Klarinet Archive - Posting 000316.txt from 2005/06

From: "Rien Stein" <rstein@-----.nl>
Subj: [kl] Trouble in River City
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 20:27:32 -0400

If it were the standard to make no clarinets but basset clarinets instead,
there wouldn't be a financial problem. But now the basset clarinet is so
expensive there is no use in buying one unless you are a top performer.

And here we come to the heart of the question, I think.

For me as an amateur there is no need to buy such an expensive instrument as
it is prescribed only very rarely by the composers. And they have it in
their arrangements only extremely rarely, as there are so few people who can
afford to buy one. And those who can afford, don't need one because of the
scarcity ... etc. Dan, I have heard the Mozart concerto played by Sabine
Meyer several times. She plays it on a basset clarinet in A, and it is
beautiful. I play it on a clarinet in B-flat, as my A-clarinet is a very
poor instrument, and I probably will never be able to perform it with a
piano, let only be an orchestra. I don't see the use in buying a basset
clarinet. Going back to the first point ... .

It is different with the basset horn.

For this instrument too exist only very few compositions. But they do exist,
are prescribed more often, and can be ordered from the clarinet builders,
costing relatively less. You can make money with it!

But most of all I like the claribass I am playing. It has the basset notes,
that actually are indispensable if you play in an orchestra, whether
symphonic or wind orchestra.

Cheers

Rien

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