Klarinet Archive - Posting 000711.txt from 2000/08

From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Wood, wormwood, plastic, or a Dolmetsch Tonette?
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 16:04:16 -0400

The first clarinet I owned was a $77.00 wood clarinet with some
elegant-sounding French name. It's been so long that it's hard for me to
remember the name or how it played, but it seemed adequate at the
time. Yet...it spent as much time in a now-defunct repair shop on 8th
Avenue as it did in my mouth because I played it HARD through high school
and this was not an instrument that was made particularly well. No, I was
not in Marching Band because we didn't have a football team, so abuse to
the wood was not an issue; in fact I took extremely good care of that
instrument. It just went out of alignment periodically, the keys fell
apart, it was shoddy, and I suspect the wood wasn't exactly the best part
of the tree, either. In fact, I always assumed, doofus that I was, that
grenadilla wood was grenadilla wood, rosewood was rosewood, and what's the
big difference?

Some people are slower studies than others.

I sold that horn to Sam Ash in Jersey a real long time ago, and when I
inherited the Selmer Centered Tone I now treasure, I got part of my
answer. All wood is not created equal ("duh"), all keywork and intangibles
are not the same, and the first time I played that CT after I'd had it
repadded and adjusted, I felt like I'd never heard a clarinet before...at
least not one that was in MY mouth. A good instrument can make you WANT to
practice and strive after being worth the instrument with which you've been
entrusted.

When I got my bass, an old Bundy that also has the Selmer marque on it (go
figure), and after an overhaul late this spring...that is when I really got
to hear the horn in its near-pristine state. If you blindfolded most
people, I doubt they could tell what the instrument was made of. As far as
pure sound, I will (deep breath) put it up against the professional Selmer
I tried out in May 1999. It's got deep, rich lows, clear highs.

YEAH BUT.

For the person _playing_ the instrument...aha, there the difference may
reside. I have never played anything that compared in ease and
responsiveness to that professional Selmer bass. Wood? Keywork? All of
the above? Something, for sure. That was, I assure you, an instrument
totally unknown to me and me to it: yet it felt like part of me from the
minute I picked it up. If I were a professional or even an amateur with
lots and lots of disposable income, which horn do you think I'd buy? I
strongly suspect (my display of false modesty) that there is attention paid
to niceties in that high-end instrument that aren't possible or expected in
the Bundy version. Beautiful sound, yes; great tone, yes; but
responsiveness and detail that would push the price beyond a student (or
marching band) budget.

Could you make a plastic instrument with that sort of attention to detail,
and that would sound as good as the pro horn made of grenadilla or rosewood
or whatever they use, regardless of price? Would professionals or advanced
amateurs buy it, regardless of price? Yes, I've heard that Loree turns out
plastic oboes and English horns that are as good as anything you can make
out of wood: are the expectations and demands of double-reed players
different from those of single-reed players?

On points...I suppose I would rather have a well-made plastic horn than a
schlockerei wood instrument. What I suppose this comes down to is a huge
case of De Gustibus: everyone has their own experiences, their own
opinions--ill- or well-founded in professional playing or just fooling
around--and it becomes very much what the late Djon Mili said about
photographic equipment: "The equipment you know is the equipment you like."

Ken
--------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth Wolman kwolman@-----.com
11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212-425-4200, x. 363

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org