Klarinet Archive - Posting 000239.txt from 1999/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] C clarinet
Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 17:45:29 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.92
> Subj: [kl] C clarinet

> Dan Leeson wrote,
> [snip]
> >>Well, this fruitcake of a conductor called one of NY's most important
> clarinetists and asked him why I needed a C clarinet and this SCHMUCK told
> her to fire me because it was obvious I could not transpose. And I was fired
> from the gig because of this mental midget (but wonderful
> clarinet player) was using the same kind of logic that was reported on this
> list just the other day.>>
>
> ...!! Just out of prurient curiosity, did you ever run into the mental
> midget / wonderful clarinet player professionally after that? And if so,
> what on earth did you say to him?
>
> In your place, I'm afraid my thoughts might have dribbled down the gutters of
> malice, through the cesspools of creativity, and into the toxic waste dump of
> vengeance, where they would have started paddling around busily looking for
> the sluice gate.

I would run into him from time to time but I never spoke to him about
it mostly because he is not very intelligent. It broke my heart when
I came to realize that clarinet players (who I had always thought were
intellectually and musically superior to any other human beings on the
planet) were, in fact, not much different from other people. They just
had a peculiar talent that somehow combined their fingers, tongues,
and musical intellect into a particular bundle of goods. But this guy
was really stupid. So telling him that he was a class A putz would not
have been useful. One has to be intelligent to benefit from being called
an idiot. And this poverty stricken intellect is still one of America's
best clarinet players (and in that arena - i.e., mechanical ability -)
still demands and gets my respect.

>
> Jim Lande wrote,
> >>OK, I am sold. I want one. Did anyone ever make a metal one. (Yeah, I am
> a nut on metal clarinets.)>>
>
> Yes, the 1932 Selmer catalogue offers the Master Model (Selmer's top pro
> model at the time, not to be confused with the Buffet Master Model, which was
> an intermediate model, or with several other companies' Master Models) in a
> C-pitched metal version (along with Ab "high soprano," Eb soprano, Bb
> soprano, A soprano, Eb alto, Bb bass, Eb contrabass and BBb contrabass). One
> thing to beware of with Selmers, though, is that a "C" stamped on a metal
> clarinet *might* refer to a finish option (silver-plated nickel silver), not
> the pitch. My silver-plated soprano Selmer Barbier (the student model in the
> 1930s, when the Bundy was the intermediate model) is marked "C" just under
> the serial number. (This is a 5-piece clarinet with the SN on the back, just
> below the upper joint of the lower stack, above the thumb rest.) I assumed
> when I bought it that I was getting a clarinet in C, but when I measured it
> against my low pitch Bb H. Bettoney Silva-Bet, the Selmer Barbier is actually
> a tiny bit longer, and therefore I'm pretty sure the Barbier is also a Bb. I
> haven't play-tested it yet to be sure, though, because half the pads were off
> when I bought it and I'm ashamed to say it's still sitting disassembled on
> the workbench, exactly where it was when you saw it there, Jim! (And let's
> not mention how long ago that was, shall we....) I've really got to get
> organized....
>
> Lelia
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Chaos often breeds life, where order breeds habit."
> --Henry Adams, _The Education of Henry Adams_
> (Makes a nice-sounding excuse, anyway....)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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