Klarinet Archive - Posting 000464.txt from 2002/05

From: w7wright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: Re: [kl] Off-the-wall
Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 02:27:00 -0400

<><> Tony Pay wrote:
Since Bill is interested in off-the-wall ideas, like his spherical
barrel, here's one of mine

Tony, something needs to be said here --- even before I read your
articles (which I will).

Neither you nor I sat down at the breakfast table one morning and said,
"Hey! I want to do something off-the-wall. Maybe I could take a breath
of helium before I launch myself into that glissando.... No! Wait a
minute! I could attach a flame thrower to my clarinet, and when I come
to the 'presto furioso e agitato', I'll cut the stage lights and pull
the trigger...."

Mozart and Stadler and his instrument maker (Lotz? my history isn't very
good) weren't fools. So _why_ did the bassett horn have a spherical
bell? Stadler could've used a different instrument if he had wanted
to.

This is what got me interested. It wasn't just a desire to do
something weird.

It happens that I like the bell --- despite its problems --- and I've
put my flared bell aside for the most part. I'm trying to take the
idea a bit further, and I could talk about ideas for other
'improvements' to the bell that I've abandoned on advice from craftsmen
or because of budget restrictions. But again, I don't want to be
labelled as someone who _wants_ to be weird or off-the-wall.
Misinformed, perhaps. But the purpose of music is pleasure, and the
sound of this bell 'pleasures me'.

I'm sure that, when I read your articles, it will be obvious that you
were motivated by specific goals as well.

Cheers,
Bill

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