Author: seabreeze
Date: 2014-01-05 10:52
NBeaty, I agree with you that the facing on the M30 and M30D is very open and long. Somewhat like you, I prefer a tip opening between .096 and 1.02. But I think the appeal of these two mouthpieces is fairly easy to understand. Clarinetists drawn more to a mellower, less edgy, less bright sound find that these two mouthpieces give them what they want at an affordable price. Add to that the claim that the D model can be used on a German bore instrument,and you increase the market for that model even more. In the official puff pieces for Vandorens (paid for by the company) several prestigious clarinetists say just about the same thing concerning the two 30 models that the average clarinetist says. Daniel Gilbert, for instance, a professor at Michigan with 12 years experience in the Cleveland Orchestra, says that players use an M30 when they want a darker and more "chocolaty" sound. The Vandoren 5RV, 5Rv lyre, M13, M15, and M13 lyre, to most players don't seem to sound very dark and chocolaty. Descriptions for the sound of those pieces would range from lively and resonant to bright and edgy. If you want chocolate you get an M30 or, for dark chocolate, an M30D. When Alessandro Carbonare and P Fortenza want this kind of sound, they too say in the ads that they choose either the M30 or the M30D.
Vandoren is not the only company to go after the dark chocolate market with a long, open, thick-railed mouthpiece. Clarke Fobes' Europa model has these characteristics in a much more manageable mouthpiece open to about 1.04 at the tip (with options for greater tip openings). Charles Bay offered a model like the M30 decades ago that sold well in Europe. It is unlikely that the demand for this kind of sound will decrease in America anytime soon. So the big question is not why players are drawn to this kind of mouthpiece but whether designs can be offered to produce the same kind of sound more efficiently.
Some of the most recent entries in this sector of the clarinet market are the G (for German?) models of Walt Grabner and Richard Hawkins. Do these models reach the dark chocolate ideal by using wide rails and a long, open facing or by other, perhaps, better ways? Hawkins wrote me that his model has a tip opening of just 1.04, much closer than the M30, and I believe that Grabner's G11 star facing is within the range I like. Practically speaking, how would you design a mouthpiece for the dark chocolate market that did not entail design extremes and was efficient to play? Can you name some mouthpieces available on the American market now that you prefer that encourage production of this particular shade of clarinet tone? For example, do any of Behn's models sound that dark and chocolaty?
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