Six years ago, John Richmond introduced me to Martin Benade, son of the late Arthur Benade, and I was given the great honor of playing several instruments from his father's collection. Among them were many fine clarinets, including one which had been owned by Reginal Kell, several historic period instruments, and what was for me the most exciting discovery of that day: a pair of clarinets so completely altered by Arthur Benade that he had removed the original Selmer logos from them and stamped them with his own name.
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| Arthur H. Benade Clarinets in Bb and A [ Eric Seddon Collection ] |
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| Close up of A.H. Benade Stamp [ Eric Seddon Collection ] |
These instruments have been so thoroughly altered in accordance with Benade's acoustic theories and experiments that the original instruments can have been said to have been treated as blanks. Even these few pictures will reveal some significant changes.
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| Arthur Benade Clarinet in A [ Eric Seddon Collection ] |
The A clarinet has an altered bore, and the tone holes significantly renovated (to the point that a flute key was placed over the D/A tone hole). The model is quite old, featuring the wrap-around register key.
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| Arthur Benade Bb Clarinet [ Eric Seddon Collection ] |
There are many obvious modifications that I could get into, and perhaps will someday. The reason for the present post is simply to say that, while these clarinets have been dormant for decades, and have fallen into some disrepair, I have already played them several times, and believe they might be the most acoustically perfect clarinets I've ever encountered.
It's no secret that over the last two decades, I've tried to encourage a renaissance of large bore Parisian clarinets - even suggesting Selmer release a Reference 55 clarinet based on my Q-Series Selmer Centered Tone. I feel strongly that we should not lose the living sound tradition of the clarinet from before the polycylindrical bore. Having said that, the instruments in these photos might be even more important.
I can't give a full review until these are refurbished, but that will be coming soon. Stay tuned.
I can't give a full review until these are refurbished, but that will be coming soon. Stay tuned.
