Klarinet Archive - Posting 000207.txt from 2004/01

From: OArkas@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] American move to the Boehm system
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 22:00:34 -0500

In a message dated 1/7/2004 9:45:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, leeson0@-----.net writes:
>
> C'mon people! We need some heavy thinking and serious contributions
> here, or are we going to spend the rest of our lives asking
> about which
> mouthpiece or which reed gives us the darker sound?
>
> Dan

Hi, Dan and folks:
All I have to offer are some thoughts I've had over the years. As I said, I only play Albert; I started around 1962 or so (hard to remember back that far)! :-)
Anyway, here goes:
I think that the greater number of cross fingerings with the Boehm allows (especially) classical musicians more options for difficult passages. Second, I've noticed that the older Alberts with no rings on the upper joint especially, force you to use more lip or whatever to keep in tune (ie hit the note you really want to hit). Especially the F or F# notes before the open G. With the two rings, these are easier to keep in tune than without. Interestingly, for Greek music, we like that "so-called weakness" because in our playing we use notes that are not necessarily in the tempered scale. We use a modal system that is pretty sophisticated (much like the Byzantine modes of the Greek Orthodox Church).
Sorry this is so long, and the ideas are only those of a Greek folk musician. I don't know that much about classical music, but the ideas I've formed include the reasons of the many cross fingerings and the intonation advantages for the preference for Boehm system. From our point of view (folk musicians), however, the trade off was in the different tone that comes with the Boehm system.
Hope this helps someone.
Kalakos

John Pappas
oarkas@-----.com

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