Creativity Quote by Jack Brymer

Brymer’s line smuggles a whole philosophy of artistry into what sounds like shop talk. The clarinet, notoriously, is a compromise machine: a tube that refuses to behave like pure math, with registers that don’t line up neatly, notes that shade sharp or flat depending on breath, reed, room, and weather. When he says “overcome the imperfections,” he’s not insulting the instrument so much as naming the actual job. The player isn’t there to execute perfection; the player is there to negotiate reality in real time.

The subtext is a quiet rebuke to the fantasy of flawless tools and, by extension, flawless performances. Brymer came up in an era when recordings were becoming unforgiving mirrors, making “mistakes” permanent and inviting the illusion that virtuosity is error-free. He flips that: mastery is adaptive intelligence. It’s embouchure as problem-solving, ear as ethics, taste as the ability to choose which compromises matter and which don’t. The best clarinetists don’t deny instability; they surf it.

The repetition - “never was and never will be” - lands like a shrug aimed at consumerism and perfectionism alike. No upgrade, no boutique model, no magic barrel will deliver you from the instrument’s quirks. That’s not pessimism; it’s liberation. If imperfection is baked in, then expression isn’t what survives despite the flaws. Expression is what the flaws make possible, because they force the human back into the center of the sound.