Klarinet Archive - Posting 000490.txt from 1999/11

From: "Rien Stein" <rstein@-----.nl>
Subj: [kl] Vintage clarinets
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 18:43:37 -0500

Chris Ms Stein wrote:

>Why is it that people are so skeptical when it comes to vintage
>clarinets? I just bought an old 1929 Selmer Brevette A clarinet, and it
>works pretty well- just wondering, thanks!

My experiences are about the same Chris's are. Today I happened to meet a
man who told me he had played clarinet till he was 15 years old. Two weeks
ago he found his old instrument in the ceiling, had it revised, and lo! it
played great. He asked me to teach him to play, he still is able to play
several scales, he said. He thought his instrument was of a rare system: he
has a German instrument, Albert system. I told him I learned clarinet also
on Albert instruments, played them about ten years, then I purchased my
first Boehm instrument. If he dares take the risk, I said, I am willing to
teach him.

The story of how I came to my old bass clarinet is a strange one. Seven or
eight years ago in the train I had a small chat with an old lady sitting
opposite to me. When talking about hobbies, I told her I am an amateur
clarinettist. Her husband, at that time already twenty years dead, had been
a professional orchestra player, and she had still an instrument of his at
home. She didn't know, what kind of instrument it was. So I went with her to
her house.

There she showed me a very old case, closed by a piece of rope, no locks on
it. It was a "claribass", as I use to call it. She asked whether she could
make me happy with it, and of course I said "Yes", and asked ho much it was.
But she said it was enough to her to know someone was happy to play on it.
We had a kind of reverse bargaining: the buyer wanted to pay, the seller
didn't want anything. In the end we agreed at 150 guilders (about $75) and a
large bunch of flowers.

The instrument is a Martin Freres, Paris, France, and the date of
construction probably is 1896. It is not top of the bill, but it is a good
instrument, good tonal characteristics, but it is not possible to play it
fortissimo. And of course the mechanism is rather vulnerable. But I enjoy it
very much, play it at least twice a week, and also in one of the bands I
have joined.

Morale of the story: An instrument need not be good to be old, or old to be
good, but also "good" and "old" are not excluding one another

Rien

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