The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: Tom Ridenour Clarinets

Author: madvax
Date: 2006-11-22 23:20

Neal Raskin wrote:
> Does anyone else agree that the professional plastic clarinets the Tom
> Ridenour is making sound "fake"?

> There is something about wood clarinets that sound natural. Just like live
> performances are generally more pleasing than recording. On his
> website, he has a couple of sample recordings of his clarinets. I
> personally think that they sound too perfect. The tone is too pure, its not
> natural.

> Any opinions?

In my opinion, TR has a beautiful tone.

Don't get too hung-up on the material of the instrument. The design, bore, and mouthpiece influence the sound much more than the material.

Sherman Friedman said it well:
"The only thing about wood is that it is traditional. Actually a fine clarinet can be made from anything, for it is not the material but the thickness of the wall and how and where and if the tone holes are undercut.. read "the myth of Grenadilla" and also please see this site for much valuable information for the clarinetist: http://clarinet.cc/"
Here's the link:
http://www.jazz-clarinet.com/comments.pl?cid=98&sid=88

My favorite story about plastic instruments was told by Alvin Swiney when he was an apprentice for Hans Moennig:
> When I moved to Philadelphia in 1978
> there was a young man in Mr. Moennig's shop having his plastic
> oboe worked on. Mr. Moennig was working on the half hole to
> improve the ascending slurs from A2 to High D and G2 to High D.
> He referred to this procedure as the High D response
> modification. Finally Mr. Moennig finished the job and had
> the young oboist to try the high D and it popped right out.
> After the customer left I leaned over to Mr. Moennig and
> asked him about the plastic oboe. I said that guy must not be
> a very good player if he is using a plastic oboe.
>
> Mr. Moennig exclaimed, "Are you crazy? Do you know who that
> was? That young boy was Dick Woodhams! He took de Lancie's
> place in the Philadelphia Orchestra this year! He likes to
> play and he feels that the plastic is much more consistent
> than wood. And most important of all, Maestro Ormandy likes
> the tone as well."
>
> From that day on I never judged another player for using
> a plastic horn. If it works for you, Great!
> Thank you, Alvin Swiney

Here's the link:
http://www.woodwind.org/Databases/Logs/1999/05/000635.txt

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Tom Ridenour Clarinets new

Neal Raskin

2006-11-22 02:05