 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Danny Boy
Date: 2008-01-05 10:11
I'm currently writing a piece of work exploring what I see as the merging of the different international schools of clarinet playing in to a more international way of playing.
While researching the decline of the more traditional British way of clarinet playing, I came across Peter Eaton's excellent article which appeared in 'The Clarinet' and is now posted on his website.
Of particular interest to me was this paragraph...
"This was the period when many British players were abandoning their old B&H instruments and changing to Buffet. Alan Lucas, who was in charge of Buffet UK, was the man mainly responsible for this major change."
Having searched for information on Alan Lucas, I'm coming up short, and intrigued as to what he actually did coax players away from the 1010 and towards Buffet instruments. A search here gives a single thread, in which someone mentions a marketing campaign, but do any BBoarders have anything to add?
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Author: D Dow
Date: 2008-01-05 12:30
Boosey at one time time purchased Buffet Cramon..I believe around the late 70s..it also seems the market for Boosey and Hawkes clarinets was quite small(only UK).
At that time as well large corporations in music were clearly taking over the music business , many smaller firms were struggling to survive...the death of the Boosey Clarinet was merely a symptom of the time. I do believe Howarth make a large bore clarinet which is a knock off of the Boosey clarinet.
I played a number of 1010s and other Booseys and found them to be hard to play and tune..others have been luckier it seems. Certainly most players had alot of tweaking done to them. Keywork was always a clinky and adjustment not so great.
David Dow
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2008-01-05 13:20
Howarth have never made large bore clarinets - only the S1 and S2 which have a 14.75mm bore and the S3 which has a 14.65mm bore.
Peter Eaton clarinets are as near to B&H clarinets as you can get.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2008-01-05 22:28)
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Author: Bill
Date: 2008-01-05 22:18
I got my 1010 in Georgetown (near Washington, DC) but from an English guy who had come over. (So, yeah, i guess the market was small.)
I have heard only that spozedly Buffet Corp. asked B&H to cease production of their instruments as part of B&H's takeover of Buffet. How true that is I don't know.
Bill.
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2008-01-06 12:13
>>I got my 1010 in Georgetown (near Washington, DC) but from an English guy who had come over. (So, yeah, i guess the market was small.)
>>
Oh, rats, did you find that at the Georgetown flea market? Wish I'd got there first! ;-)
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: DougR
Date: 2008-01-06 13:47
Danny-
sorry not to be of any help in your search, but I wanted to let you know I'm extremely interested in reading your paper (or whatever you end up calling it) when you're done. I've always wanted to know more about the "English school" in particular and the major differences in general among the international schools of playing, and it sounds like you're barking right up that tree.
Hope you'll be able to let us know when the work is done! (I assume you'll include suggested recorded examples?) Feel free to e-mail me off-thread if you like.
Good luck!
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Author: Bill
Date: 2008-01-06 15:09
Lelia - no, I found it listed in the Washington Post want ads, around 1995. I clipped out the little description from the paper, laminated it, and it stays in the case with the clarinet. I think this is the next instrument I send to Vytas Krass.
Bill.
Bill Fogle
Ellsworth, Maine
(formerly Washington, DC)
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2008-01-07 06:07
Check Luis Rossi's site, rossiclarinet.com.
He makes a 10-10 bore copy, if I recall, in addition to several other larger bore models.
B.
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Author: Chris Horril
Date: 2008-01-08 09:42
Danny
I met AL several times during the early 70s when he ran Buffet UK from a small warehouse on an industrial estate at Pages Walk which is off the Old Kent Road in London. I refer here specifially to the period from about 1972 to 1978.
A number of elements came together at that time which need to be looked at together.
1) It was a time when there was a big increase in the number of kids learning the clarinet - this was due in part to the schools and local authorities that set up extensive peripatetic teaching programs.
2) There were constant rumours of B&H production and quality problems. Players looking for new instruments were therefore tempted to look beyond B&H.
3) AL was an all-round businessman. He understood that in addition to a good product he had to back it up. To this end he did a number of things:
- he established contact with clarinet teachers and schools all over the country - my teacher Bill Ducker in Nottingham was one of these
- at a time when it was difficult to get credit (remember this is the early 70s) he set up finance facilities to make it easier to buy instruments.
- he provided provided first rate backup and technical support. I first met John Stewart and John Coppen at Pages Walk - this was probably key to persuading leading professional players such as Thea King to make the change at that time.
The trend for British players to use Buffet was well established and he majority of the younger generation had changed by the time B&H acquired Buffet which was either in 79 or 80.
Chris
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Author: graham
Date: 2008-01-08 12:59
and the Edgware factory had a fire.
This (i.e. 1978 to, say 1983 when I think 1010 production stopped) was about the time the foreign car manufacturers began making inroads into the British car industry's dominant home market position. The same happened with all sorts of products. Britain was the "sick man of Europe". British consumers lost faith in most British products. B&H clarinets inflated in price by staggering amounts per year, and the quality was at best mixed. In fact the demise of the 1010 per se was widely mourned by people from almost all generations, but B&H were not able to make a good business out of a shrinking purely domestic market that was in serious economic decline, so they threw in the towel. Peter Eaton was able to set up a replacement virtually immediately, and with important modernisation (but little more) the 1010 type instrument continued to sell but in much smaller numbers.
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