Klarinet Archive - Posting 000141.txt from 2006/12

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Basset horn vs alto clarinet
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 13:33:12 -0500


"Morgul"/Stan wrote,
>At the risk of provoking a firestorm, please
>allow me to parade my ignorance.

>Basset horns, Dan's and others, are highly
>regarded specialized instruments. Alto
>clarinets, on the other hand, are just as
>roundly reviled. Why is this?

I nearly replied that in addition to the Nomex suit, you might want to find
a blast-proof shelter before reading any reply from Dan Leeson, but then
Dan wrote,
>>While there are and always have been criticisms
>>of the alto clarinet as being an inferior instrument,
>>there are no significant reasons why this should
>>be the case, though it is often true in the case of
>>instruments available to us. I suspect that
>>manufacturers do not invest the time and effort
>>needed to produce a superior alto clarinet --
>>particularly one that is in tune from top to bottom
>>-- but that is not synonymous with saying that it is
>>impossible to do so.

Dan followed this comment with similarly reasonable and interesting
information. But Dan--after your lecture before the Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment concert at the Library of Congress on December 7, when a
man in the audience raised his hand and asked you a similar question, you
said--no, you SHOUTED--that the person who invented the alto clarinet
should be put to death! I was terribly tempted to raise my own hand and
debate, since I'm rather fond of my pro-quality Selmer alto from the 1980s,
but chickened out, not because I feared for my own life so much (with an
arthritic knee, I'm not sure whether I can run faster than you, but you
were up there behind a podium while I was near enough to the aisle and to
the back of the room to get a good head start, and I'll bet I know a tunnel
or two that you don't know...and besides, Mad Andy was hanging around down
there and anybody who messes with me really does not want to run into Mad
Andy in the cellar), but because, given the number and volume of the death
threats already issued at that point, across the street from the U. S.
Capitol, I feared you might attract the attention of the goon squad, oops,
I mean the security personnel, and we might all be told to leave the
building and might miss the concert and--well, anyhow, I kept my big trap
shut, but your latest message does seem like a bit of a reversal from three
weeks ago!

Merry Cthulhumas to all, and to all a good fright--
Lelia Loban

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