Noblet Artist
s...@mo.ne
found a Noblet Artist.
Does anyone knows anything about this brand/model ?
Thanks,
Simone
Stephen Howard
It's quite nice. Not a popular make, by the standards of, say, Buffet
or Yamaha - but well built and reliable.
Regards,
--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
Emails to: shwoodwind{who is at}gmx{dot}co{dot}uk
ajn
major clarinet manufacturer? Those instruments have certainly been
around for a good long time, which would be a recommendation for them
(as student instruments). AJN.
Stephen Howard
wrote:
>Isn't Noblet a student model manufactured by Selmer, or some similar
>major clarinet manufacturer? Those instruments have certainly been
>around for a good long time, which would be a recommendation for them
>(as student instruments). AJN.
>
No, as far as I'm aware Noblet are an independent company.
If I'm wrong - we'll soon find out!
HOST Comp Tanker
extant) is a company under the Leblanc umbrella of instrument manufacturing
firms. (The age claim comes from Leblanc themselves, so take it with a grain of
salt.)
Their works were originally in some small French city, but the name may now
cover horns made elsewhere (i.e., Kenosha WI). The Noblet factory still existed
as recently as last year, or so an article in the Leblanc house organ claimed
at that time.
Noblet is the "intermediate" line offered by Leblanc, and like the Signet horns
made by Selmer, they are a decent enough horn for anyone serious about their
playing but not planning to go on to major in music or performance. Keep in
mind that most of the clarinet's tone and facility is in the mouthpiece, barrel
and player's mouth.
As with the Signets, the Noblets are offered in wood and have a superior bore
finish to the student lines from each company (Bundy/Selmer USA (for Selmer),
Vito (for Leblanc). They're not the equivalent of an R-13, but they're good
enough for 99.99% of the students of the instrument once gone over and tuned by
a competent repairperson.
I believe that Leblanc now offers both an A and a C clarinet in the line (very
important for schools with orchestras that want these options but don't want to
pay a premium for them).In any event, for those who don't mind some of the
other idiosyncracies of Leblanc instruments (the blocky, "square feeling"
keywork, for example), these horns are more than enough. I don't think that the
changes to the Leblanc line (as seen in the Opus and LL models) have made it
down to the Noblet line just yet, but I could be wrong there.
Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com
JMcAulay
Simone, if you have found one of these which plays to your liking at a
price within your budget, that would be good enough for me.
I know of Noblet, but I do not know about the "Artist" model. Noblet
currently uses numbers to designate models in the line, not names.
The marque is an old one, having been around for about 150 years,
bought fairly early in the 20th century by G. Leblanc. Noblet thus
became the foundation of Leblanc as an instrument design and
manufacturing company. Leblanc sells four major lines of clarinets:
Leblanc, Noblet, Normandy, and Vito. [Leblanc also makes other
clarinets, Holton for example, but they aren't in the standard Leblanc
catalog. Go figure....] The Vito brand primarily offers student
instruments, most of them made in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Normandy
marque is used on advanced student and lower-level intermediate
instruments, which may be made either in France or Kenosha. Rumors
are heard here and there to the effect that Leblanc Kenosha also
manufactures some student clarinets for Yamaha, but I do not have
confirmation of this. If true, it should not be surprising in this
day and age when all Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer is made by Miller Brewing
Company.
Those instruments labeled Leblanc (not just "Made by Leblanc") and
Noblet are all, to the best of my knowledge, made in France. I do not
know is the Noblets are still made in the old Noblet factory, but so
what. Again, if the one you have in mind plays in a way that you find
satisfactory and it meets your budget requirements, you should have no
reluctance to buy it due to concerns that it might be a piece of junk.
Doug
writes
>On Sun, 06 Jan 2002 21:54:30 GMT, s...@mo.ne wrote:
>
>>I was searching for a cheap second-hand clarinet to learn playing, and
>>found a Noblet Artist.
>>Does anyone knows anything about this brand/model ?
