Klarinet Archive - Posting 000548.txt from 2003/06

From: <roryc@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] High Clarinet, Low Clarinet ?
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 19:48:15 -0400

lol. I know someone who got his contrabass clarinet to
play down to 1hz. He used pipes and stuff to make it
go that low. It was awsome.
Quoting Lelia Loban <lelialoban@-----.net>:

>
> Resurgere Jones wrote,
> >It might be helpful here to distinguish between
> those
> >who make their living playing and those, like
> me, who
> >play seriously and usually get paid to do it,
> but who
> >don't make their living at it. There's a lot of
> us out there....
> <snip>
>
> And then there are the wackos who can't keep our
> mouths off any instrument
> with a single reed but never earn a dime from
> any of 'em, let alone play
> well enough to justify the time and money
> wasted, erm, I mean, *invested*.
> (Invested in the afterlife: If we practice
> enough, we think we might be
> reincarnated as *good* clarinet players. That's
> a useful excuse for owning
> too many clarinets, incidentally, because it's
> just close enough to the
> dangerous subject of religion to shut people up.
> Well, okay, okay, it
> shuts up an unusually nervous person, once in a
> while; but that's a start.)
> Not sure if there are a *lot* of us, but we're
> plotting to take over the
> world. Any day now. Piccolo players
> (piccolists?--piccoloops?--what are
> they, anyhow?) beware.
>
> >In my opinion, if you play well enough to work
> these
> >kinds of jobs you should not be embarrassed
> about not
> >owning every instrument under the sun. There
> are just
> >too many of them and they cost too much money,
> at least until
> >you start getting a steady stream of jobs.
>
> Hmm, trying to parse that first
> sentence...reminds me of Bilbo Baggins's
> birthday party speech: "I like less than half of
> you half as well as you
> deserve." But it's true, alas, that owning lots
> of instruments costs more
> money than most of us can earn from them,
> whether we're embarrassed or not.
> That's true even for those of us sufficiently
> unembarrassed not only to
> prowl the flea markets but to check out the
> dumpsters after the flea
> markets.
>
> >I think for those who have come up through
> school bands
> >and orchestras, there is sometimes a stigma
> associated with
> >playing lower parts.... <snip>
>
> ...And that's a *good* thing, for those of us
> who prefer to take the
> harmonic low road, as low down as possible: 8 Hz
> if we can get it, which we
> can't on clarinet; but somewhere in town there's
> bound to be a pipe organ
> with a Vox Gravissima or some such resultant
> bass yielding 64-ft.
> pitch--and don't let anybody tell you no human
> beings can hear a tone that
> low, because...well, okay, maybe we're not
> *technically* human, but you
> can't tell by looking at us....
> ;-)
> And to this primate subgroup, the alto, bass and
> contrabass clarinets sound
> infinitely more noble than what my Shadow Cat (I
> suspect rightly) reviles
> as the little screech-sticks, so if others
> insist on the high road, by all
> means graciously offer it to them and modestly
> take credit for
> *generosity*--although I suspect the only credit
> in the afterlife for that
> specious species of generosity is a free
> vacation in the Hypocrite's Suite
> in Hotel Hell--where, however, one will find the
> hottest band.
>
> But back to the real issue: cue Joel Gray in MC
> drag, singing, "Money,
> money, money." I still have my bass sax, but
> still don't have a bass or a
> contrabass clarinet. I've never seen one at a
> flea market in other than
> stomped-by-Godzilla condition. It's still
> possible, if one is as patient
> as a snake, to locate and buy a fine soprano
> clarinet for shockingly little
> cash, even after factoring in restoration
> expenses, but after several years
> of looking, I'm resigned to spending (after
> first acquiring) real money to
> get any high-quality clarinet pitched lower than
> my alto.
>
> "The Quest is the Quest."
>
> Lelia Loban
> E-mail: lelialoban@-----.net
> Web site (original music scores as audio or
> print-out):
> http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/LeliaLoban
>
>
>
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