 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-02-20 20:51
What do YOU think about people, who when they die, and otherwise have developed a unique bond over their life with a particular musical instrument (either the type of instrument (e.g. clarinet), or a specific one, Buffet R13, serial number 65,4XX) being buried with that instrument?
I must say I have mixed emotions. On the one hand, the gesture represents respect and compassion for the departed, a symbolic gesture of easing their passage to the world beyond, (or maybe easing your loss, the survivor) however you, or the deceased conceptualize such a place (if at all) to be.
On the other hand, and not to be terse to the point of insensitive: you're dead. Your physical body, (e.g. internal organs) and perhaps even more so the instrument you place in your coffin might go on to provide enjoyment to someone else who might not be able to afford it.
Regarding the former, I don't mean to step on the toes of any person with strict religious or personal desire to keep their body whole when they expire, but bury an instrument?
When I pass, everything about me and my clarinets should go to help others.
What do you want--what do you think?
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Author: brycon
Date: 2016-02-20 21:16
Ah, this is the sort of question great philosophers and poets are always grappling with.
"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must give us pause. But not as much pause as deciding whether or not it's cool to buried with a clarinet--and if you were buried with a clarinet, which model would you choose? I bet Bonade would have wanted to be buried with a Leblanc."
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2016-02-20 22:22
I fully intend to be buried with a clarinet. Even if I don't continue after I retire, as an army musician it is such a part of how I can provide for myself and my wife, and it has played such a role in my life and memories.
But my personal horn, is not necessary (for me). I will ask for an old, undesirable, basically BAD clarinet to be buried with me as a symbol. My regular horn I have no problem being donated or sold and continuing it's life. Id actually prefer it as I like the idea of my personal horn giving me purpose and I want to believe it will continue to be an instrument that inspires and gives joy after I move on.
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-02-20 23:12
The reasoning doesn't need to make sense. We come to a wall where our perceptions and understanding can proceed no further. I won't ask to have anything buried with me (not a fan of burying anyway, but never mind that.) If someone else wants to put a clarinet with me, fine.
A family friend died when he was well into his 90s. His old dog happened to die shortly before that. Before he died the old man asked to have the dog buried with him. The funeral home refused because of numerous regulations against such things. However, at the last minute it happened that family members managed to sneak the dog into the casket, and the two old friends were laid to rest together. It makes me smile even now.
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2016-02-20 23:26
It might be important to consider durability in these circumstances?
"Two B-flats, or one A, that is the question:
Whether tis' nobler in the coffin to suffer
the rust and cracks of outrageous humidity,
or to take plastic reeds against a sea of troubles..."
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Author: clarinetist04
Date: 2016-02-21 02:30
If I worked in IT would I want a server in the coffin with me? Maybe they don't love what they do!  But either way, no chance.
For me, don't waste the instrument, good or bad. Can't take it with you! And while we're at it, stick to the cheap pine box. I don't plan on needing a coffin like a 5-star hotel.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2016-02-21 02:46
Once I visited a stone quarry in New England where they had carved a full sized Mercedes car of stone for the grave marker for a man in Long Island. He had wanted a Mercedes as a young man and eventually got one. The strange thing was that it was a stone copy of a diesel 240D, now considered as sort of a clunky car.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2016-02-21 03:19
Anyone remember the TV ad about a rich old geezer being buried in his car, and his 20-ish trophy-wife-now-widow loudly weeping and wailing, obviously over the car- not him? Could something similar happen with a clarinet?
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2016-02-21 06:53
A few years ago an old friend, a clarinetist, passed away. When things had settled down after his passing his widow asked me if I could help her in sorting out all the musical material he had collected and accumulated. It took a while, most of the sheet music went to learning institutions, the instruments were passed on to students or colleagues and a huge accumulation of musical ephemera disposed of.
He had always favoured Leblanc instruments and his personal favourites were a pair of heavily tweaked LL's. I hadn't seen any sign of them during the sort-out, and when I asked his widow she said that she felt that he wouldn't want to be without them so they had gone into the coffin with him. As I refurbished them for him not long before his passing, at least I know that they are in excellent playing condition.
Tony F.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2016-02-21 07:19
Which raises an interesting question. Exhumations happen- burial is often not as permanent as the funeral industry might want us to think. How would any of you feel about playing a clarinet that had spent say, 5 or 25 years underground and had been "recovered"? Would certainly give me the creeps- would a seller be obligated to disclose this? How would anybody know?
And this is not nearly so bad as living in a house where some terrible crime took place, maybe you find out much later. I think that IS supposed to be disclosed to prospective purchasers, depending on local laws. Or 50 other things that would bother us if we knew or really thought about them.
This thread started out macabre, I think I've taken it further that way.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Ed
Date: 2016-02-21 17:34
Perhaps you should throw in a load of reeds as well. Given the length of eternity, you will have a lot of time to search for the right one.
Legere fanatics need not respond.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2016-02-21 18:23
I have a Buffet Bb/A pair made in 1908. They were put in a closet in almost new condition and were covered with crud. The case was falling apart and smelled really nasty.
Nevertheless, they cleaned up beautifully and play really well.
Ken Shaw
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2016-02-21 19:52
lol. Just thinking, maybe I'll ask my wife to make sure I'm buried with some bagpipes. So I can insure that at least ONE less set is in the world to be played!!!!
rotfl - I am NOT a fan of those things!!!
In either case, I've told her many times that I request a Dixieland funeral. To include the reception afterwards. Specifically "Just a closer walk with thee"
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-02-21 20:39
I like your compromise Alexi of being buried with "a," clarinet, not necessarily your prized one.