>
>
>Simone, if you have found one of these which plays to your liking at a
>price within your budget, that would be good enough for me.
>
>I know of Noblet, but I do not know about the "Artist" model. Noblet
>currently uses numbers to designate models in the line, not names.
>The marque is an old one, having been around for about 150 years,
>bought fairly early in the 20th century by G. Leblanc. Noblet thus
>became the foundation of Leblanc as an instrument design and
>manufacturing company. Leblanc sells four major lines of clarinets:
>Leblanc, Noblet, Normandy, and Vito. [Leblanc also makes other
>clarinets, Holton for example, but they aren't in the standard Leblanc
>catalog. Go figure....] The Vito brand primarily offers student
>instruments, most of them made in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Hi!
Do you know Vito's address, please. I have acquired one, ( clarinet,
not address!). Spanking brand new hardly played. For 100 quid. I am
very pleased with the tone and the intonation. I need a new barrel
having damaged the old one which was too long. At the moment it plays
better in tune than my 1010, even after the latter's expensive overhaul.
Tks in anticipation.
Doug.
Tim Roberts
>
>Do you know Vito's address, please. I have acquired one, ( clarinet,
>not address!). Spanking brand new hardly played. For 100 quid. I am
>very pleased with the tone and the intonation. I need a new barrel
>having damaged the old one which was too long. At the moment it plays
>better in tune than my 1010, even after the latter's expensive overhaul.
Vito is one of the LeBlanc brands.That's what I play, and I've been happy
with it for years. My colleagues cannot tell I'm playing on a plastic
instrument (and a plastic reed, as it happens).
You should be able to use any barrel. Do you know what length you need?
--
- Tim Roberts, ti...@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
Stephen Howard
Tanker) wrote:
.. a very comprehensive and informative response. Yet another 'keeper'
- many thanks.
JMcAulay
<d...@yarlside.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Hi!
>Do you know Vito's address, please. I have acquired one, ( clarinet,
>not address!). Spanking brand new hardly played. For 100 quid. I am
>very pleased with the tone and the intonation. I need a new barrel
>having damaged the old one which was too long. At the moment it plays
>better in tune than my 1010, even after the latter's expensive overhaul.
>Tks in anticipation.
Doug, here's information which is basically from the Leblanc website
regarding their "World Headquarters." Their major business has been
conducted from Wisconsin USA for several years now, although the
top-line instruments are still made in France:
G. Leblanc Corporation
7001 Leblanc Boulevard
P.O. Box 1415
Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141-1415 USA
Telephone: 1-262-658-1644
Fax: 1-262-658-2824
E-mail: gleb...@gleblanc.com
As Tim suggests, you should be able to use a locally available barrel
of the proper length. The Vito barrel is not really anything magic.
Who knows, you might be able to find an even better barrel which might
be to your liking.
My "Combat" clarinet is a Vito. It plays easily, intonation is
excellent, and it produces a sound that's good for me. Leblancs have
been my preferred instruments for over 50 years, so by now I'm no
doubt accustomed to any idiosyncracies of their instruments.
HOST Comp Tanker
(Excessively complementary posting deleted)
I live to serve.
One thing that the clarinet world does not have is a good, comprehensive
history of the instrument, one that deals with issues like the history of
manufacturers, changes to the mechanisms, profiles of the prominent players,
history of the clarinet in the various musical venues in which it is used
(ooooh! skaw!!!), and so forth.
