Klarinet Archive - Posting 000036.txt from 2001/09

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] new clarinet - and why?
Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 18:18:53 -0400

With respect to Ragnhild's comments about the possible purchase of new
clarinets, I would like to add a few words.

There are a number of players who voice the assertion that an instrument
over a certain age is automatically suspect. In other instrumentalists,
the same argument is frequently heard. One Los Angeles oboe player
suggests that his instrument needs to be replaced every year.

The reasons behind these claims (i.e., that the instrument should be
replaced) are most frequently voiced as "instrumental blowout." By that
it is assumed that simply playing the instrument for some period of time
will cause a deterioration in it. Vibration, swabbing, saliva,
temperature, climate, and even geography are offered as variables in the
equation.

I suggest that these views represent a sort of paranoia amongst
clarinetists more than any other instrumental group, but perhaps I
misunderstand the paranoia of our beloved colleagues in the wind
section. I've never head the claim that bassoons should be replaced
because they are old, but maybe that is because they cost $25,000 each.
And I've never head about a bass clarinet needing to be replaced because
it is old, perhaps for the same cost reason.

Instruments can and do last a century or longer. Claims of change of
character or worsening of the instrument have limited evidence to
support them. If an instrument is said to sounds worse than it did
several years ago, how does one know this to be the case? Was the
instrument measured several years ago to determine how it sounded then?

Is it our perception of change that is at fault here rather than actual
change. Have our mouthpieces become part of the problem?

There are many fine players whose opinions I respect on many issues, and
when they tell me that the instrument is going bad, I try to listen as
carefully as I can to what it is they are saying. But I have never come
to the conclusion that any assertions of the existence of this problem
are due to some unidentified disease that clarinets get simply because
they are old.

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** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
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