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Clarinet, B-flat

Date1917 ca.

Place MadeParis, France, Europe

ModelNo. 2*

Serial No.165L1

SignedStamped on barrel, top joint, and bottom joint: [music lyre] / BUFFET / Crampon & Cie. / A PARIS (BUFFET / Crampon & Cie / A Paris within an oval cartouche) / BC (overlapping script) / MADE IN FRANCE / N.B.

Stamped on bell: [music lyre] / BUFFET / Crampon & Cie. / A PARIS (BUFFET / Crampon & Cie / A Paris within an oval cartouche) / BC (overlapping script) / CARL FISCHER / NEW-YORK / MADE IN FRANCE / N.B.
MarkingsStamped on the underside of the right hand little finger e/b' key: T
Description4 sections: barrel, top joint, bottom joint, bell. Improved Boehm system; 17 keys, 6 rings; Grenadilla wood body; nickel-silver keys, rings, ferrules; wrap-around register key; doughnut ring-key on second tonehole; third tonehole ring for forked e-flat/b-flat.
DimensionsOverall length (from tip of mouthpiece to bottom of bell): 684 mm
Overall length (from top of barrel to bottom of bell): 611 mm
Barrel: 69.4 mm
Upper joint: 178 mm
Bottom joint: 236 mm
Bell: 113.1 mm
Bore at top of top joint: 14.6 mm
Bore at bottom of top joint: 14.6 mm
Bore at bottom of bottom joint: 22.7 mm
ProvenancePreviously owned and used by the donor's father, professional musician Victor Achilles Corsi, born Achilles Vittorio Coggi (b 28 August 1893, Supino, Italy - d 2 April 1986, Georgetown, Ohio).

“Vic” Corsi, as he preferred to be called in the United States, became passionate about music when he was still a young boy, growing up in the ancient Italian hill town of Supino, just south of Rome. He began taking clarinet lessons from the town bandmaster and was soon playing with the town band. He even attempted to make a clarinet out of wood himself.

Accustomed to watching neighbors and relatives come and go to "America," he too made the trip across the Atlantic in May 1910. Vic caught the upswing of musical activity of that time and took jobs in vaudeville, musical comedy, theater, silent movie orchestras, dance bands, parade work and showboats, as well as army bands after enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1918. When the economy collapsed in the early 1930s, Vic and his wife Mary relocated to Bethel, Ohio, to raise a family and never left. Vic took on barbering to support the family, but his “true” occupation was always music.

Credit LineGift of Walter C. Corsi, 1992

Object number05292

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