Klarinet Archive - Posting 000593.txt from 2001/03

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] basset horn reeds
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 08:26:55 -0500

It is 4:45 am and I have one foot out the door to get spinal surgery at
the neurology hospital in Redwood City, CA so I really can't focus on
this matter, nor did I want to. I was just minding my own business and
a truck came around the corner and relocated my ass, which is why I have
to go get surgery. (Notice that I am blaming all this pain of mine on
Roger. Among his other faults he does not understand the value of
guilt, so I shall spend my final few minutes teaching it to him.)

While there may have been some very few basset horns made early on that
did not have soprano clarinet bores or use clarinet mouthpieces, the
standard for the instrument was just that. It was an attempt to
introduce a new member of the clarinet family by the simple expedient of
lengthening it so that it could play lower. In lengthening it, the
early models did not have a significant change of bore size nor was
anything other than a clarinet mouthpiece offered. Maybe they couldn't
make them. I don't know why.

I should add that it was an acoustical mistake because it introduced
problems that we are still faced with. But what did work was that the
character of the sound of the instrument was quite special, a sound
character that I suggest is measureably different from an instrument as
long but with a larger bore and a correspondingly larger mouthpiece.

But this was never the instrument's thrust. It was invariably marketed
as a narrow bore instrument with a soprano clarinet mouthpiece until
LeBlanc, recognizing the acoustical difficulties of the instrument,
decided to use their design for an E-flat alto clarinet as the basic
instrument that became their basset horn in F. That was not much before
1940 if my recollection is correct.

I'm not being critical of them. They made a wonderful instrument. But
because the bore corresponded to that of the alto clarinet, and also
because the mouthpiece supplied by them for that instrument was an alto
clarinet mouthpiece, it is not unreasonable to suggest that what they
market is an alto clarinet in F. I meant no disrespect to them.

But what they make and sell in not a basset horn. Nor, since Buffet
changed their design to emulate that of LeBlanc, do they make a basset
horn. They call it that, of course. I don't care if they call it an
accordion. It's a free society and if they want to call it a basset
horn, I couldn't care less. It, like many Buffet instruments, is well
made, sounds nice, works fine. They should live and be well selling
their excellent instruments no matter what wrong names they give them.

The single standard by which a basset horn is called that is the
diameter of its bore and the nature of its mouthpiece. And Roger's
analogy about the modern automobile and its relationship to the
nomenclature used for basset horns and alto clarinets in F should win a
prize for its irrelevancy.

Personally, I don't care for the alto clarinet in F, but that is only
opinion. I don't think that it sounds like a basset horn, but these
things are probably as much prejudice as science. I played a LeBlanc
some time back and did not find it as characteristic of a basset horn as
I think of it, but this is all nonsense and probably due to my basset
horn bigotry.

But from the viewpoint of what dimensions of bore and mouthpiece type
the excellent LeBlanc and contemporary Buffet instruments have, they are
wonderful alto clarinets in F, not basset horns.

My view on this whole thing is not worth a pile of doo-doo. It is
simply an attempt to remind us all of the technical considerations that
went into the development of the basset horn in the first place, coupled
with the fact that two very excellent companies decided, for whatever
reason, to change those technical considerations. But I won't buy one,
and for the same reason that I won't play C clarinet parts on an A
clarinet in transposition. I am trying to retain a sense of history
with respect to the instrument that has given me so much pleasure over
so many years. And if there was a technical or musical reason that a
clarinet in C or a basset horn was used, I will try, wherever possible,
to use what was called for, not a clarinet in A (or B-flat) or an alto
clarinet in F. Roger's view is that expediency allows anything. And I
say, capital bologna!!

I will send a picture of my operation to Roger so as to show him that I
am not angry, just sore. I hope that he now understands the nature and
value of guilt.

Dan

rgarrett@-----.edu wrote:
>
> At 06:29 PM 03/21/2001 -0800, you wrote:
> >Roger, I am not in the least looking for this or any argument. Someone
> >else quoted me and you zap me for that quotation.
>
> Well doggone it Dan..........!
>
> I think two years ago you discussed the modern vs. non-modern basset horns
> - and I used a similar example then. I can't remember if it was tongue in
> cheek or not - I think it was. But it was awhile back.........
>
> Didn't mean to ZAP you. I must admit to a bit of Tomfoolery there - a bit
> of harmless stirring the pot. It may have been caused by spending too much
> time in a little room in my basement painting the walls - and the fumes
> finally began to have an effect......
>
> >While I have made statements in the past about narrow bore vs large bore
> >basset horns, I have made no statement in the last year at least. So are
> >you criticizing me for a statement that someone else made using my
> >name?
>
> No - just criticizing the comment - and therefore the person making the
> comment (not you). It should have read:
>
> As automobiles improve in design, we can safely say that the current models
> look and drive nothing like the original models. Yet - they are still
> automobiles. The standard and modern Boehm clarinet is nothing like the
> five key predecessor of the early 1800's, yet we still call it a
> clarinet. Therefore, I would submit to you that the current Buffet
> Prestige Basset Horn is a true basset horn. That it is similar in design
> to the modern alto clarinet does not mean that it is an alto clarinet in F.
>
> How's that? Please accept any appropriate apologies, groveling, bowing,
> knee-scraping..........
>
> Best wishes,
> Roger Garrett
>
> Roger Garrett
> Clarinet Professor
> Director, Symphonic Winds
> Illinois Wesleyan University
> School of Music
> Bloomington, IL 61702-2900
> Phone: (309) 556-3268
> Fax: (309) 556-3121
>
> From the London Daily News, circa 1926:
>
> "The saxophone is a long metal instrument bent at both ends. It is alleged
> to be musical. As regards markings, the creature has a series of tiny taps
> stuck upon it, apparently at random. These taps are very sensitive: when
> touched they cause the instrument to utter miserable sounds suggesting
> untold agony. Sometimes it bursts into tears. At either end there is a
> hole. People, sometimes for no reason at all, blow down the small end of
> the saxophone which then shrieks and moans."
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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