Posted by Rick Denney on September 10, 2001 at 09:06:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Your ultimate horn collection posted by Chuck(G) on September 09, 2001 at 16:43:05:
With considerable respect due to you, Chuck, I think we have to look at how the term "compensation" has been used in the past. It has come to mean the Blaikley automatic compensation system, which is as you describe, but that wasn't the meaning of the term back when Boosey still had patent rights on Mr. Blaikley's invention.
In those days, "compensation" meant any device used for correcting intonation. There were a number of systems proposed, many of which depended on slide pulling. Not all the slide-pulling methods were manual, though--some were mechanically operated by various contraptions connected to the valve buttons. The old use of the term would divide the world of compensation into two categories, including manual compensation and automatic compensation, of which that proprietary Blaikley/Boosey system was just one example.
The Blaikley method was clearly the preferred approach with players, because it was effortlessly automatic. But arguments still persist concerning the musical price that is paid for such a system, with reasoned opinions on both sides of the debate.
From Dr. Marzan's perspective, however, his usage is correct, and was the common usage at the time he used it. This common usage is verified by reading Stauffer, Bevan (to a lesser extent because of his British perspective), and other authors who wrote in that period, or from the perspective of that period.
Of course, I agree with Chuck on the other things that he said. Good craftsmanship can't fix the three-valve swindle, and one more valve isn't enough to solve the problem. And I agree that a lot of slide pulling on a euphonium is a bother. When I play the euphonium, I spend a lot of time in the lower register of the instrument, because I'm using it for stratospheric tuba parts (I don't even pretend to play the stratospheric euphonium parts).
Rick "who would still greatly prefer the 2975 to the Marzan euphonium" Denney