Author: seabreeze
Date: 2013-12-30 18:12
I had a dream last night. It was the year 2035 and I was at an international clarinet festival in Switzerland. All the German clarinetists had metal ligatures and plastic composite reeds, and their mouthpieces had wide tip openings on Viotto, Wurlitzer, and Zinner blanks. All the French and American clarinetists had string ligatures (even the sax players) on their Boehms and mouthpieces made by Behn and Fobes, mostly with tip openings less than a millimeter. Even the Backun players were using string ligatures, mouthpieces with close facings, and cane wood reeds.
The two sides argued incessantly about the way to true clarinetistry. The Americans said the Germans must be crazy to use such open facings, to forgo the tradition of string ligatures, and to adopt plastic reeds. The Germans shot back that string, close facings, and cane reeds were romantic delusions from a now thankfully discarded past. The Swiss, in an effort to be neutral, carried both types of equipment in their versatile double clarinet cases.
When I awoke, I saw Steve Neff raving about how his latest Silverstein string ligature improved his sound on alto and tenor sax, no less. What? An American saxophonist using string ligatures? And his announcement on the web prompted many responses from other sax players that they had switched, or were about to switch, to string. This, not in 2035 but in the last month of 2013.
So, on I moved to the Silverstein website <silversteinligature.com> to find out more about their clarinet model. The ligature has two sliding metal bars that move along the string toward and away from the single adjustment screw. The screw does stick up from the string like a sore thumb, but if the Silverstein really improves sound and response, who cares?
Anybody try one of these yet? And, yes, as Heraclitus said, the world is always, always changing and maybe we never step into the same waters (or clarinet set-ups) twice. At one time, sushi was Chinese, not Japanese. Or is it more a question of old wine, new bottles?
|
|
The Clarinet BBoard
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
