 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: diz
Date: 2005-06-29 01:01
If you're Australian, forget a spontaneous decision to purchase a contrabass/alto clarinet, seemingly. There is an 18 month waiting time for Selmer's beautiful contrabass, plus the cost is $18K.
I'd be interested to hear of any Aussies who have successfully purchased a contra/bass/alto.
thanks
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: msloss
Date: 2005-06-29 02:12
Don't take it personally, diz -- they make to order, and only if they have enough to justify making more than one. Given the worldwide demand for contras isn't exactly booming, it takes a while to aggregate three orders to actually build.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2005-06-29 14:41
If you're not set on a brand new one, I'd suggest watching eBay and getting a used one. Of course, as has been pointed out here before, most will be former school instruments and may not be in the best shape.
Just a little story -- The conductor of the Indiana Wind Symphony purchased a used paperclip contra on eBay at a good price. It wasn't in too bad of a shape. Later, he sent it to a local woodwind repairman who has involvement with the group. As might be expected, the cost of the repairs was relatively high, but fortunately when it was at the shop, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra asked to rent it, paying the going rate. Their rental of the instrument paid for half the repair costs. (They also got to use the newly repaired instrument before we did.)
The conductor, who collects old and unusual brass instruments, concluded that renting them out to the symphony and others might be a good way to make a few bucks, either for himself or the wind symphony.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: diz
Date: 2005-06-29 21:55
Nice anecdote, Don
They must have been playing Joseph's Legend (Strauss) or perhaps some Messiean, were they? So little has be written using it.
There is an occasional orchestra in Sydney that has an amazing collection, including a contrabass clarinet and two contrabassoons (owned by their players). I have suggested they tackle The Rite as that's about the only work I can think of that actually uses two contrabassoons (apart from a stupid PDQ Bach piece).
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2005-06-30 15:20
Although I was tempted to go to one of the concerts just to hear the contrabass, I missed it. I believe the piece requiring the contra was something more contemporary.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2005-06-30 15:28
Diz, just get a Corporation to sponsor you and let them pay for it. String players do it constantly.
The Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster doesn't even own his Violin! He told me himself that it is owned by a company and on "lend" to him.
Of course to equal the cost of an instrument like that, the Contra would have to be made of Platinum 
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2005-06-30 21:03
The Selmer Bb contrabass is an impressive specimen. Feels much bigger and imposing than its Leblanc counterparts.
Have a look at it at:
http://www.octave5.com/img083.jpg
http://www.octave5.com/img082.jpg
Wouldn't you love to own it? Enjoy!
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2005-06-30 21:18
At last summer's ClarinetFest in Maryland I had the honor of sitting in the adult mega-clarinet choir a few seats away from Paul Sargeant of the British Clarinet Ensemble, who was playing his rosewood Selmer BBb contrabass. Despite the mighty Selmer's high price it was apparently not a satisfactory instrument as received from the factory, as Paul had extensively modified his -- including the addition of two (2!) more register keys with all the requisite vents and mechanisms, plus a resonance hole on the bell, and a few other changes. So I guess for the price of a new car, you can have an instrument that STILL needs work...........
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Don Berger
Date: 2005-06-30 21:34
Interesting commentary, my thought is, shouldn't we consider the "utility"/desireability/necessity of the low bass sounds from woodwinds instead of from low brass and strings? I recognise the timbre differences, but doubt that most audiences will distinguish tubas from string bass from bassoon/contra b. We are now into another discussion re: the desireability/necessity of low C bass cls on the Yahoo B-C site, which caused me to consider if the EEb contra-alto cl might reasonably solve the need for low C bass and contrabass cls. With transposition software available, or a not-too-difficult sight-transposition learned, I should think it might be a possible solution [to a problem of minor import?]. Thots? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: diz
Date: 2005-06-30 21:42
There is a quote from The Mikado ... Ko Ko speaking to Pooh Bah. "Must you always put in your oar". Funny how it reminds me of one of the thread replyers here!!
