Klarinet Archive - Posting 000760.txt from 1999/05

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl]Hans Moennig's solution the Dark Clarinet Tone
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 18:08:06 -0400

At 01:19 PM 5/16/99 -0400, you wrote:
>That sort of major surgery falls outside the definition of "customization"
>to me. Instruments that are that far off should never leave the factory.
>But if the modifications were made to correct for the INDIVIDUAL'S unusual
>embouchure or some other PERSONAL quirk that affected HIS OWN intonation,
>then I WILL accept the label. And more power to him and those who are
>talented enough to do the work!

He didn't say it was "off" or "out" or anything else. He had the
instrument entirely reworked for him. Buffet didn't make bad horns - he
just wanted it customized to his likeing.

You have concluded that if a person doesn't like an instrument and decides
to have it completely changed - thereby altering the entire design - and
likes it better, that there was something wrong with the design to begin
with. This is faulty logic. It doesn't matter if it was Marcellus,
Bonade, or anybody else who wanted it different. These major changes do
not mean the horn was a bad horn, a defective horn, or was "far off" what
the player wanted. Buffet determines what the characteristics of the
instrument are - and they leave the factory in quite nice shape. That
someone wants a purple instrument doesn't mean that there is something
wrong with the instrument as it left the factory.

Roger Garrett
Professor of Clarinet
Director, Concert Band/Symphonic Winds/Titan Band
Advisor, Recording Studio
Illinois Wesleyan University
Office: (309) 556-3268
Fax: (309) 556-3411

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