Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2007/09

From: "Daniel Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] What to do with horns of famous players
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:32:21 -0400

Tom, what you say has a great deal of sense to it. And certainly no student
player with half an ounce of brains is going to presume that no effort on
his or her part is necessary once one is given the benefit of a great pair
of horns.

But, at the same time, I have to conclude that, all things being equal,
excellent instruments in superior shape are going to be more valuable to a
young student than any other course of events. To allow fine instruments put
in shape by the best mechanics available to languish and eventually leave
the scene completely is anathematic.

I also was in Oklahoma when Iggy's instrument was given to some young
student, and if that case is a bad one for any of the reasons you gave, then
we'll have to learn for the next case around.

As for Marcellus' instruments, Backun told me that he had done those, too.

I suppose that I am predisposed to something with the clarinets of fine
players because I once visited John Denman in Tucson and he had Kell's
clarinets under the bed. That broke my heart.

Of course the decision of what to do with these treasures (if, indeed, they
are treasures) is up to McGinnis' daughter, not me. But I have'nt heard
anything that convinces me that allowing a young and talented student to
have them, either permanently or for a few years, is a bad thing to do.

What would you suggest be done? (And that is not a sneering comment. I'm
looking for good advice for McGinnin's daughter.) She does not want to sell
them for whatever they are worth. She wants to honor her father in some
measurable way. And your suggestion of historical preservation is nothing
less than putting them in a museum for people to look at while they
detiorate further.

[I'm including Tom's complete comments because they are thoughtful and
genuinely sincere. That I am not comfortable with them is no reason to
exclude them from other player's views.]

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net
SKYPE: dnleeson

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Puwalski [mailto:tski1128@-----.com]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 10:29 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] What to do with horns of famous players

> And I suggested that, if the instrument can be repaired and
> brought to fully
> condition, she allow the clarinet society to present them to a
> student who
> wins the annual award, perhaps not permanently but on a rotating
> basis.

Dan, I had the chance to witness the travesty that was the "donation"
of iggy Gennusa's clarinet at the Oklahoma clarinet symposium.
Giving some student a clarinet used by a "great" and believe me Iggy
was one doesn't serve the student well or the memory of a great
player. Most of these students don't know the lore, haven't heard
the stories, most haven't heard these guys play.

It dishonors the famous player because it carries with it the idea
that some how it was the equipment that made this person great. I had
the chance to play Iggy's clarinet while in high school and while I
was in the army in the early 80's. That clarinet the was given out in
OK didn't play any where near as good as it did when Iggy played it.
The "restoration" wasn't very good job, and quite frankly, Iggy
always liked the clarinets that I would bring to a lesson better than
his every time he played mine. I remember the day he finally let me
play THE "Ched", what a disappointment that was! He was trying some
of the new prototype mouthpieces he was developing, and He and I both
sounded better on those than on the ched. "I'm just used to it" he
said. AND He could play. All those old-timers, played day in and day
out on equipment that would be left in the music store if tried by
today's clarinetists.

Which brings me to what should be done with a set of instruments such
as Iggy's , Marcellus's, McGinnis, ect. Should you get them into
playing shape for a player today? I've seen Morrie take some real dog
horns and make them play great! But should he? I'm thinking
historical preservation here! What was done to Iggies clarinet
should not have been done! I know Morrie had nothing to do with
those! I'd love to know where Marcellus's clarinets ended up. But
I'd bet a month of my retirement check, if anyone has had the chance
to play them, they are at best just "OK". Or, are these instruments
worth more to us collectively as clarinetist if stabilized in some
way and preserved in as close to the condition they were in when last
played by the player? I think the later, for no other reason than to
show future clarinetists that it wasn't the horn, the mouthpiece or
the reeds.... It was and is the player! That is, unless you're
playing the New Leblanc symphony, then it just might be the horn!

Tom Puwalski, former soloist with the US Army Field Band, Clarinetist
with The Atonement, and Author of "The Clarinetist's Guide to
Klezmer"and most recently by the order of the wizard of Oz, for
supreme intelligence, a Masters in Clarinet performance.

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