Author: Michael Montague
Date: 2006-03-02 18:22
The discussion of mouthpieces is an unending activity for many clarinetists. It’s no wonder. Each of us is different in terms of her or his concept of the ideal sound and in terms of highly individual facial architectures and airway peculiarities. We should all be grateful to have so many fine designers and craftsmen available to us to give us a wide and diverse selection of mouthpieces so that we can find those that work best for each of us.
One designer, Brad Behn of Salt Lake City, is rapidly becoming known as an exceptional mouthpiece maker. He has done a careful technical analysis of the old Chedevilles, not only from the standpoint of their dimensions, but also with regard to the chemical composition of the rubber used in those mouthpieces. Based on this detailed analysis, he has designed and constructed a series of mouthpieces that have, in my view at least, some terrific properties.
I’ve recently tried three of his vintage mouthpieces; one was modeled after an excellent Henri Chedeville, another after a Charles Chedeville, and the third after a Kaspar mouthpiece. Each was made from the Chedeville hard rubber formula that Behn has rediscovered.
The most salient property of all three for me was an amazing resonance or “liveness,” which is apparently due to the composition of the rubber. I don’t mean “bright” or “thin” here. The sound has a certain presence about it. Behn says that he aims for a sound like Harold Wright’s, which is the one that I prefer as well. As all of you know, Wright’s sound was flexible, sweet, warm, woody when he wanted it, but always “present” to his audience, never muffled or covered. In my view, Behn’s mouthpieces achieve this better than those from any other maker that I’ve tried. Although I decided to purchase the Henri Chedeville model, either of the other two would have improved my playing. All three models had superb response in the altissimo. As an aside, I found the mouthpieces to be quite reed friendly, though a more vibrant reed (Zonda or Vandoren 56 Rue Lepic, about 3.5 to 4 strength) performs best for me.
Brad is great to work with during the trial phase; by asking a lot of questions he determines exactly what his potential customer truly wants. I really think his mouthpieces are worth a try. The one that I purchased has improved my own playing significantly and made it more fun and easier to make music.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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