Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2023-10-03 22:27
SunnyDaze wrote:
> I'm thinking, for example, during some periods the hall would
> have been full of people smoking cigarettes, and dense smoke
> outside making the buildings black and affecting breathing. At
> other periods there would have been respiratory diseases
> circulating that might have affected things - for example back
> in the 1910s there would have been diphtheria, TB, and the new
> strain of flu, and later on there would have been polio doing
> the rounds. Michael Flanders of Flanders and Swann blasted on
> through as a professional singer, despite having difficulty
> breathing because of having had polio.
>
> I suppose that realistically some of the guys that we hear on
> old recordings would have had some or all of these things to
> deal with, and that's before we take into account two world
> wars and the depression.
>
This may be over-selling the principle. First, none of us spent time listening to clarinetists (or other wind instrument players) from 1910 or even from the WW I era - recording was in its infancy and only a very select few are available from that far back. We all understand how primitive the recording techniques were back then.
If we're talking, as the OP was, about the recognized master players of the late '40s, '50s and '60s (who are well represented in recordings), we would know in most cases about health issues. Their students and their colleagues would have told those stories, if not while they were playing, then after they had retired. - e.g. Marcellus was diabetic and Opperman (who played mostly Broadway and opera) was an inveterate smoker, from all I've read. I think by that time (at least in my experience) the concert halls and theaters were smoke-free, at least in the seating area (the hallways outside the auditorium and the rest rooms may have been a different story).
I think the biggest difference among renowned players then (late '40s through the '70s) and now is that we now have many more players who are primarily recording artists - soloists and chamber music players who play recitals, teach and do clinics and who don't play in large orchestras for their primary living. The playing demands are different.
Karl
Post Edited (2023-10-03 22:30)
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