Klarinet Archive - Posting 000699.txt from 2003/07

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Cane Quality (was RE: [kl] New type of reed by Vandoren)
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 14:12:41 -0400

I haven't closely examined the cane in any maker's reeds over any period of
time - I tend to put the thing on the mouthpiece and judge it by how it
plays, and I have found good reeds in boxes of Vandorens, Zondas, and Grand
Concerts and Gigliottis. I'm sure I would find Mozart and Gonsalez reeds
that I like as well, although I haven't tried them yet.

But, having been a high school player in the 1960s and a serious player at
some level ever since, I have been hearing this same complaint about cane
quality, and particularly the cane used for Vandoren reeds, literally since
those high school days. The established players in Philadelphia to whom I
was exposed in those days all complained the cane had deteriorated over the
preceding 20 years - it was much better, they claimed, before the War
(WWII). One of my early teachers insisted that Olivieri's cane was far
superior to what Vandoren was putting out. All the jokes about the one good
reed in every Vandoren box were already current and I don't think they were
new even then.

I don't know if the cane Vandoren is using today is any different *in
general* (apart from comparing specific individual reeds) from what it's
ever been. But whether it is or not, the complaining hasn't changed in the
40+ years I've been conscious of it.

Karl Krelove

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