Klarinet Archive - Posting 001207.txt from 1999/04

From: "Dee D. Hays" <deehays@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Albert
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 08:26:36 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: arehow <arehow@-----.net>
Date: Thursday, April 29, 1999 11:04 PM
Subject: [kl] Re: Albert

>....
>It is often forgotten that the "Albert" systeme was developed (in 1862,
>from the 1809 Muller 13-key model) AFTER the Boehm (invented 1839, by
>Auguste Buffet, not by Boehm), it is not a more "primitive" system but
>is merely different.

Even if invented after the Boehm, it is still a simpler system with fewer
keys and fewer alternative fingerings available. Remember in those days,
metal was VERY expensive in comparison to most other items. So that a
clarinet that used less metal would have been far less costly. Thus the
Albert was a logical choice for a musician who needed something better than
a Muller system but not outrageously expensive. Notice that the Albert
system did not stay static. Even though dropped in much of Western Europe
and the Americas, it continued to evolve into the Oehler system in places
like Germany due to musician's needs to have a more advanced fingering
system.

To illustrate the history of metal price a little, there is a line in an old
nursery rhyme.

"A penny for a spool of thread, a nickel for a needle"

This rhyme goes back to the middle ages or so. Today, a needle is actually
less than a nickel but that spool of thread is a couple of bucks. You
could buy several loaves of bread for the price of a needle then. Now the
needle costs less than a loaf of bread. So it is quite possible that at the
time the Albert was invented that the Boehm was still too expensive even for
professional musicians of the day let alone amateurs.

Dee Hays
Canton, SD

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