Klarinet Archive - Posting 000474.txt from 2002/06

From: JEDISUSHI@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Legere reeds
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 18:30:25 -0400

In a message dated 6/15/02 4:11:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
bdaniluk@-----.com writes:

> If you REALLY want to minimize the time you spend fiddling around with
> reeds, find yourself a Legere (the best synthetic) that comes close to what
> you want, and play it until you figure out how to get the sound you desire.
> While I would not argue that a Legere is as good as the best commercial or
> hand made reeds, it has a virtue that no cane reed has: Every time you go
> back to it, it plays the same (within a reasonable tolerance) as the last
> time you played it, irrespective of the temperature, humidity, having been
> stored on a sheet of optically flat glass, or having been played 4 hours
> the
> day before. This stability allows YOU to adapt to IT,and once you have
> found a combination that is to your liking, it will last for MONTHS not
> HOURS. Plus, you will not be trying to bring it back to life during the
> intermission of the concert with Schubert 8th yet to play. I also would
> not
> argue that someone willing to spend hours and hours on their whittling
> merit
> badge would not be likely to come up with a more beautiful sound (though I
> suspect that there are other factors just as important or more so than the
> reed), but I prefer to allocate my clarinet time playing music.
>
> One person's perspective.
> Bill Daniluk
>
>

I study with Steve Cohen at Brevard during the summers, and he plays
exclusively on Legere reeds and sounds absolutely wonderful! In many ways,
he exploits the simplicity they offer by making his options more advanced.
He has different mouthpieces / reeds for different acoustics, situations, but

he always sounds great. Richard Hawkins teaches using Legere's, and he does
a wonderful job. He told me that Larry Combs rehearses on Legeres too, which

also seems like a great idea. I've found that they're a little less resonant

and have a little less ring than cane, but they're wondeful innovations.

Michael

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