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Reeds historically

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-07-31 19:05

The current thread about Alta reeds and the many discussions we've been through about reed quality and comparisons of playing quality between cane and synthetics has made me wonder about what players expected of reeds historically. Back when players almost certainly made their own reeds - or maybe had them made by another player but not a mass-producer with a factory - I've begun wondering what they expected in terms of both day-to-day consistency and response characteristics.

Are there written descriptions of 18th or 19th century reed making techniques and/or written descriptions of what to do with the hand made products to control playing characteristics?

Where did Stadler's cane or Muhlfeld's come from?

Has anyone preserved any reeds from the pre-manufacturing era?

Did they use other woods than Arundo donax?

Are we as modern reed players asking too much of the manufactured product, and when different materials (synthetics in today's market) produce slightly different results from those we've been used to, are we over-reacting to those differences?

Just some musings...

Karl

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