Klarinet Archive - Posting 000471.txt from 1999/01

From: TOM RIDENOUR <klarinet@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Leblanc Corp/T.Ridenour
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:50:59 -0500

Fernando wrote:
You said that when we search for a
>clarinet we only look for the "lable" and other things that don't make
>effect with the feeling of play. I, unfurtunely, would like to disagree with
>it.
Of course, Fernando, not all players do. I don't think I said that. My
point was , that many hope most of us don't look past a label and/or
bring our intellects to bear on the matter of the specifics of clarinets or
equipment selection.
We, as clarinetists, are just as creative, inventive and spontaneous as
great oboists, flutists and violinists. In the past, clarinets which play
badly, are hard to control, have ugly areas of color and insecure
response have kept many of us needlessly in the primitive area of
technique all our clarinet playing lives. Such instruments have robbed us
of musical inspiration, imagination and interpretation.
If clarinetist are to be as musical and find the freedom of expression of
other instrumentalists, clarinets must play with greater evenness,
security and _inherent_ beauty of sound: just like great concert grand
pianos. Then it is not wrestling with the instrument that is the issue,
but wrestling with the loftier matters of interpretation and inspiration
and moving into the transcendent area of art and beauty.
In all my frustrations with technique and equipment, I, personally, have
never lost this as a vision for myself as a player, and it is what I
fought for when I was given the privilege to work for clarinetists in a
larger sense.
My whole insistence has been, "give us more perfect and better instruments,
especially in the area of tone color and security of response, so we can
apply correct and efficient pedagogy with greater confidence, free us from
technical worry so the musician can be released from within us".
If we think that clarinets have already been brought to degree of
perfection of pianos, flutes and violins I think we are not being honest
with ourselves.
What are we afraid of? Having to spend a few bucks for something better?
Actually having the hope of improvement? Sometimes hope is a frightening,
troublesome thing, because implicit in hope is renewed committment and
obligation.
I have actually known players who resented finding a better instrument
because it meant they might actually have to invest something monitarily
speaking into their art. I have seen players angry at me because I
presented them with something that was in improvement over what they had.
Go figure!?
But that is another matter.
Our playing, in any case, must adapt and conform to the equipment.
The more perfect it is the greater our technical ease and execution, and
the more we can freely express ourselves as other artists do. This, to me,
is the point......the whole point, and it is what my whole work has been
about ever since I stopped blaming myself for every problem and defect, and
ceased playing the clarinet in the comotose, "this is what every body else
does" status quo condition of my youth.
Manufacturers will not voluntarily make more perfect instruments. We must
thoughtfully and reasonably demand that they do; and be clear about the
problems and defects of the instruments they presently produce; not to be
critical, but to be constructive.
One representative from one of the makers recently exclaimed to me, "How do
we know what to make next unless players tell us what they want?"
Point well made!
As long as we silently accept and purchase the status quo that is what
they will produce; they will continue to make money and we will continue
to struggle with the same old same old.

Over the years I have tried to encourage players to think thoughfully and
even systematically about clarinets and to bring to their attention
certain elements of the clarinet's playing characteristics which need not
be as they have been; we don't have to put up with these problems which
commonly dog us.
Some of the newer clarinets which have come out prove that for sure. The
Signature is one....but not the only one; the Leblancs prove that as well.
The more perfect the clarinet is, the more perfect and free we can be.
Perfect clarinets and equipment, of course, do not substitute for correct
playing, but facilitate it.
What a happy and joyous moment it is when you play a clarinet that you can
depend upon and have mouthpiece/reed equipment you don't have to struggle
with!
It makes the clarinet playing experience the fun and freedom it ouight to be.
The best is yet to come! We, as clarinetists, have a lot to look forward to.

Fernando continued:
>You know that the top line of clarinets in any big company is the more
>expensive product and the marketing on it is very big, How can we get the
>real
>information if all that we have is marketing (i.e. bussiness)? For the
>company we are the objective of them. They must have to sell!! No matter if
>the clarinet is on the taste of the buyer or not. If one of my students play
>with an Opus and can't play it well he/she, probably, will think that the
>problem is with him, like Larry Combs plays on it well...it is marketing and
>we must have to change it.
>I know that the Signature clarinet is very, very good horn. I've tryied it
>last september.Is one of the best clarinet I've tryied but the problem is
>that we can't trust on all we hear. It isn't only in music, but in life at
>all. You must have to play on it to say that it is good.

Fernando, I think you are right. The only alternative to trusting "spin"
and the "blah, blah, blah" of advertising is to improve the elements of our
own playing and educate ourselves. This takes time , effort and the
assimilating and ordering of knowledge. In short, we must become correctly
educated. Many simply don't have the patience for this....some don't even
think it is possible; they believe there is no real correctness, only
opinion.
To use a seldom heard phrase nowadays; they simply are wrong.
If you will check on my web site (and I am sure there are others), you will
find large sections devoted to education and sharing of information on all
aspects of playing. I only wish I had more time to build up that area of
my site.
There is no substitute for the process of growth in education.
Thought must preceed action. So many of us are suspicious of thought; we
are fatalists. I've had teachers who were like that, and they were very
disheartening to work with. They think that you either have it or you
don't; that you can't really transcend your limitations and actually
improve.
Well, you can't get out what God ain't put in; it is true, there is only
one Ricardo and so on, but correctly thinking and applying knowledge can
help each of us make enormous improvements upon the gifts God has given
us; and with those improvement come an increased confidence in our ability
to discern and judge for ourselves and not be lead around by labels and the
status quo.

The clarinet is the best of the wind instruments.
In my estimation, development-wise, the clarinet is somewhere in late
adolescence at this point. It and its proponents deserve it being brought
to acoustical perfection. That will not happen unless we thoughtfully and
reasonably insist upon it. After all, all we are asking is what has
_already_ been done for other instruments.
Thank you for your kind comments. I am sure most on the list will agree
that your English is at least as good as, and considerably more agreeable
than mine;-)
tom

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