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Re: most exquisite clarinet ever made

Author: tims
Date: 2014-10-13 06:05

I'm a little bothered by the excessive number of typos in this article. It also reads like it was a poor translation from another language. I say this simply because it made it a little hard to read and not meaning to be a grammar nazi.

Sherman Friedland, may have a point in a way, that is, we place too much importance on instruments rather than how we play them. None the less, I doubt if even he would really suggest that having a quality instrument is not important, though that appears to be what he actually does say. To say the instrument is just a piece of wood is an insult to the decades of efforts by skilled craftsmen to build instruments which play better in tune, have greater dynamic range, better response and are able to give variety of subtle tone colors that before where not available for any price well within the period of my own lifetime.

Perfect (or exquisite) may be too much of a superlative. I think most clarinetists would agree that they simply want the best they can afford. The key is that what is best for one person may not be the best for another.

I've always been envious of the embarrassment of riches available to flute players in terms of the wealth of extremely fine instruments they have available from dozens of exceedingly talented flute makers. Flute players are also not nearly as brand conscious as clarinetists. I've also never heard a flute player being advised to play on the same instrument brand as their principle so they "blend" properly, or play better in tune in the section. Personal experience and decades of listening has clearly taught me that tonal quality on the clarinet is far more effected by how the instrument is played than the instrument itself. Intonation should never be an issue except with the poorest of quality clarinets. If you can't play in tune with your principle, you haven't yet learned how to play.

That said, instrument quality does make a difference as does the particular design characteristics of one horn as compared to another. The question must always be this, "does this instrument help me achieve my goals as a musician". The question should never be "is this the perfect instrument".

Many people buy instruments because they believe that a particular instrument is what they are supposed to play. My scientific nature makes me aware of how easily people are swayed by popular fallacies such as appeal to authority (great clarinetist A, B and C played on brand X), appeal to tradition (brand X has been the leading instrument since the stone age), confirmation bias (seeing only the positive qualities of brand X and not its negative qualities and likewise only seeing the negative qualities of Brand Y and not its positive qualities), argumentum ad baculum (appeal to fear - do you really want to stake your career on brand Y when brand X is a much safer choice) and the bandwagon fallacy (everyone knows brand X is the best). Yet these are always the types of arguments I hear people present.

You need to know what it is you want. What is most important to achieving your goals. At NASA they used to say (with regard to designing spacecraft) your options are Good, Fast, Cheap - pick any two. The same is true with clarinets - Tone Quality, Intonation, Ease of Playing, Dynamic Range, Mechanical Precision, Reasonable Cost - you cannot have all of them in one instrument. You need to rank these qualities based on what you personally feel are most important and then find the best fit for you.

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