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Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 14:49:54 -0400 (EDT)
Today's Topics:
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 10:11:43 +0000
From: Paul
Lindemeyer <paulwl@gannett.infi.net>
To:
contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: Hey Now!
Craig Ruff wrote:
> After that, it was one low instrument after another. Tenor sax,
> bari sax, bassoon, then bass sax, which was a poorly tuned instrument,
> so I quickly took up tuba (quite fun).
I beg to differ, Craig...
I have played bass sax for 4 years and it's not so much a matter of the instrument being poorly tuned as it is of the player taking the time to get the feel of it. Standard sax technique just isn't enough. But this doesn't make it a bad instrument.
But the horn is well worth learning and has given me (and open-minded audience members) a lot of enjoyment. Besides, I don't imagine a bassoon plays very well in tune when one first picks it up.
--
Paul Lindemeyer
(paulwl@gannett.infi.net)
_______________________________________________________
CELEBRATING THE SAXOPHONE: An Illustrated
History
At your local bookseller from William Morrow
& Co.
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 07:29:37 -0500
From: ROBERT
HOWE <arehow@vgernet.net>
To:
contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: Re:
contrabass-list Digest V97 #43
contrabass-list-request@contrabass.com wrote:
[snip - Ed.]
> Now, does anyone know of a good source for cork shims?
> Grant
Champagne corks, cut with a very sharp knife. If you need some, Email me back privately, I keep them all and am quite a lover of the bubbly, so I have drawers and boxes of champagne corks downstairs.
Regards, Robert Howe
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 15:58:05 -0700
From: Grant
Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
To:
contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: DIY
At 06:08 AM 5/27/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Lately I've started trying to learn how to build woodwinds. I'm starting
>with turning maple into flute blanks, but am desirous of trying clarinets.
Hmmm, what size flutes?
There is one book that is probably "required reading" for anyone making wind instruments: Arthur Benade's book on Musical Acoustics. He describes in detail the effect that bore shape, tone hole placement, etc., has on the pitch of any given note (woodwinds as well as brass). If it isn't at your local bookstore, you can always get it through Stranger Creek ( http://www.windworld.com/stranger ), which carries a bunch of info and materials for instrument makers. You may also be interested in the Woodwind Quarterly (is the latest issue out yet, Scott?), which is geared to instrument builders and repairmen. And of course, there's always rec.music.makers.builders , on usenet.
If I had more time, I'd be building subcontrabass flutes in my garage. The clarinet mouthpiece has always seemed to me like it would be a source of great frustration to the home builder, as sensitive as clarinets (and saxes) are to the mouthpiece geometry. Of course, flutes are pretty sensitive to the head joint geometry...
Maybe a subcontrabassoon.... I bet sarrusophone reeds would fit.
Grant
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 16:10:37 -0700
From: Grant
Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
To:
contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: Re: Bass Oboe
At 06:08 AM 5/27/97 -0400, Francis wrote:
>If anyone wants to know what a bass oboe is like it is like a Cor Anglais
>(English Horn) only more so. More plangent and soulful than the Heckelphone.
>More reedy and less rounded and powerful it is a distinctive voice probably
>best suited to chamber music or solo passages in lightly-scored orchestral
>music. It seems best suited to lyrical and relatively slow music but I can
>imagine someone like Franciax writing well for it in a lighter, faster more
>humorous vein (as he does for Cor Anglais in his quartet for it with
>strings).
Also much less expensive! Loreé makes bass oboes now, and Forrest's Music (Berkeley, CA) carries them. Not that they keep them in stock, you understand, but they have one for rental, and will order one for you on request. I don't have their catalog handy, but the bass oboe was around $7,600, while a new Heckelphone is well over $20K. At least, it was the last time I asked.
Grant
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 11:39:15 -0700
From: Grant
Green <gdgreen@contrabass.com>
To:
contrabass-list@contrabass.com
Subject: Instrument
Alert
For anyone in the market, I noticed that WW&BW has just posted a used Gemeinhardt bass flute for sale ("Demo like new condition $2,495.00") and what appears to be a Vito Eb contra-alto clarinet ("Excellent condition $799.00") at http://www.wwandbw.com/ in their "Used Band Instruments" page (reached through the "News" button).
Grant