Klarinet Archive - Posting 000182.txt from 2009/02

From: Michael Nichols <mrn.clarinet@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Brahms quintet
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:33:53 -0500

On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Keith <bowenk@-----.com> wrote:

> Indeed. I had, as you did, the pleasure of playing many of Nick Shackleton's
> collection. He kept them all with reeds on, tied on with string. A quick
> lick and they were ready to go - no fussing about dunking in water,
> readjusting etc.

According to that Eric Hoeprich book Jonathan quoted from (p. 94),
this was probably standard operating procedure in the 19th century
(leaving the reeds tied on). Frequent reed changes were apparently
considered bad for the mouthpiece.

I haven't played on period instruments before, but I have experimented
with using narrow German-style reeds (White Masters, specifically) on
my Buffet and my experience is that they are so responsive that they
will practically play dry. French-width reeds are quite sluggish by
comparison, which has led me to wonder what the point of wider-lay
mouthpieces and reeds was in the first place.

I also gave up on using a shoelace as a ligature pretty quickly for
the reason Tony indicated (because otherwise, it worked fine). I use
one mouthpiece for both my A and Bb and worry enough about the reed
coming loose with a modern ligature. If your reed comes loose when
it's tied on with a string, it takes forever to get it back on
properly, because you can't just pull it off and put it back on like
you can with a modern ligature.

------------------------------------------------------------------
The 2009 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is going on right now - see
https://secure.donax-us.com/donation/ for more information.
------------------------------------------------------------------