Klarinet Archive - Posting 000188.txt from 2006/04

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] info on "McIntire" clarinet
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:35:50 -0400

The problem that Ed Lacy describes about switching from one
instrument to another is what sunk the Mazzeo system. I always
thought that the idea was brilliant, but it was difficult for
some people (including myself) to master the fingering of the
instrument. I once mentioned this to Mazzeo and he got mad as
hell at me for speaking about it.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Lacy, Edwin [mailto:el2@-----.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 1:02 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] info on "McIntire" clarinet

<<<Can anybody give me any information on a "McIntire" fingering
system
Bb clarinet?>>>

I once had a student who had a McIntire clarinet. I played on it
a
little, and found it to be a really ingenious idea. The main
problem
was that the clarinets on which they installed this fingering
system
were not the greatest. I think they were mid-line instruments of
one of
the major manufacturers. They may have been Normandie or Noblet
clarinets from LeBlanc.

I am a woodwind doubler, and so I'm used to negotiating all the
various
fingering eccentricities of the woodwind instruments, so I found
getting
used to the McIntire fingering system not to be too much of a
problem.
I suspect that someone who has played Boehm system clarinet all
of their
life might find it a little more difficult.

There are many passages that are simpler on the McIntire. For
example,
rapid shakes between written middle C and the Bb on the 3rd line
are
next to impossible on the Boehm system, but is a piece of cake on
the
McIntire, where it is accomplished by moving only one finger.
(Trill
the thumb.)

That's only one example. And, the I found it really a pleasure
to have
all the throat tones in tune and with a much more solid tone
quality
than we are all accustomed to. I wish that they had been able to
put
the mechanism on a really good quality clarinet.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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