Yes I agree ... the Selmer contrabass is spectacular and very expensive. It's actually much cheaper, I've discovered, to be in the market for a contrabassoon.
Without music, the world would be grey, very grey.
Post Edited (2005-06-30 21:45)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: BassetHorn
Date: 2005-06-30 22:00
Good point, but I feel that for most wind ensembles, tuba is still the de facto bass voice and least dispensable.
Our 4 tuba players decided to all take a night off at our last week’s rehearsal. For our 40+ member band, our bass clarinet player and myself (on Bundy Eb contrabass) really had to push ourselves. We blew at our hardest and loudest ever (on the verge of being almost unmusical), yet we struggled all night to be heard. Low reeds just don’t have the powerful presence of low brass. If tubas had been there, us low reeds can afford to pick our styles and dynamics, but without the tubas, we were forced to support the whole band (with blaring trumpets, trombones, and saxes) and we just couldn’t do it.
I feel that low reeds alone maybe adequate for a chamber group or small concert band, but they just don’t cut it for anything bigger. Low reeds have their place because they add beautiful colour at exposed passages, but really they can’t compete with tuba in pure supporting power.
Now, my Leblanc Bb (340) does come closer at matching tuba in volume and presence than my Eb contrabass can. So in most cases, bands do need both Eb and Bb contrabass clarinets (more than one if possible) if they are missing tubas. Bass clarinets are just extra needed help.
It’s always nice to have a string bass or contrabassoon as well. But again, I doubt that, alone, either one can compete with tuba.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: archer1960
Date: 2005-07-01 11:59
BassetHorn wrote:
...
> I feel that low reeds alone maybe adequate for a chamber group
> or small concert band, but they just don’t cut it for
> anything bigger. Low reeds have their place because they add
> beautiful colour at exposed passages, but really they can’t
> compete with tuba in pure supporting power.
Not even on a 1-for-1 basis? Obviously one Bass Cl and one C-B Cl can't make up for four missing tuba's in addition to their own part, but what if you had 4 extra C-B's? In high school, we had one tuba and one C-B Cl (me), and I felt that I could be heard solo just as easily as the tuba could, but usually we were both needed (and often playing the same lines).
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: bobmi74
Date: 2005-07-01 16:04
Hmm...I just don't know what to say about all this. In my school's wind ensemble, we had 2 tubas, 4 trbns, a bass cl., and a contra. Oh, and a string bass. anyways, the sound that the low woodwinds put out was amazing!! We have a brand new rosewood low C Bass clarinet and some kind of contra. I'm not sure what kind. anyways, It's actually a contralto? The one that's a 5th below the bass clarinet. anyways, I was quite envious of them. I had to play bass last year when we played Carmina burana. OMG!! that last movement is a killer...low E for most of the song, really loud. Looooong tones. It was fun though, and there was a DEFINATE difference when the two of us stopped playing (two basses) and just listened, even hwen it was rediculously loud....and we had REALLY loud and nasty trumpets. Had to re-record the concert b/c of them.
Post Edited (2005-07-01 16:05)
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: archer1960
Date: 2005-07-01 16:45
bobmi74 wrote:
> Hmm...I just don't know what to say about all this. In my
> school's wind ensemble, we had 2 tubas, 4 trbns, a bass cl.,
> and a contra. Oh, and a string bass. anyways, the sound that
> the low woodwinds put out was amazing!! We have a brand new
I LOVE the sound of a contra, especially in the low register. I first started playing it because the director wanted more help on the low end (we only had 1 tuba and about 3 trombones), and my fingers weren't fast enough to play the soprano parts very well, but as soon as I tried the contra, I loved it because of the big fat sound it made. Some of the low, loud parts made me light-headed from nearly hyper-ventilating, but I enjoyed playing it immensely. It was a Bb contra, so the key registers were the ones I was used to, unlike when I played bari sax for a year at my previous school.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
