Talk:Subcontrabass clarinet

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[edit] George Leblanc??

The octocontrabass clarinet is now in the possession of Mr. George Leblanc himself.

I've seen this statement made in a few places, and have repeated it myself; but is it true? Does Mr. George Leblanc even exist? Apparently the octocontrabass was once owned by Léon Leblanc, whose obituary mentions only his wife, Mary Lambret, as a survivor. I can find no mention of any 'George Leblanc' on the Leblanc web site, though Léon's father was named Georges. Léon was succeeded in the leadership of Leblanc by Vito Pascucci and then Leon Pascucci.

I've removed the above statement pending verification. -- Rsholmes 16:30, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge -- Clarinets below B-flat contrabass

I'm wondering if octocontralto and octocontrabass will ever be able to emerge from stub status, and suggest a merger of the two articles. I look at the low flutes and see how many different pages there are for all the different large flute subspecies (contra-alto, contrabass, sub-contrabass, hyperbass flutes, etc.) and would prefer at least for the clarinet that we don't end up with articles such as "32' PVC clarinet," "64' PVC clarinet" etc. when I think one good article on clarinets below B-flat contrabass could be written. Thoughts? --Myke Cuthbert 18:48, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I doubt if there'll ever be a proliferation of subcontrabass clarinet articles -- but I do concur that neither of the octo articles is likely to get much longer, and given the similarities in history, design, etc. of the two instruments, it makes a lot of sense to merge them. -- Rsholmes 20:30, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I wish you'd asked for some specific suggestions from others before going ahead and doing this. I think an argument can be made that the name should conform to usual Wikipedia practice by being singular -- I don't find the argument that there is no single instrument called a "sub-contrabass clarinet" entirely persuasive. One can point to an octocontra-alto and say, "That's an instance of a sub-contrabass clarinet". Furthermore, I believe the capitalization should be different: Sub-contrabass, not Sub-Contrabass. Would you be amenable, therefore, to moving this to "Sub-contrabass clarinet"?

Other comments: "Following the convention of sub-contrabass flutes, these instruments are named with the prefix octo..." Really? I had the impression the octocontra flutes came later than the octocontra clarinets.

"An experiment by Gregg Bailey has shown that it is at least theoretically possible..." To nitpick, an experiment doesn't show something is theoretically possible!

I'm going to edit those, and make one or two other tweaks. -- Rsholmes 02:14, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Rsholmes for the good comments and suggestions--sorry about not spending more time waiting for suggestions; I thought two months with no comments would be fine. I'm trying to be more bold on Wikipedia, since (like most researchers) my general tendency is not to do something unless I'm sure I can back it up in front of an audience of experts, but maybe this was too much. I'm fine with moving from clarinets to clarinet. I also would be fine with "Clarinets below Contrabass" or something like that. Though perhaps in line with your suggestion, we should give a week before moving the article again to see if others have suggestions; if not we can go with yours.

At this point I'm no longer sure about the flutes coming first, but I didn't think that the terms "octocontrabass" etc., were Leblanc's. The real first "octo" instrument, I'm pretty sure, is the Octobass, an octave below the string bass or contrabass, but that also does not follow a naming convention of adding Octo. The main point on that section was to say what "octo" means for those for whom it's not obvious. --Myke Cuthbert 20:27, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry I didn't suggest an article name back in January... that didn't occur to me. I agree that waiting a few days for further comments before renaming again would be appropriate. -- Rsholmes 03:43, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

I partially support the proposed rename to "Subcontrabass clarinets". "Sub-Contrabass" should not, I feel, have two capital letters; I would have thought the hyphen should be there, but Subcontrabass saxophone gives a clear precedence for not hyphenating (as does, I suppose, the old Octocontrabass clarinet article title). But I don't support it fully; I think the singular term "Subcontrabass clarinet" would be the better choice. -- Rsholmes 19:22, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Absent any dissent, I've gone ahead and done moved to Subcontrabass clarinet. -- Rsholmes 15:54, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! --Myke Cuthbert 02:50, 16 March 2007 (UTC)