Re: Boehm & Albert systems

[Tski1128 <Tski1128...>]

The Albert system started fading in this country during WW1, The clarinet 
section of Sousa's band, made up of predominately German schooled players, 
were given 3 months to switch to the Boehm system. Sousa didn't want to show 
anything that could be construed as allegiance to Germany. I did an interview 
with a few of the clarinetists, who were in there 80's at the time I talked 
to them, this was 15yrs ago. Sousa brought in one of the professors from 
Paris conservatory to help them make the transition. This he did at his 
expense. Needless to say this didn't make all the players very happy. These 
Clarinetist were some of the best in the world and the highest paid. They 
really didn't like the idea of changing how they played most of their lives.  
They didn't like the French sound, the German concept at that time was night 
and day from the French sound. But after a few months, most of the guys had 
to admit they could play at lot of the parts easier on the French clarinet. 
This event still reverberates through the clarinet world, as most American 
clarinetists try to get the German sound on the French clarinet. One of the 
mistakes people who pick up an Albert system make, is playing it with the 
wrong bore mouthpiece. These older horns need a large bore mouthpiece to play 
in tune. I was thinking about switching to the Albert for klezmer music, but 
Sid Beckman sounds damn good playing on the Boehm. Most of the guys that play 
Albert don't switch to sax on the gig either

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