Klarinet Archive - Posting 000339.txt from 2005/11

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Georg Ottensteiner clarinet (was Odd Clarinet)
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 13:37:44 -0500

danyel wrote:
> I think if a piece can't be played on a proper clarinet, it is
> ill-written.

Yes, but even if we allowed for the alleged crumminess of modern
instruments, Johann Melchior Molter might have a different idea of what
a "proper" clarinet is... ;-)

> Feldman's Clarinet and String Quartet, in turn, sounds quite
> ridiculous on a modern Klosé, doesn't it?

Actually, I'm not familiar with that piece except by name; I only know
the Bass Clarinet and Percussion. I wouldn't like to comment on
ridiculousness. I imagine he wrote it with a Boehm instrument in
mind---or did he deliberately specify something else?

> Not many composers today care as much for the subtleties of our
> instruments and know as much about it as Mozart, Weber, Mendelssohn or
> Brahms did. Hence ever since Spohr entered the scene, myriads of holes
> have been drilled in our once so beautiful instrument just to make
> things easier for ignorant composers.

Mozart, Weber, Mendelssohn and Brahms' sensitivity to the instrument was
exceptional for their own time as well as ours. I don't think it's got
anything to do with "ignorant composers", I think it's just that
different musicians, at different times, value different aspects of a
musical instrument. If a Boehm or Oehler-system instrument makes it
easier for a player to get the performing result they want to get, or
for a composer to realise his or her musical vision, is it really worth
arguing? You're not obliged to like the result, but as long as *you*
have the instruments and performers necessary to achieve the musical
results *you* are interested in, is it worth fussing that much over what
other people choose to do?

After all, there are clever fellows with keyboards who probably think
that it's ridiculous to fuss so much over which stick with holes in it
is superior, when they have stupendous samples of 10,000 different
instruments on their Apple Powerbook. :-P

-- Joe

P.S.---since we're on the topic, do you have experience of Schwenk &
Seggelke's 3000G series of modified Boehm clarinets? What's your
impression?

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