 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: aj16hp
Date: 2007-04-30 21:43
Hi i was wondering if anyone could give me some advice..How much would one expect to pay for a normandy alto one pieces 1960s model ..any information would be great even if its "dont buy it" lol..
I hope you dont mind me asking,i know these newbie question can get a little tiresome..
I play a B12 Bb at present, but really love the sound of the lower clarinets and just wanted some advice.. I'm a adult player of about a year if that helps
aj
Post Edited (2007-04-30 21:45)
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2007-05-01 04:24
It's identical to a plastic Vito -- I'd suggest you go to That Infernal And Unmentionable Internet Auction Site to find out what comparable plastic Vito (and Bundy) alto clarinets are going for. I believe you'll find the answer to be: not much!
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2007-05-01 14:53
The good thing about purchasing a second-hand alto clarinet:
They are relatively cheap.
The bad thing about purchasing a second-hand alto clarinet:
Regardless of the final price paid, you still end up with an alto clarinet.
Last night, I was looking into an orchestration issue for my trumpet folks, and as I had all of the orchestration books out at one time, I decided to see what they said about the alto clarinet.
Of the four, only one made an even charitably positive mention of the thing, this being the Berlioz one as edited by Strauss (available from Dover Press). I believe that the positive comment was by ol' Hector rather than by my buddy Richard.
It was one of those damning with faint praise sort of comments that he was notorious for. The suggestion that any symphonic orchestra would benefit from a pair of alto clarinets was (thankfully) not taken up by the musical powers that be.
In any event, any suggestion coming from a man who recommended that electric lights and signals be used to conduct ensembles of five hundred and more needs to be taken with a grain or two of salt.
(For the record, Strauss had the better advice. He was the one who said "I try not to look at the trombones; it only encourages them" or words to that effect...)
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: rsholmes
Date: 2007-05-04 15:57
Oh, I don't know -- I hear there's great money to be made in alto clarinet playing. Why just today on my MySpace page this sponsored link came up:
Quote:
Alto Clarinet Jobs
Upload Music For Employers To Hear Register Today & Get That Dream Job
xx.xxxxx-xxxx.com
(I disguised the URL so I can get first shot at alto clarinet stardom.)
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Author: LeeB
Date: 2007-05-04 16:23
The fact that the market for used alto clarinets is soft means you can often buy a very high quality instrument for a very reasonable price. A couple of years ago, I bought a Selmer 22 alto clarinet on the evil auction site for around $400. If bought new today, that instrument costs between $6,000-$7,000. When I take it out, there's no getting around the fact that it's a very high quality instrument.
Don't let these others discourage you. The alto clarinet can be a very fun instrument to play. For me, it's every bit as much fun as my accordions and banjo (which I actually do own and play).
BTW, the best time to find the best deals on instruments like this is right when school lets out for summer. Lots of people decide they won't be using them again, and list them. Wait until fall, and everyone's looking for instruments for the next school year, pushing prices up.
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Author: rsholmes
Date: 2007-05-04 16:37
Quote:
Don't let these others discourage you. The alto clarinet can be a very fun instrument to play. For me, it's every bit as much fun as my accordions and banjo
What? No viola?
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Author: LeeB
Date: 2007-05-05 21:32
My wife has joked about my not having a viola numerous times. It's almost as if a gauntlet has been thrown down. There may well be a viola in my future.
The viola and tenor banjo are tuned identically, so I'm halfway there already.
Post Edited (2007-05-05 21:33)
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2007-05-07 04:34
One thing I learned after scavenging some instruments and parts of instruments at a Pasadena Independent School District auction a few years back is that a viola, when crushed under your boot, makes very much the same noises as did one of those old, wooden strawberry boxes. Sort of a splintery crunch, akin to crushing a very large cockroach.
(No negative comments, please: the viola in question was a wreck (broken neck, cracked sound box along the grain) bought as part of a larger and more useful lot of other items.)
Take the viola's string length, attach it to a properly sized sound box (as can be seen with the viola d'gamba, which does this in proper proportion), and you've got yourself a decent sounding instrument. Hard to fit under the chin, perhaps, but there you go.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Clarence
Date: 2007-05-07 05:36
I'm always hearing people bad mouthing the alto clarinet but no one has explained why the alto is so undesirable.
What is the scoop?
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2007-05-07 20:18
For one thing, the tone that even the best of these has is (compared to the soprano and bass instruments) "windy" and "insipid". These are not my terms, but instead being the opinions of musical experts who are authorities in the orchestration field.
Second, it shares with the other "odd" clarinets the lack of solo literature written for same. I'm not talking about concert band contest pieces, but "legit" concerti and/or pop uses.
Benny Goodman, for all the faults that the man had, was known as the "King Of Swing" when he was at the height of his career. It's hard to imagine him that way with the Dutchman's pipe depending from his lower lip. Perhaps the "King Of The Society Two-Step"...
That a solo literature could arise is unquestionable. The saxophone is from roughly the same point in time, and there's no shortage of literature there. That the sax has taken off and the alto clarinet has bounced along at ground level is probably due to the fact that the thing sounds "wishy-washy".
Ditto its near relative the basset horn. There was some use of it as a solo voice in the days before Sax worked his magic with the bass clarinet, but now both basset horn and alto clarinet have largely been replaced by the bass, with its much more distinctive voice.
leader of Houston's Sounds Of The South Dance Orchestra
info@sotsdo.com
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2007-05-07 22:23
While I go along with much of what T S says, but, like in OKLA !, "Lets say a good word for the ALTO" !! Yes, its long term "struggle" to fit between the sop and bass cls, and to compete with both alto and tenor saxes for ?tonalities? [tone character], when well and carefully played with a good mp on a good [small bore] inst, it does have "A Place for Us". With only a few good parts in concert band music , I've found a surprised [tho grudging] acceptance by conductors, when they find that it can be a "chord-filling" sound. As a solo inst., since its chalemeau is the same as the T sax, "torch songs" are very playable with good sound. The 4th/5th transposition [plus 1 #] isn't all that tough ! Just PM thots about an inst. I like. Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: rsholmes
Date: 2007-05-10 15:01
The lack of solo literature can be seen as a chicken-and-egg thing: There's no solo literature, because no one takes alto clarinet seriously, because there is no solo literature. The same could have been said for the bass clarinet fifty or so years ago.
The judgement of sound quality is subjective; there are those who love the sound of a viola, despite the many others who insist its dimensions are all wrong. Hamiet Bluiett, Vinny Golia, J. D. Parran, Petr Kroutil, Joe Lovano and Gianluigi Trovesi all seem to have found the alto clarinet worth playing. Sound quality also depends on factors like reed, mouthpiece, and the skill of the player -- and there aren't many skilled alto clarinetists around. Another chicken and egg: Assign your mediocre clarinetists to play the alto, because no one takes alto clarinet seriously, because mediocre clarinetists are assigned to play it.
But maybe it really is true the alto clarinet's sound quality is inherently inferior. Rather than just bemoaning the fact, why not ask: Why? Or rather, imagine an alto clarinet with a great sound and ask, why not? Is there something fundamentally wrong with the alto clarinet's design -- something that could be changed?
After all the sax family covers a wide pitch range at half octave intervals, and I am not aware of complaints that e.g. the baritone and alto saxes sound great but the tenor doesn't. If the saxes can sound good in all sizes, why can't the clarinets?
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