Old Clarinets and weather happenings

Last night was a lecture on classical clarinet by Colin Lawson. Those of you who are clarinetists will no doubt recognize the name from rep class projects assignments. He is also the head of the RCM. The lecture was very good. He talked about and played the chalemeau, 2 keyed clarinet, 5 keyed clarinet, a french 13 keyed clarinet, and a simple system clarinet, along with a few others. He had two originals! It was interesting to hear the differences in each chromatic note. The boehm system clarinet is all about smoothness and evenness of tone over the range of the instruments. The classical clarinets were prized for the individual tone color of each note. He also played recordings of some really interesting pieces including a period performance of the first Weber concerto. I was surprised by how different the string part sounded- it was much more interesting, especially in the second movement. I really want to get that recording; we'll see if I can't hunt it down. The lecture was held in the RCM's instrument museum. They have so many instruments down there! They have a solid ivory 2 keyed clarinet and some really interesting basset horns. At the end of the lecture Colin Lawson let us play his clarinets! I played the 5 key, the 13 key, and the simple system clarinet. On the simple system, the speaker key is moved to the front of the clarinet- the throat Bb is so much better! I actually really everything about the tone and the way the simple system sounds. The throat G# is played with the second finger on the right hand, which is really weird though.

Also, last night it snowed in London!!!! It was the first time in 70 years that snow has fallen in October in this city. I pulled out my winter hat mom knit me and discovered that I've packed no gloves, so that is on my to-do list for tomorrow. : )

Cheers!