Klarinet Archive - Posting 000303.txt from 1999/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] A-flat high soprano clarinet?
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 19:54:54 -0400

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.87
> Subj: [kl] A-flat high soprano clarinet?

> The threads on the C clarinet and timbres of different clarinets interests me
> a lot, and makes me wonder about the A-flat "high soprano clarinet" I saw
> advertised in the 1932 Selmer catalog. I hadn't realized anything higher
> than the eefer was manufactured as late as the 1930s. The Ab can't have been
> a very popular instrument, since Selmer didn't illustrate it, although all
> the other clarinets are illustrated with the exception of the BBb contrabass
> (a monster, below the Eb contrabass). The 1932 Selmer Ab was available in
> the Master Model (professional, Selmer's top of the line at the time). It's
> unclear to me whether it may also have been offered as a Bundy (intermediate)
> and/or Barbier (student) clarinet. Has anyone ever played an Ab soprano?
> I'm afaid I know what it would sound like if I played it (every rabid rat in
> the neighborhood would come running to mama), but what's it sound like when
> you play it?
>
> Lelia

Lelia, the A-flat soprano clarinet is still very popular with European
military bands. I last heard the Caribinieri Band of Rome play Till
Eulenspiegel with the solo E-flat (really D clarinet) played on an
A-flat clarinet and the player was magnificent.

You can still buy A-flat clarinets in Europe and, I presume with enough
yelling, you could buy one in the U.S.

> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Go ahead and scream. Nobody can hear you."
> --So many bad movies, so little time....
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

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