Klarinet Archive - Posting 001172.txt from 2003/04

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] The basset clarinet as a regular orchestral instrument
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:48:28 -0400

Your note is very interesting. I also have no idea of what the results
of using a basset clarinet as the regular orchestral instrument would
be, but it certainly was an experiment that I was prepared to try. It
would also be worthwhile to have an hypothesis about why the two long
tube notes you mentioned were so affected on the particular instrument
you tried. One could ask equally if the long tube notes on a bass
clarinet (that has the extension to low C) are similary affected but
since the extension generally does not come off, one might simply have
become acostomed to the B and C notes that you suggest were noticeably
different in the soprano clarinets.

But as clarinettists, it seems to me that we want to undertake
experiments of this nature, because if they are successful, the
repertoire could be expanded to include orchestral works going down to
low C for soprano clarinet. It seems to me that Mozart demanded low d
on one of his two orchestral clarinets in Così Fan Tutte.

Don't we all want to institute some improvements in orchestral clarinet
work? Mostly this is limited to execution issues, but a new kind of
clarinet is just an extention of the basic idea of improvement.

Dan

GrabnerWG@-----.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/24/2003 10:45:48 AM Eastern Standard Time, leeson0@-----.net writes:
>
> << In effect, what I am suggesting here is that having to use a basset clarinet all the time is not necessarily a bad thing, even though one would almost never have to use the basset notes. That is, having the extra length instruments in all cases would provide the possibility of a significant change (enchancement or detriment) to the character of one's sound.>>
>
> Last summer I had the opportunity of trying an A clarinet with a bassett extension made by one of our expert instrument makers.
>
> While I certainly enjoyed the bassett notes, and admired the excellent craftsmanship, I would NOT play this clarinet with the bassett extension unless I needed the bassett notes.
>
> Why?
>
> The character of the long tube notes, in particular third line B, and fourth space C, were inferior to the notes using the original joint. They were simply less resonant - less "ring" to the sound, more muffled.
>
> Is this a characteristic of all bassett extensions? I have NO idea. However, on this clarinet, I would only use the bassett extension when I needed those notes.
>
> Just one observation.
>
> BTW, I was actually surprised in what I found, in that I am very familar to bass clarinets, and they seem always to benefit from extension.
>
> Walter Grabner
> www.clarinetXpress.com
> bass clarinet extensions
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/
>
>

--
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**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
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