Klarinet Archive - Posting 000354.txt from 2005/03

From: Nick Shackleton <njs5@-----.uk>
Subj: [kl] THE TEST IS NOW READY
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 05:21:59 -0500

Dear Dan,
I'd like to try this test but I need to establish whether I can play a
file. After you have sent one I will see whether I know how to deal with it.
Personally I am not very confident of being successful because the
boundaries have become so blurred. A couple of examples: Hans Rudolf
Stalder started playing on a pair of Oscar Oehler clarinets, Oehler system,
and he went to Paris to study using these instruments. Only after he
returned to Zurich did he change to Boehm system (personally I think he has
a lovely sound that was not much affected by the French training). Karl
Leister has always played Oehler system but whereas he started off with a
typical old-fashioned German lay (.85m tip opening) and hard reed, now he
plays with a much more American setup with a 1.2mm tip opening and a much
softer reed. The "German sound" of today is very different from the "German
sound" of my youth.
Some will try to identify a "German player" by listening for the tone of
bottom e (affected by the bore of the instrument), or the tone of the
top-of-the-clarinet-register c (affected by the keywork). Others will
listen for the overall tone (affected by the mouthpiece and reed, listening
for the effect of the German narrow slot, long close lay, hard reed all of
which are becoming rejected in Germany today). Similarly the American
concept of the "English sound" is based on distinctive tone of the 15.24mm
very large bore Boosey and Hawkes "1010" clarinet, but few use this today.
This round of discussion started with somebody mentioning a maker of
"Germansound" Boehm system clarinets. The test that I am confident I'd
succeed in, would be to put my own mouthpiece on different instruments and
have somebody else finger them, and I'd tell you whether it was German
bore, and whether it was Oehler system or Boehm system.
all the best, Nick

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