The Clarinet BBoard

Re: When to buy an A clarinet

Author: Jack Kissinger  Date:   2005-08-23 04:43 Here's my $.02 on a question that comes up with some regularity. IMNSHO, at this point in your life, Brad, an A clarinet is an expensive toy. If money is a little tight and/or your parents expect you to contribute to your college costs, I wouldn't buy one right now if I were you. If you don't plan to pursue the clarinet seriously in college, you will likely find that, if you buy an A now, it will sit in its case most of the time - probably a waste of money that could have been put to better use elsewhere (tuition, books, room and board). If you do plan to pursue the clarinet seriously in college, you would be wise to wait to buy an A until your teacher tells you that you need one and then get advice from him/her on what to buy. I have a cousin who has a bachelor's degree from Kansas (I'm not sure whether it's performance or education) where he studied clarinet with Larry Maxey and a master's from Wichita State (I think it's clarinet performance - he sent me a tape of his master's recital and whenever I play it, I turn green with envy). He has never owned an A clarinet. Since graduation, as a school band director and music teacher, he's never really needed one for his livelihood. Had he purchased one in school, he probably would have sold it by now (at a significant loss). At Kansas, the university had a couple of loaners. I don't know what the situation was at Wichita State, probably about the same. In any case, my cousin told me that, when he was at KU, there weren't enough A clarinets to go around so all the students became monsters at sight transposing. An A clarinet is probably necessary for a clarinetist who plays in a professional "classical" orchestra or who anticipates a career as a classical soloist. Some of the regulars on the board, particularly the serious orchestral musicians here, will likely say there's no "probably" about it, they are "absolutely" necessary -- but I'm not so sure. I play in two community orchestras regularly and perform as an occasional sub/extra in a couple more. More often than you might think, I see transpositions written in above tricky passages in A clarinet parts, or copies of entire hand-written transposed parts tucked in with the original. Some publishers also include optional parts transposed for Bb. I have seen them included on old parts for a suite from Hansel and Gretel (actually, the A part may have been the optional one) and for Lieutenant Kije. Kalmus is also starting to include them more commonly in their rental parts. Obviously the transpositions are not for the Boston and Cleveland Symphonies of the world but I'm not convinced they are entirely for amateurs either. I suspect there are some good clarinetists, like my cousin, playing with regional professional pick-up orchestras, particularly in smaller population centers, who don't own an A. Also, I suspect that many of those who say an A is absolutely necessary would not say the same thing about a C clarinet. But, if it's OK to transpose C clarinet parts, why not A clarinet parts? Or to turn it around, why does someone who's going to play in an orchestra need an A but not a C. Because A clarinet parts are more common? Perhaps, if your orchestra does 30+ concerts a year. But how much use will an A clarinet get from someone playing in a community orchestra that gives 5 concerts a year? For the record, without actually checking, I would guess I used my C clarinet for almost as many concerts as my A last year. And this year, as far as I can tell from the music I have at hand, at least 5 of 13 concerts include music that will call for a C clarinet while at most 8 of those 13 will call for an A (and one of those is a brief section that consists mostly of dotted half notes). It seems to me that there are two times when it makes economic sense to buy an A clarinet: (1) when you need it for your profession (or professional moonlighting), and (2) when you have enough money that you can afford it comfortably without taking money away from higher priority items. It doesn't sound to me as though you are in either of those categories right now. But there is good news if A-clarinet-lust has struck you. If you buy an A carefully and take good care of it, you may tie up some money in the short run but you will not necessarily lose any of it if you decide to sell later. If you can find a fairly recent (say less than 25 years old) used professional A clarinet in decent playing condition from Selmer (Series 10, 10S or 10G or later), Leblanc (Concerto or later higher-end) or Yamaha (model 72 or CS or later) for $600 - $900, or a slightly older Buffet R13 or RC (say between 20 - 40 years old) for $600 - $900, or a more recent Buffet R13 or RC (less than 15 - 20 years old) for $1,000 - $1,200, you can probably resell it without too much trouble for close to what you paid for it. From a resale point of view, I think there are two ways to lose money: (1) buy a brand new instrument or (2) buy one from an unknown maker that you later find nobody else wants. (BTW, I would not consider models older than the ones I have mentioned above. You may be able to find them for less than $500 but I doubt they will be much better than anything you might be able to borrow.) One observation, I find that used A clarinets in the 10-20 year age range often are in quite good condition, perhaps because the sellers haven't had much call to use them. I will close this overly-long post with a story my cousin told me. Sometime after he had graduated, he was asked to play in an orchestra for a special concert (somewhere in central Kansas). One of the pieces called for an A clarinet. At the first rehearsal, the conductor, who had been brought in from some distance, presented my cousin with a shoelace and told him to be very careful not to lose it because it had taken the conductor years to find one that worked just right in a clarinet bore. My cousin thinks the conductor had never seen anyone who could transpose before. In any case, he told the conductor that he was very comfortable transposing but that perhaps the 2nd clarinetist could use the shoelace. According to my cousin, the 2nd clarinetist did use it and it worked very well. Maybe shoelaces are like mouthpieces, you just have to find the right one for your clarinet. Best regards, jnk

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