Klarinet Archive - Posting 000019.txt from 2004/01

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] 5rv tone color
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 14:05:09 -0500

Joseph Wakeling wrote:

"OK, let's talk about the sound that *I* produce on a clarinet. The thing
is, I know that if I select the right (or perhaps "wrong") combination of
mouthpiece and reed, I can put it on my very expensive top-of-the-range
instrument and make a sound like a cat being murdered, without having to try
to alter the sound using embouchure or throat or diaphragm or whatever.
Likewise I know that if I take my handcrafted mouthpiece and my expensive
ligature and my high-quality cane reed and stick it on a crappy plastic
clarinet, I will make an inferior sound. Now, this seems to me to be pretty
conclusive proof that by changing the physical characteristics of my
instrument, I can change the sound character."

Everything in this important paragraph is either opinion or anecdotal
information. I suggest that because you think you make an inferior
sound under certain mouthpiece/instrument combinations does not mean
that you have. And who are you to decide if the crappy plastic
instrument to which you referred really is a crappy plastic instrument?
Because you used pejorative terms in your description of the instrument
(i.e., "crappy" and "plastic") shows that you have an intellectual bias
against plastic instruments that manifests itself in your description of
them, which means that your statements cannot be considered to be
objective. Some very fine players perform effectively on instruments of
atypical material. The first clarinet player in the Boston Symphony for
years and years used a metal clarinet.

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

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