Klarinet Archive - Posting 000339.txt from 1999/02

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Horwath
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 19:48:34 -0500

On Mon, 8 Feb 1999, Joe M. Rankin wrote:
> I first played a Howarth at the ClarinetFest in Lubbock a couple of years
> ago. It was a Bb made of Kingwood & I was very impressed with it. In January

[SNIP]
> plastic. I think they call it polyvinyl chloride (sp?).It is the same price
> as the blackwood. They also use Kingwood & Cocobola. Another option is a left
> hand Ab/Eb key.
>
> I hope this provides some of the info you wanted. If you want to know
> anything else about the Howarths, just let me know.
>
> Joe Rankin

Joe's comments (which I edited out!!) were all very well thought out and
presented. What I liked about his post was the objectiveness with which
he compared the Bb and the A Howarths - presenting both sides of the
playing quality of the instruments.

I believe I shared a viewpoint regarding these instruments following my
trial of them at last year's ClarinetFest (at OSU). I found them to play
remarkably well, but I also found that they had some severe pitch
problems. The problems I experienced were very similar to Joe's posting
regarding the A clarinet he tried. I tried several Bb's and a couple of
A's and experienced identical problems with all five horns. The young
lady who was helping me with the horns told me that the problems could
have been from having to adjust so much to my Buffets - but she was
inaccurate - the problems with the Howarths were not a result of adjusting
on my part - plain and simple, some notes were just very, very low. I
couldn't bring them into pitch with any embouchure/air adjustments - and
had to resort to strange combinations of fingerings and opened side keys.
I was dissapointed - primarily because they had such a beautiful tone and
seemed to have a wonderful response. I found the Opus clarinets to be
much better than the Howarths - in all regards.

RG
Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director - Concert Band, Symphonic Winds & Titan Band
Advisor - Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University

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