerto; he used the Bb when he performed the
trio. At the evening concert, he also played his reproduction of a basset
horn. (Can anyone else support my recollection?)

Roger went on to observe: "I didn't hear much difference between the A
clarinet he used and the Bb - I wonder if there were many differences back
then? ... (I was in the very back of the auditorium sitting on the bricks!)"

Although I was sitting very close, I didn't *hear* much difference between
the two instruments either, but there may have been a difference that I
would eventually have heard had I listened to the pair long enough. I
attribute my inability to discern immediately a difference to the fact that
they both sounded sufficiently different from modern clarinets (I hasten to
add: of any manufacturer, in any key, and played by any competent player
with any high quality mouthpiece and reed). My untrained ear, unaccustomed
to hearing reproductions of period clarinets, focused on that more
pronounced difference rather than on any more subtle difference between the
tones of the Bb and A clarinets.

Mitch Bassman
Burke, Virginia, USA

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