Klarinet Archive - Posting 001178.txt from 2000/02

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Albert system clarinet page
Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 17:23:17 -0500

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dee.

We don't want the wrong mythology to make the day.

I heard Edmund Hall in person with Mr. Armstrong when I was very young. He
played wonderfully on an Albert System clarinet.

"Dee D. Hays" wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Leighton Bingham" <cassus@-----.com>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 29, 2000 2:02 PM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Albert system clarinet page
>
> > Christopher Tyle wrote:
> >
> > > Hi, I've just put together the beginnings of a page on Albert system
> > > clarinets and some of the great New Orleans clarinetists who played
> them.
> >
> > Christopher, What is the story on the Albert system? OK this I have
> figured out.
> >
> > 1. It is an older system, 2. It had difficult fingerings 3. It is little
> used
> > today.
> > What I would like to know 1. What was the sound like? 2. Was the tone
> different
> > than todays horns? 3. Was it in tune more or less of the time. 4. Is it
> still
> > used anywhere?
> > --
> > Leighton Bingham
> > Abusus non tollit usum
> >
>
> The Albert system was developed at the same time as the Boehm system was
> being applied to the clarinet. So in reality the Albert system is not older
> but was essentially a parallel development. The Albert was a descendent of
> the older Mueller system and continued to be developed into the Oehler
> system now used in Germany. Meanwhile, Klose modified the Boehm system
> (originally developed for the flute) and applied it to the clarinet. In
> much of Western Europe and the Americas, the Boehm system eventually
> displaced the Albert system instruments but even then it was many decades
> before the Boehm system made any real headway (it was adopted early on
> however by the national conservatories in France). Perhaps it was consumer
> resistance as at the time players were accustomed to the Mueller type
> designs and the Albert was a logical enhancement while the Boehm involved
> re-learning a number of fingerings. Finally, however, the Boehm succeeded
> in displacing the Albert system here in the US from the very late 1800s
> through the early 1900s.
>
> Here's some dates (from Rendall's "The Clarinet"):
> 1839 - Preliminary model of the Boehm system shown at Paris exposition
> 1843 - Klose writes his method book for the Boehm system
> 1844 - Boehm system for clarinet patented by H. Klose and Auguste
> Buffet
>
> 1808 - Mueller initiates a series of improvements to the clarinet,
> including keys and improved
> tone hole spacing. Prior to his work, clarinets generally
> had 6 keys or less.
> 1845 - Mueller adds rings to the lower joint of his 13 key clarinet
> 1846 - E. Albert continue to perfected the overall design/spacing of the
> 13 key clarinet originally
> developed by Mueller. His horns came to be called Albert
> system.
> 1860 - Carl Baermann & G. Ottensteiner develop an advanced Albert
> system. This is the instrument
> that later continued to be developed by O. Oehler.
> 1864 to 1873 -- In this time frame, Baermann produces his method book
> for the
> Mueller/Albert/Baermann style
>
> The Albert system is not more difficult just different. It does have fewer
> alternate fingerings available as a result of the fewer keys. Thus it is
> "less friendly" to play in keys of many sharps or many flats making such
> music more difficult to play in some cases. On the other hand, there are
> certain combinations of notes that are actually easier to play on the
> Albert.
>
> I can't comment on what the tone or intonation differences are as I haven't
> gotten around to restoring the Alberts that I have in my mini-collection but
> here are some thoughts on it in general. The tone isn't really dependent on
> the key system used. It is a function of bore diameter, diameter to length
> ratio, bore shape, tone hole design, etc. It happens that the Boehm system
> was applied to clarinets developed by the French, who had a certain concept
> of sound and thus their clarinets were designed to have that sound. The
> Albert system was applied to instruments being developed in Germany, again
> instruments already designed to have the sound preferred there. It would be
> possible to build an instrument with the Boehm key system but the sound of
> the Albert. I'm not sure but I think such instruments are available but I
> couldn't tell you who makes them.
>
> As far as tuning, I would imagine that some were better than others. No
> doubt then as now there were some quality clarinet makers and some cheapy
> clarinet makers.
>
> Also, if you are going to put information on a web page, hunt out the
> scholarly research on the history of clarinets. What you find on a mailing
> list like this is going to be based on people's memories of what they read
> somewhere. It could easily be remembered incorrectly or inaccurately. F.
> Geoffrey Rendall's "The Clarinet" has an extensive section on the history of
> clarinet development.
>
> Dee Hays
> Canton, SD
>
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