Klarinet Archive - Posting 000186.txt from 2009/02
From: "Keith" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Brahms quintet
Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:52:24 -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.
Agreed. I play Schmidt-Reform Boehm with German mouthpieces and much prefer
them.
>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.
Well that will happen with a French mouthpiece. The German mouthpiece has a
ridge that retains the top of the string. On fastening the string, one
pushes it tight up against the ridge. I actually find it MORE reliable to
change mouthpieces now than on the French mouthpieces with conventional
ligatures. Wurlitzers are also carefully machined so that the barrel fits
slightly more tightly on the top joint than on the mouthpiece, so there is
no danger of the barrel coming off as well.
I use a string ligature simply because I think the sound is noticeably
better (on my particular instrument etc etc - not saying this is a general
rule). You can do it up pretty fast when you have to! And you can adjust the
reed slightly without undoing it.
Keith Bowen
------------------------------------------------------------------
The 2009 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is going on right now - see
https://secure.donax-us.com/donation/ for more information.
------------------------------------------------------------------
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 3836 (20090207) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature
database 3836 (20090207) __________
The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
http://www.eset.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
The 2009 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is going on right now - see
https://secure.donax-us.com/donation/ for more information.
------------------------------------------------------------------
