Klarinet Archive - Posting 000323.txt from 2005/06

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] RE: klarinet Digest 18 Jun 2005 09:01:01 -0000 Issue 6059
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 05:30:15 -0400

Rien,

Where did people get this idea that basset clarinets were so expensive? The
Steve Fox basset joint is US$2200 and his full basset clarinet US$3800. Even
cheaper to have your own lower joint converted (and you might persuade him
to fix the rest of the A at the same time ...).

But of course you don't NEED one. And yes, my priority would be the basset
horn, but it is great to play the Mozart quintet on the basset clarinet.
Like you, I doubt I shall ever be satisfied enough with my performance of
K622 to perform it in public!

Keith Bowen

>
> Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 02:29:30 +0200
> To: "klarinetlijst" <klarinet@-----.org>
> From: "Rien Stein" <rstein@-----.nl>
> Subject: Trouble in River City
> Message-ID: <001f01c5739c$cae14320$0100000a@rien>
>
> 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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