Klarinet Archive - Posting 000665.txt from 2001/09

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Basset horn mouthpieces
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 18:54:43 -0400

Tony,

Interesting post. When I had an Uebel basset horn for a few weeks many years
ago I found it very friendly, but there were distinct differences between
the two (new) horns that I had to choose from. I couldn't buy one then, but
now that I can, they are out of production! Do you (or does anyone) know of
any for sale anywhere?

Do you know the bore of the Uebel?

Keith Bowen

> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 14:33:19 +0100
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
> Subject: Re: [kl] Basset horns
> Message-ID: <20010919.143319.19@-----.uk>
>
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:18:58 -0700, leeson0@-----.net said:
>
> > Now all of this depends on the case made ca. 1910 being logical. Maybe
> > the case maker had no idea of how much room to allow for a mouthpiece,
> > but if he did, and if Howland was right, the standard b.h. mouthpiece
> > should be shorter and have a wider bore.
>
> I agree with this, and found it out myself a couple of years ago by way
> of another sort of accident.
>
> Many may not know, though Dan probably will, that Dvorak's Czech Suite
> contains a solo usually played on the cor anglais, but that was almost
> certainly originally for bassethorn. But because there are no clarinets
> in the piece, it's usually done on the cor.
>
> We were due to play the piece on period instruments, pitch A=435 Hz, in
> a programme that also contained the Brahms first Serenade, and the
> conductor was keen to reinstate the bassethorn. So I had to find an
> instrument.
>
> I was lucky. Nick Shackleton owns a German bassethorn, manufacturer
> 'Urban', that can be made to go very well at A=435, and he was willing
> to lend it to me for the concert. Whilst fooling around with this, I
> tried the largish bore wooden mouthpiece on my modern Boehm narrow-bore
> Uebel bassethorn, which I could previously have characterised by saying
> that it was a reluctant colleague of mine rather than a friend. But,
> with the Urban mouthpiece, it became a friend!
>
> Eddie Pillinger then made some resin copies of the mouthpiece, and I
> believe that several people apart from myself have found them useful.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN artist: http://www.gmn.com
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> ... If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
>
> ------------------------------

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