Author: LGS316217
Date: 2018-01-16 19:59
I can tell you what happens if you don't plan ahead. I was devoted to the teacher I had growing up. He was a pro with an eclectic career that spanned 50 years and two continents. His instruments were old timers like they just don't make anymore: B flat is a low serial number (mid to late 1940s) pre R13 Buffet. His A was supplied to him by the British Army (for several years he was a member of Her Majesty's Life Guards Band of the Household Cavalry), made by Rudall Carte (later acquired by Boosey & Hawkes), which had the military contract for musical instruments. He kept them in a fine Buffet double case with the crushed red velvet interior. They were meticulously maintained, but he'd been a soldier and a P.O.W. in Germany in WW II, and was not afraid to work with whatever he had or DIY to get a job done, so in addition to pro repairs and maintenance he made plenty of modifications himself. In the early '90s unfortunately he developed Parkinson's disease and had to give up playing. He died in 1996, leaving just his wife and son. They were so devastated, I never asked what happened to the instruments. I figured it would be intrusive, greedy, and rude to ask, and that if they wanted me to have them, they would bring it up. They never did. Well, his son just died a month ago, at the age of 71, in poverty and leaving no heirs and no will. Settling his affairs has fallen to another friend, who generously offered to let me take what I wanted from the estate. Last week after the funeral we set about the arduous task of going through years of accumulated junk. I thought maybe the clarinets had been sold long ago out of financial distress. But at the same time I could not believe this family would ever part with them. Well, the search finally paid off and the double case was found hidden behind a stereo speaker. But when I opened it up a real disappointment: Almost all of the hardware had been removed from the B flat and was missing. I am not a pro and have no real need of an A, keeping that just for sentimentality. But I had wanted to restore the B flat and play it! I consulted some top restorers who advised me to abandon the effort, as where would I ever find a broken Buffet of that vintage with hardware I could salvage? And applying more recent hardware would be unlikely to work. Well I am pleased to report that fortune may have struck again: the friend taking care of household disposal found what I hope is all of the hardware, in a plastic bag, inside a jewelry box. I don't know how it got there. The owner was maybe undertaking an adjustment or was going to oil the bore himself, and put the hardware in the bag for "safe keeping." The hardware is being shipped to me and I will take it to the restorer and cross my fingers. After 20 years of waiting and hoping, I am not going to abandon my treasure without a fight. And you had better believe it will be provided for in my will. Don't know exactly whom it will go to, but you'd best believe it will be someone who will keep telling its story and love it as much as I do.
Amy Paul
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The Clarinet BBoard
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