 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Matt74
Date: 2017-10-03 01:26
The article below is very good, and outlines concerns of musicians better than anything else I have come across.
"In Africa, as in South America, hardwood poaching has little connection to woodwind building and is primarily attributed to furniture production and, in the case of grenadilla, artistic carvings. For example, Mozambique exports around 720,000 cubic meters of grenadilla a year. Of this quantity, only 255 cubic meters are used for instrument building (0.04% of all use)! As such, woodwind manufacturing is not considered a causal agent of the genus’ recent depletion."
http://clarinet.org/2017/10/02/new-cites-regulations-a-clarinetists-primer/
The quotation above is not meant to suggest that musicians should not be concerned with the environmental impact of instrument making. (I personally think buying used instruments is a great idea, as is buying plasic models for students, and even hard rubber for pros.) I just feel very strongly that the CITES classification of Grenadilla in musical instruments is misleading and ineffective. Taxing clarinets and making travelers nervous won't accomplish much, if anything, but it does in my view, diminish something beautiful.
I think it's sad, because of how much music has to offer, and how little it demands from laypeople. You can go to free concerts anywhere. Musicians are stewards of some of the greatest cultural and artistic achievements in the world, and it's not in a museum, it's a living tradition. Their instruments are part of that tradition. The amount of consumption and waste in the production of woodwinds is extremely low compared to other industries. And yet somehow, they have to give clarinetists a hard time. I think that if people listened to, and played, more classical music they would be much more likely to protect and use wisely other beautiful things, like certain African trees.
- Matthew Simington
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Author: Kalashnikirby
Date: 2017-10-04 20:17
Thank you very much for this article and your thoughts on it. To be sure, clarinet makers in Germany have already started lamenting the many problems (or at least restrictions) the CITES act is creates or is going to. A while back, I've heard an interview with one of the more esteemed clarinet makers here and he was highly concerned - so am I.
However, I'd implore that there is a large amount of wood instruments being build now, and more so in the future, that are but a waste of precious materials. Maybe, just maybe that'll force manufacturers to reconsider their production process and research more for alternative materials. I'd like to see our instruments being developed further, if there is any such possibility and basically don't care about grenadilla wood - I'm only afraid that it'll remain the best material for a long time.
But nevermind these considerations. I've already heard from my our former conductor and violinist how airlines tend to make transporting an instrument harder and harder. It seems there is a growing carelessness (or ignorance) for our cultural ritches and inheritance. The very same legislators and politicians, I imagine, completely forget about car manufacturers building the same crap for centuries (yeah, our little diesel problem is not going to be adressed by anything other than a "software update"), and new, fancy materials like carbon being about 0% recycable, yet it's pushed everywhere right now.
If something isn't "sustainable", doesn't create lots of employment or makes our industry more "competitve", it's not worth wasting one's time on. So why teach your children an instrument, when you can teach your children 2 new languages for better chances of sucess in their later working life?
Best regards
Christian Ledwig
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