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: Think your ligature matters?

Author: ThatPerfectReed
Date: 2014-05-10 23:41

I'm of the opinion that it's you Paul who needs to "calm down."

You were bothered by Lowenstern's first video, which is your right, even though I suspect your feelings were misguided. I saw Lowenstern taking more of a crack at ligature manufacturers, and, as he's indicated, sending a message to his students that things like ligatures aren't high on the list of things they need to work on or worry about.

That original video was a lot of things, none of which an intentional farce. Rather than debate ideas, you sought to label me as prejudice, and when asked to furnish science to substantiate that, provided a snippet of 1 story of one clarinet player (Morales), who himself felt need to explain why he isn't nuts for carrying so many ligatures. How many of those did he get for free: better, got paid for using? Even he can't settle on a ligature. Do you think the rest of us, who likely play inferior to him, and pay out of pocket for our ligatures should be working at his levels of granularity, playing "musical piece specific ligatures"?

And of course that "story of one is justified" because, as you point out, its speaker is a principal in a major symphony, while the guy in the original video, despite playing not only a different instrument, but working inside of a much larger artistic genre is not? I don't buy that, but if you do, how would you explain all the other lead principles who don't switch ligatures so frequently? If Mr. Morales was on to something reproducible, do you think other noted players wouldn't follow suit? Do you think if the Silverstein ligature cited above wasn't worth every penny of its price that people on the clarinet board wouldn't say so?

Funny, that same case of Mr. Morales' had plenty of cane reeds in it. Do you think he's rid his case of all of them since becoming a Legere artist?

I find it much more questionable that Mr. Lowenstern, now a Vandoren artist, concurrently cures his ligature smushing problem and finds "considerable" yet "very fine pointed differences" at the same time, on the same ligature. That's not funny, as you say, but concerning. It makes me wonder how much any of us should take seriously a vendor compensated artist's claims. Wouldn't a truly great product sell itself in this business from word of mouth alone (I'm glad to furnish examples)? Shouldn't I be concerned, if I truly am interested in the future of clarineting that people may be overpaying for items that not even the vendor itself makes claims as to suitability on, let alone backs up such claims with data?

That you sir find advantages in your ligature choices is great. But don't be so quick to call others names and cite the need for others to calm down from your own inability to seperate the discussion of facts from personal attacks.

Despite clearly being in the camp that says that people give too much creedence to ligatures, when I summarized Silverstein's email to me, did you see them chime in with corrections (was I not fair)? Do you think they didn't read it?

Do you see me unwilling to being open to objective data showing one vendor's "reed clamp" better than another's or instead requesting it, willing to accept it with open arms and mind for review, and not getting it--not one shred of it?

Post Edited (2014-05-10 23:44)

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

Think your ligature matters? new

sdr

2014-04-23 05:31