(Please note: all book authors below from memory)
o The only book that comes even close in this regard is The Clarinet, written
by G. Randall a long time back (late 1940's, I think) and revised by Jack
Brymer (I think) in the 1950's or '60's. It takes the omnibus approach that's
needed, but suffers from being 1) badly dated, 2) poorly illustrated, and 3)
limited in length. I don't think that there are going to be any updates here,
as both the author and the revisor are dead.
o The book written by poor Oscar Kroll (he died on the Russian Front in World
War II, apparently while serving in the Luftwaffe, the notorious haven for
saxophones in saxophobic Nazi Germany) is a lot more detailed in some areas
(particularly in that of the "Oehler" system clarinet), but suffers from much
of the same problems as the Randall book. Apparently publishers everywhere are
tight with page count for marginal subjects. Kroll's book also suffers from
being a posthumous publication (I think that his widow edited it), from being
written well before World War II, and from being virtually unattainable in
English (the translation printed in the 1960's is a "rare" book; I finally
ended up paying about a hundred bucks for my copy).
o The Cambridge anthology book of a few years back suffers the same fault as do
all such books...you get varied quality from each writer, and they are all
writing to length so they have to self edit their work to the point that it
becomes superficial. Other than a few medium quality photographs, it's also
unillustrated. Some of the articles are mere listings of musical works (yeah, I
know that it's pretty much the nature of writing about music to basically list
the stuff that's out there, but it still makes dull reading), and the sections
on the various clarinets are inconsistent in their quality.
o The Pino book is a useful guide to some of the performance tricks of the
trade, but as a history it's way down on the list.
o The Stubbins book is fascinating (as befits the work of a man who tried to do
a lot for the clarinet only to rub up against hide-bound tradition), but very
poorly organized and long out of print. (The chapter on transposition is one of
my long time teaching aids, however; those who are fortunate enough to have a
copy of the book know how useful the little tricks he lists can be.)
Somebody needs to step into the gap and fill it so that there's a modern
version of the Randall/Kroll books to cover the next fifty years or so. It
should contain units on the instrument itself, along with the changes to the
horn, the reed, and at least one comprehensive comparative diagram section that
covers all of the systems together, in the same scale, and more or less side by
side. (I'd even throw in the fingering charts as they are currently known.)
Bios of famous players could eat up another section, and listings of music
could occupy a third. Playing hints (a la Stubbins) and miscellania could fill
a fourth., and a brief history of manufacturing (to help sort out all of those
French firms from the 1800's) a fifth. Round it out with a well selected and
reproduced set of photographs, and there's your omnibus book on the instrument.
One publisher has very slowly been putting out instrument themed "biographies";
to date I have their works on the flute, bassoon, horn and tuba. The fact that
a book on the clarinet has not followed in the series gives me some hope.
I know that I'm not the one to do it. Anyone else's fawning opinions to the
contrary my professional credentials are too weak for this one. (I may be well
qualified as an expert in killing people with armored vehicles, investigating
industrial accidents and enforcing safety law, in stopping men over 30 from
scoring goals in adult ice hockey games, and in blasting through big band
charts, but I've got zero hours of formal music training and no fine arts
degree with which to fake it.)
What's needed is a musician who can see beyond the notes, and who can put
together a cogent sentence to describe what s/he's talking about. The tuba book
in the series described above is the best example of what I've seen in recent
years...perhaps there is a clarinet equivalent hiding out there somewhere who
will do the dirty work.
When they do, I hope that they make room for the most trivial piece of clarinet
information that I've ever seen, originally reported by Oskar Kroll: "In 1939,
the bass clarinet was first introduced to Luffwaffe bands."
Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com
ajn
literature. To his lists I would probably include:
Albert R. Rice, _The Baroque Clarinet_ (Oxford U. Press, 1992), ix+197
pp. It is surely an indepth discussion of the matter, with the kind
of information Terry finds lacking in so many of the books he cites.
Rice is at work on a history of the clarinet during the classical
period, which should be out soon (he's been working at it for so
long). Rice is a trained musicologist, so he has the necessary
research skills for such a project.
Johan van Kalker, _Die Geschichte der Klarinetten: Eine Dokumentation_
(Oberems: Verlag Textilwerkstatt, 1997), xv+447 pp. This is a vast
compendium of historical citations referring to the clarinet. For
example, he seems to have every word written in the past about Anton
Stadler and his music, as well as an extensive list of works for
bassetclarinet. The classified bibliograohy is 140 pages in length,
indicating the vast amount of material consulted by the author. I am
certain he consulted all of it, too.