Also, some believe that the term "dead ringer" arose (no pun intended) from noise making devices buried with the, or so was usually thought, deceased, that turned out to be alive, awakened, and needed a method of signaling to those above ground.
So--if nothing else, a clarinet might serve the capacity of said audible signal.
(For sure, enter the poster commenting on the acoustical and intonational properties of below ground play....)
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Author: MarlboroughMan
Date: 2016-02-22 01:07
Edmond Hall was buried with his clarinet, and who am I to question him? But I don't think it would be a good look for me. I do like Alexi's idea of public service by taking a bagpipe with him, but even more, I love the idea of a NOLA funeral. Definitely want the NOLA style funeral.
Eric
******************************
The Jazz Clarinet
http://thejazzclarinet.blogspot.com/
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Author: Bill G
Date: 2016-02-22 03:22
One of my favorite cartoons featured two deceased musicians dressed in white, with appropriate little wings , sitting in the clouds and playing harps. One of them said to the other "Are there any days you would like to have a saxophone"?
I would like to have a clarinet with me, but only if it was equipped with a perfect and permanent reed. The rest of my reeds could go elsewhere!
Bill G
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Author: SarahC
Date: 2016-02-23 09:35
In this case, i think i will be buried with a set of drums, one less drum set in the world!
It is strange to read this thread, as i just had an MRI yesterday, and I did feel like i was in a morgue while it was going on!
I think it is romantic to be buried with an instrument, but hey, i won't be here to enjoy it. Although I like the idea of surprising funeral guests by suddenly playing!
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Author: sax panther
Date: 2016-02-23 17:40
I don't see the point...my instruments will be donated to schools or projects so other people can get some enjoyment out of them. I'm not going to be buried though - I don't agree with wasting anything, so my corpse will be left to medical science.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-02-24 03:29
My oboe teacher said she wants me to play Purcell's 'When I Am Laid In Earth' on cor anglais at her funeral when I played it during a lesson. Not sure if I really want to think of that occasion - I know it's an inevitability we all have to face, but it's not something we want to think about.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2016-02-24 05:21
Dead is dead..........
gone
So being buried with something symbolic is nice for those who are living to know that, and for the person making their own plans for it, but to put a good instrument into the ground is a terrible waste.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-02-24 07:48
Good to hear you think this way David. I understand you've developed a pretty nice selection of instruments in your day. Best that your survivors reap the rewards of their sale; their new owners the rewards of their ownership----many many years from now of course.
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Author: TAS
Date: 2016-02-24 10:08
Seems to me after the comments above that it is a dead issue.
TAS
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Author: GeorgeL ★2017
Date: 2016-02-24 18:11
"How would any of you feel about playing a clarinet that had spent say, 5 or 25 years underground and had been "recovered"?"
If a competent repair person did his magic and put it back in playing shape, it would just be another clarinet.
But how would the repair person feel about working on that clarinet?
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Author: moma4faith
Date: 2016-02-24 19:36
I don't want to be buried with any of my instruments. I want my children to have them. I would never want to take my beloved instruments out of the world and down into the grave. I hope my instruments are played and loved for generations after me.
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Author: Musinix
Date: 2016-03-02 22:56
I'll definitely need my clarinet and several boxes of reeds in my next life. Here's my plan:
Upon my death, I asked my family members to have my body cryogenically frozen, placed in a gold plated capsule, and then launched toward a distant galaxy. My hope is that I will eventually be found by an advanced civilization that can determine why I died, revive me, and then make me their principal clarinetist in a premier orchestra.
Thomas Fiebig
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-03-02 23:18
"Upon my death, I asked my family members to have my body cryogenically frozen, placed in a gold plated capsule, and then launched toward a distant galaxy. My hope is that I will eventually be found by an advanced civilization that can determine why I died, revive me"
okay---all plausible
"and then make me their principal clarinetist in a premier orchestra."
okay--that's where you lost me Thomas--speaking nothing negatively of your playing attributes.
Cynicism tells me, with all but scientific proof, that there are just too few principal clarinet positions within the universe. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
Even the "reviving by an advanced civilization" seems, by comparison, down right "highly probably" to me relative to any of us landing (no pun intended) upon such a music gig.
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Author: fskelley
Date: 2016-03-03 00:08
I would be interested in hearing the discussion among the aliens of what exactly this apparatus is intended for. Perhaps they might try some experiments before waking you up.
Stan in Orlando
EWI 4000S with modifications
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2016-03-03 00:50
I suspect that they would decide that it was a sonic weapon of unimaginable power and that any intelligence that is capable of inventing such a terrible device is clearly a danger to peaceful races throughout the universe and should be utterly destroyed.
Tony F.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-03-03 18:23
This is the Ghost of Shadow Cat, now residing as a Professor of Human Studies in the Afterlife Academy, borrowing the sloppy wet brain of my former pet human for a moment:
I can't imagine how anybody laid to rest with an evil screech-stick could rest in peace. "Hey! You! Human! Wake up! I'm just lying here doing nothing! Play me or let me out! I want to screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam!!!!!"
So yes, by all means, take your ugly nasty screech-sticks to the grave. At least that'll shut them up.
The Ghost of Shadow Cat
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: Steven Ocone
Date: 2016-03-04 02:02
Cartoon by Gary Larson:
https://roadkillspatula.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/welcome-to-hell-heres-your-accordion/
Steve Ocone
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