Klarinet Archive - Posting 000566.txt from 2003/02

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Impingo Wood Supply for Clarinets
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 08:53:23 -0500

Elizabeth, if your interest in wood as the material for a clarinet is
related to the inherent beauty of wood, I agree with you that there is
nothing like it aesthetically. But if you are of the opinion that there
is an inherent characteristic of wood that produces a better character
of sound than synthetic materials, then there is a difficutly in
accepting that position.

We have argued for 10 years on this list about that issue, and the end
result is that the nature of the sound one gets out of a clarinet is
independent of the material used to make it. There may be some
exceptions; i.e., cork might not be a good material, for example. But
one really has to stretch to find such exceptions.

Bottom line: in a blind test, you (nor I, nor anyone else) could detect
wood from glass from plastic from metal from hard rubber, from ossified
twinkie.

Dan Leeson

Elizabeth Berry wrote:
> I'm not playing a synthetic clarinet! I'll chop down a tree and make my own,
> gosh darn it!
>
> Elizabeth
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Albert Nemiroff" <anemiroff@-----.net>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 9:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Impingo Wood Supply for Clarinets
>
>
>
>>Not all of the metal Bb and A soprano clarinets made so many decades ago
>>were fit only for lamp making. I had the pleasure of hearing able players
>>make very good sound with a couple of them. While I muse about what CNC
>>applied to metals, plastic, and hard rubber products could afford us, what
>>might modern alloys and/or composites, possibly coated with rare earth
>>ceramics provide. Yet no one is more captivated by the challenge of
>
> seeking
>
>>the blessings of the spirits in mpingo and Arundo donax.
>>Al Nemiroff
--
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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