There is ample illustrations in both books.
On 08 Jan 2002 15:55:58 GMT, hostcom...@aol.comnojunk (HOST Comp
Tanker) wrote:
><< Stephen Howard sees...@email.uk >>
>
>
>(Excessively complementary posting deleted)
>
>I live to serve.
>
>One thing that the clarinet world does not have is a good, comprehensive
>history of the instrument, one that deals with issues like the history of
>manufacturers, changes to the mechanisms, profiles of the prominent players,
>history of the clarinet in the various musical venues in which it is used
>(ooooh! skaw!!!), and so forth.
>
<<SNIP>>>
>Terry L. Stibal
>HOSTCom...@aol.com
A David Peacham
> o The only book that comes even close in this regard is The Clarinet, written
> by G. Randall a long time back (late 1940's, I think) and revised by Jack
> Brymer (I think) in the 1950's or '60's. It takes the omnibus approach that's
> needed, but suffers from being 1) badly dated, 2) poorly illustrated, and 3)
> limited in length. I don't think that there are going to be any updates here,
> as both the author and the revisor are dead.
Are you sure Jack Brymer has died? He has certainly retired, and I
vaguely recall reading that he had gone blind or deaf, I forget which.
I hadn't heard that he had died, and can't find any reference to this
on the web.
The first concert I ever attended, in about 1965, featured Brymer
playing the Mozart concerto. I wanted to learn the clarinet .... and
in 2001, finally started to do so.
JMcAulay
Tanker) wrote, among many other things:
>...I hope that they make room for the most trivial piece of clarinet
>information that I've ever seen, originally reported by Oskar Kroll: "In 1939,
>the bass clarinet was first introduced to Luftwaffe bands."
And I thought everyone knew that.
HOST Comp Tanker
>the bass clarinet was first introduced to Luftwaffe bands."
And I thought everyone knew that.
>>
Well, you would have thought so, but there you go.
In a related vein (since Sax was responsible not only for the saxophone but
also for the current "style" of bass clarinet):
I find more interesting that, in a Germany where Hitler himself prohibited the
use of the saxophone, that same Luftwaffe had saxophones produced for its
military music after the ban had been instituted. (Kroll neatly skates around
this restriction in his saxophone section.)
The ban was instituted as Hitler viewed the saxophone as being representative
of "decadent Negro jazz music". Another fragment of the Nazi's odd racial
policies; they disliked so many groups (Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses,
homosexuals, Negros and residents of Asia all made the list in addition to
Jews) that the rationalizations got pretty complicated at times.
(The authorized Germanic replacement for the tenor sax in dance music was the
'cello, by the way. When I saw this, it brought to mind a picture of a Teutonic
Charlie Barnett with rosin dust on his striped pegged trousers, smiling at all
the hotted-up madchen crowding the bandstand following a hot rendition of
Redskin Rhumba. I would imagine that it was hard to "bar walk" with a 'cello
between your legs, but I'm sure that the Master Race figured out a way.)
There have been two of these German saxes show up in recent years. Both were
"pro" instruments, and both had the distinctive Luftwaffe "flying eagle
carrying the crooked cross below" stamped into the bell. I don't know what
brand they were...probably Conn (inside saxophone joke, for all you doublers
out there).
Now, I know that fat Hermann was capable of doing little wrong before 1942 or
so, "You can call me Meier" nonwithstanding. But, I would think that such a
blatant violation of a diktat from Unca Adolph would have been visible front
and center everytime that there was a air force related ceremonial occasion
fronted by Goring.
Was Hitler tone deaf and blind as well as evil? The world wonders...
Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com
Doug
Tanker <hostcom...@aol.comnojunk> writes
><< Stephen Howard sees...@email.uk >>
>
>
>(Excessively complementary posting deleted)
>
>I live to serve.
Shh! Don't say that too many times in this farming area.. They might
get the wrong idea!. (;^)
Doug.
