Klarinet Archive - Posting 000534.txt from 2002/09

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Changing mouthpieces
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 20:58:02 -0400

on 9/24/2002 12:39 AM, CBA wrote:

>Just curious, since I am playing on a Vandoren M15 now...what do
>you not like about the sound in orchestra? (curious, since I
>don't really tape myself playing enough.) Do you like the sound
>in chamber concerts, even though you don't in orchestra?

I guess I should be specific. We tried M13 and M13Lyre mpcs, and a few
M14's. We settled on the M13Lyres as being closer to what we preferred,
and got bunches of them over 2 years. I only ever heard the results on
orchestra broadcasts and rarely from solo or chamber concerts, so that
was the frame of reference. In the orchestra, I felt like the sound
spread too much at the louder dynamic levels in spite of my best efforts
with reeds to fix the problem. Then I tried my current Hawkins. End of
story.

I've had students try M13Lyre side by side with Hawkins or Greg Smith,
and the Zinner blanks almost always have the sound we prefer, though the
response of the M13Lyre is very nice. People I know who work with
mouthpieces have hypothesized that it's the rubber compound in the
M13Lyre that affects the sound, though I suppose it could be any of a
number of factors. I'm less interested in the science than I am in the
way the mouthpiece plays. Call me a Luddite.

I've never played an M15.

HTH

David

David Niethamer
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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