Klarinet Archive - Posting 000210.txt from 2007/10

From: Gary Truesdail <gir@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Shackleton Clarinet Collection
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:14:48 -0400

I spent most of this last summer touring (musically) Wales, Ireland and
Scotland with my wife and friend Bill Hill and his wife Colleen.
1. We visited a rehearsal of the Cory Brass Band and heard David
Childs, Robert Childs (director) and others of equal abilities, rehearse
for their next performance and contest.
WOW! What a great experience. We have never heard the trombone,
euphonium, and other brass instruments played so perfectly and musically.
2. We attended a concert of the same band in conjunction with another
band from the arts college in Cardiff which is run by Robert Childs.
Again WOW!. And this comment is comming from a career musician. Again
they were fantastic with the soloists showing off with different tunes
than in the previous rehearsal.
3. Attended the Edinburg Tattoo(Scotland) - Interesting with
traditional military bands and bagpipes, with the Duke of Edinburg
attending in the castle.
4. Found and visited the Edinburg Museum of Antique Instruments.This is
a "must see" for clarinetists. The Shackleton collection is on display
and has been photographed and catalogued with detailed descriptions
about the clarinets. I purchased the book of the photos and descriptions
and feel it was worth every cent, or is it pence? This book will soon
be in every college library in the world. I found it very informative
and to my knowledge very complete and thorough except for one thing;
measurements of the antique mouthpieces that were available. If we are
to know what the old-timers really sounded like someone should look into
this omission with the idea of taking measurements, documenting and
finding a way to duplicate a representative set of the old mouthpieces.

I'm getting too old to do the project and the trip was expensive. Leave
it to someone else unless someone wants to sponsor me on another trip.

Gary Truesdail
530 620-0916

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