>
>One thing that the clarinet world does not have is a good, comprehensive
>history of the instrument, one that deals with issues like the history of
>manufacturers, changes to the mechanisms, profiles of the prominent players,
>history of the clarinet in the various musical venues in which it is used
>(ooooh! skaw!!!), and so forth.
>
>(Please note: all book authors below from memory)
>
>o The only book that comes even close in this regard is The Clarinet, written
>by G. Randall a long time back (late 1940's, I think) and revised by Jack
>Brymer (I think) in the 1950's or '60's. It takes the omnibus approach that's
>needed, but suffers from being 1) badly dated, 2) poorly illustrated, and 3)
>limited in length. I don't think that there are going to be any updates here,
>as both the author and the revisor are dead.
I have a Boosey and Hawkes Bb clarinet model 1010, with "Symphony"
engraved on the bell. It is rumoured that this model was the one he
played when he made the famous recording of Mossie's "Clarinet
Concerto".
Is there any proof of this rumour, d'you think?.
Doug.
A little observation for the symposium, .......
I learned a lot from a book called "The Clarinet," by Carl Barriteau, a
black person, - (why do I think he may have been French, - dunno!),
- a virtuoso on the clarinet. It was not new in the 1950's.
Doug.
Doug
writes
Thank you for all your valuable information.
Yes! At rehearsal today I was very pleased with this Vito Resotone
U.S.A. 3. I was chuffed with the tone and, except for a very slight
clash with the lead trumpet on the top Bb which concluded an eight not
arpeggio, (could be him, of course!), I came away delighted with the
ease of blowing and isn't it a nice feeling when you blend in properly
over the whole range!.
Investigation tomorrow into that note and its nearby mates, when I have
more time to settle down to it.
By the way, - I spent all morning yesterday trying to get sense out of
the info on their website www.gleblanc.com.
Cutting out a load of explanations, their toll free phone number, (For
Americans only) is wrong for England. 1 800574 0510 should start
001........ but forget it.
From (In?) England their sole Agents are,
Arbiter Group, Wilberforce Road, West Hendron, London, N.W.9 6AX
Spares and parts, Telephone 0208 202 1199.
Haven't had the time to verify this but will try tomorrow.
Doug
Tanker <hostcom...@aol.comnojunk> writes
Perhaps you mean Hermann Goering, who was a much decorated German ace
pilot in WW1. He was Chief Of Staff (or equivalent) of the Luftwaffe in
WW2. (;^)
Doug..
Stephen Howard
Tanker) wrote:
>
>There have been two of these German saxes show up in recent years. Both were
>"pro" instruments, and both had the distinctive Luftwaffe "flying eagle
>carrying the crooked cross below" stamped into the bell. I don't know what
>brand they were...probably Conn (inside saxophone joke, for all you doublers
>out there).
>
I had one, a silver plated alto - made ( or at least badged )
Schuster, of Markneukirchen.
Quite a nicely made horn too.
I thought it might be of historical interest, but the Imperial War
Museum didn't want it, and the major auction houses refused to deal in
" Nazi memorabilia ".
Doug
<d...@yarlside.demon.co.uk> writes
All is now concluded. The barrel is on its way to me via my local music
shop , - from the above suppliers.
The system (for this country) is, the local music shop orders from
either the above suppliers, or other suppliers.
Simple as that.
Which is what you would expect.
So why has it taken me all this time to get what I want?. All my other
enquiries met with a blank wall.
Must be that I live in a one horse town in an intellectual desert.
Thanks very much for all the help on this News Group.
Doug.
HOST Comp Tanker
Schuster, of Markneukirchen.>>
H'mmm...Markneukirchen....that's up in northern Indiana, somewhere north of
Muncie, isn't it?
