Klarinet Archive - Posting 000353.txt from 2000/12
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay) Subj: Re: [kl] Antique clarinets in Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 20:42:57 -0500
On Tue, 5 Dec 2000 20:45:31 EST, LeliaLoban@-----.com said:
> During a weekend with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Kevin and I
> visited the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
[snip]
> The clarinet family there includes a Raymond Griesbacher basset horn,
> made in Vienna, of boxwood, ivory and brass.
Nicholas Shackleton, in Cambridge, has one of these too, and I'm
fortunate to play on a copy of it by Daniel Bangham.
> Another clarinet is about the size of a clarinet in A. Michel Amingue
> of Paris made it, ca. 1794, of ebony, ivory and brass. It has 5 keys
> (oblong and flat, made of bare brass), with the wooden mouthpiece
> turned the opposite of the way we play it, so that the reed would
> touch the upper lip.
Is that as I would imagine, a function of the display, or is there
independent evidence that determines the 'reed uppermost' configuration?
> The clarinet that interested me most was an Italian bass clarinet by
> Nicola Papalini (no date), made of pearwood with three brass keys.
> The shape was partially serpentine, in tight bulges, so that it bore a
> disquieting resemblance to a short section of intestines, but
> slightly flattened. The fingertips would cover some of the holes
> while other holes would lay under other parts of the fingers. This
> clarinet was, overall, shorter than a modern alto clarinet. The idea
> seemed similar to a bass racket, which produces startlingly low bass
> tones from a small-looking instrument. From the bulges, I couldn't
> tell whether the single piece of wood on the outside might conceal a
> labyrinth of separate chambers inserted down the bore, as in a racket.
> I couldn't guess at how to finger a scale.
There's another instrument matching this description (I think) in the
museum in Cologne. I don't know the details of the maker, but I can
find out. We were there recently to play the Berlioz concert, but I was
tired, and shamefully didn't make the effort to go and look at it. How
interesting that there are two!
Thanks for telling us about your trip, Lelia!
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
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