Klarinet Archive - Posting 000552.txt from 1998/08

From: "Dee Hays" <deerich@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Nasty question
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 12:38:59 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: SDSCHWAEG@-----.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 1998 5:06 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Re: Nasty question

>Did anybody else see a PBS program called "The Music Tree"? -- It was about
>African mpingo wood (which is apparently the same as grenadilla) and how it
is
>used to make musical instruments -- clarinets, oboes, and the finger boards
on
>string instruments. The program suggested that the trees today are
subjected
>to greater stresses from fires, which occur more frequently because many
are
>deliberately set to clear land for agriculture or whatever, whereas
previously
>there were only naturally occurring fires from lightning. The mpingo tree
can
>survive a fire because the wood is so dense, but the intense heat causes
>changes in the wood that make it more vulnerable to cracking. There was a
>truly startling shot of a clarinet bell that just suddenly exploded into
>splinters as it was being shaped on a lathe. I'd love to get a copy of
that
>program -- I ran across it by accident, and didn't have my VCR set up to
>record it.
>
>Susan Schwaegler

I saw this show a year or two ago. You might try contacting PBS and see if
there is a commercially available tape.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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