I always wondered how "Colonel" Conn got his title. Perhaps he was one of the
many Luftwaffe retreads with which that particular branch of the Wehrmacht was
shot through. While Goring was a pilot in WWI, many other high ranking
Luftwaffe folks were not originally aviators in the Imperial German military
(as examples, Kesselring: field artillery; Christansen: naval aviator and
former gunnery officer). I guess that I'll have to put my mole at the Nationial
Military Personnel Records Center to work on this one...
<<Quite a nicely made horn too.>>
Further evidence of Conn heritage...at least in the era before World War II...
<<I thought it might be of historical interest, but the Imperial War
Museum didn't want it, and the major auction houses refused to deal in
" Nazi memorabilia ".>>
Not surprising. The magnitude of evil that was represented by the Nazi
leadership and many of their followers has tainted any rational consideration
of the history of same for the foreseeable future. You want a fire storm some
time, just postulate how well the Germans could have done in post World War I
Europe sans Hitler and his crowd.
While I don't doubt for a minute the sincerity of the IMW in their refusal, I'd
be willing to bet that their collection contains any number of other relics
(helmets, daggers, uniforms, etc.) with the "Halkenkrez" (sic), none of which
have bothered them too much to date.
(We have a museum over here that has piles of military artifacts, including
Mussolini's clock telephone and a bassoon style bass clarinet. Wonder if the
Vermont state goverment agonized over accepting Benito's tick tick dingaling in
the same fashion? (The bass clarinet was theirs, designed for play on horseback
by their mounted military band back in the late 1800's.))
Then too, the fact that it survived to 1945 in spite of the Hitler-prompted ban
on things saxophonic might have been enough of a tie in to show that there were
even some musicians willing to go against the man. Not exactly up to a
briefcase bomb under the conference table designed to get the Fuhrer, but each
resists in his own way...
What did you end up doing with it?
Terry L. Stibal
HOSTCom...@aol.com
Doug
Tanker <hostcom...@aol.comnojunk> writes
Off topic, but,
Is looting an accepted endemic activity common to both sides, - do you
think, during and after wars?. More to the point, - is it an evil
activity?.
Doug.
Stephen Howard
Tanker) wrote:
><<I thought it might be of historical interest, but the Imperial War
>Museum didn't want it, and the major auction houses refused to deal in
>" Nazi memorabilia ".>>
>
>Not surprising. The magnitude of evil that was represented by the Nazi
>leadership and many of their followers has tainted any rational consideration
>of the history of same for the foreseeable future. You want a fire storm some
>time, just postulate how well the Germans could have done in post World War I
>Europe sans Hitler and his crowd.
>
>While I don't doubt for a minute the sincerity of the IMW in their refusal, I'd
>be willing to bet that their collection contains any number of other relics
>(helmets, daggers, uniforms, etc.) with the "Halkenkrez" (sic), none of which
>have bothered them too much to date.
I think their refusal was based rather more on not really knowing what
to do with it. Their extensive collection of militaria tends to be
based on things that go bang!, and what happens to those on the
receiving end.
>Then too, the fact that it survived to 1945 in spite of the Hitler-prompted ban
>on things saxophonic might have been enough of a tie in to show that there were
>even some musicians willing to go against the man. Not exactly up to a
>briefcase bomb under the conference table designed to get the Fuhrer, but each
>resists in his own way...
It found its way to me via a chap who had it stashed in his loft -
along with an old C melody ( £50 the pair, cash in hand! ). My guess
is that it was 'liberated' by the allied forces at the end of the war.
In spite of the unpleasant connotations it's quite feasible that the
original owner was rather attached to the horn - and probably did what
I would have done, and hid it under the bed!
>
>What did you end up doing with it?
I sold it to a private collector who dealt in general militaria as
opposed to specifically Nazi stuff. Where it is now I do not know.
On a similar note, a chap once brought a tenor banjo into my London
shop - it was beautifully made and in pristine condition - and all the
way up the neck it had German military insignia inlaid in abalone and
mother-of-pearl.
It was quite scary - for all sorts of reasons!
