Klarinet Archive - Posting 000194.txt from 2006/04

From: Margaret Thornhill <clarinetstudio@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Re: McIntyre/Mazzeo
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 11:07:46 -0400

Dan wrote:
> 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
>
>
Though I don't know the McIntyre clarinet, after Dan and George Huba I
am probably the only other person on this list who actually knows the
Mazzeo system, and the only person who plays it as a principal
instrument, (unless Sherman Friedland is lurking) so I can't resist
adding a little more information.

The curious may want to know that the Mazzeo really is just a Boehm
clarinet with only one (no matter what Mazzeo claimed) note fingered
differently--the throat B-flat--which is normally fingered with the
throat A key plus the rings of the right hand (and yes, it is/was a
brilliant innovation.)

This seems far less arcane than the description of fingerings for the
McIntyre.

I think there are two reasons why the Mazzeo system sunk.

One is that, with all due respect, Selmer had the patent, not Buffet.

The second is Mazzeo himself marketed it as a new kind of clarinet, and
a lot of people were afraid of it. (I once lost out in an interview for
a college teaching position (in the 70's,folks) when asked if I
"taught the Mazzeo system." Not really understanding the significance
of the question I replied simply "yes" )

The technical issue for people attempting to switch back and forth is
very simple to explain. Most people were (and are) taught to "cover"
their throat notes with their right hand, an idea with its roots in the
early, non-chromatic history of the instrument. This is incompatible
with the Mazzeo. The reason I can switch back and forth between regular
Boehm Buffets, my eight key clarinets, and the Mazzeo is because I
un-learned this technique many years ago as a student, which as I recall
took less than a month. I simply don't do it .

I do have to concentrate to remember which clarinet I am actually
playing, though. (It's actually worse after playing early clarinet,
since I keep trying to put in obsolete fingerings everywhere if I'm not
careful.) Woodwind doublers would have had little difficulty adopting
the Mazzeo.

Margaret Thornhill

http://www.margaretthornhill.com

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