JMcAulay
Tanker) wrote, in part:
>One thing that the clarinet world does not have is a good, comprehensive
>history of the instrument, one that deals with issues like the history of
>manufacturers, changes to the mechanisms, profiles of the prominent players,
>history of the clarinet in the various musical venues in which it is used
>(ooooh! skaw!!!), and so forth.
>
>(Please note: all book authors below from memory)
Terry, I took some free time and researched this a bit. My comments
will be inserted.
>o The only book that comes even close in this regard is The Clarinet, written
>by G. Randall a long time back (late 1940's, I think) and revised by Jack
>Brymer (I think) in the 1950's or '60's. It takes the omnibus approach that's
>needed, but suffers from being 1) badly dated, 2) poorly illustrated, and 3)
>limited in length. I don't think that there are going to be any updates here,
>as both the author and the revisor are dead.
Third edition of F. Geoffrey Rendall's *The Clarinet: Some Notes Upon
its History and Construction* is a 1971 publication by Benn/London,
Norton/New York, Revised by Philip Bate. I recall the original
publishing date to be in the fifties, not the forties, but not certain
on that. :)
Rendall's book is meticulous with regard to Clarinet history, with
very little being broad-brushed. In fact, Rendall disagrees with your
contention that Albert clarinets were nothing special in the sound
department. He goes to elaborate lengths to note that E. Albert of
Brussels, founded 1846, used a bore of 15mm minimum, with many
instruments having even larger bores. (I do wonder who was the
early-day Pete Fountain looking for that nineteenth-century "Fat"
sound). Most contemporaries used 14.85mm or so. Rendall also says,
regarding the Albert instruments with the so-called "Patent C#"
mechanism (pp 105-6): "The intonation and tone of these instruments
were very fine -- they have in fact never been surpassed -- and were,
generally speaking, much superior to those of the contemporary Boehm
clarinet." Curious indeed, since Pino tells us that by 1870, almost
all French clarinetists were using Boehm instruments. Perhaps
clarinet players were just as indescribable in their selection of
instruments then as today.
>o The book written by poor Oscar Kroll (he died on the Russian Front in World
>War II, apparently while serving in the Luftwaffe, the notorious haven for
>saxophones in saxophobic Nazi Germany) is a lot more detailed in some areas
>(particularly in that of the "Oehler" system clarinet), but suffers from much
>of the same problems as the Randall book. Apparently publishers everywhere are
>tight with page count for marginal subjects. Kroll's book also suffers from
>being a posthumous publication (I think that his widow edited it), from being
>written well before World War II, and from being virtually unattainable in
>English (the translation printed in the 1960's is a "rare" book; I finally
>ended up paying about a hundred bucks for my copy).
Rendall notes that Albert produced to order one "contra-tenor"
instrument in F, but there is no mention of subsequent production.
Oskar Kroll refers to this as a "contra-alto" clarinet and states that
it was "entirely unsuccesful." Perhaps Kroll means that it didn't
sell a thousand pieces.
It is also interesting that the only mention of Albert in the entire
Kroll book is that "entirely unsuccessful contra-alto" clarinet, not a
word regarding Albert's other work. To me, this omission, seemingly a
glaring incompleteness, speaks ill of Kroll's scholarship, though much
of the book is fascinatingly anecdotal.
>...I hope that they make room for the most trivial piece of clarinet
>information that I've ever seen, originally reported by Oskar Kroll: "In 1939,
>the bass clarinet was first introduced to Luffwaffe bands."
Actually, Kroll says the Bass clarinet was only used 1939-1940. He
also reports Luftwaffe bands "...used the Alto clarinet since 1939."
Kroll's historical information also includes the fascinating comment
that the Bass clarinet had been tried by Prussian military bands in
1833. We are left in wonder as to which month. While Kroll is silent
on the topic, perhaps both the 1833 and 1939-1940 Bass clarinet
experiments were abandoned due to the contents of each very expensive
box of reeds including only one or two usable pieces. The battle
continues.