Klarinet Archive - Posting 000000.txt from 1994/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Sound of instruments
Date: Sun, 1 May 1994 02:53:46 -0400

Several months ago we had a most interesting discussion with respect
to the sound of the clarinet and those factors that created the character
of that sound. Some spoke of the instrument itself being responsible for
it while others, myself included, said that the instrument had little to
do with the sound, it was the person who played it and depended a great deal
on body cavities, etc.

Well tonight I was not playing so I went to hear the San Jose Symphony.
The soloist did the Grieg piano concerto and he used the very same piano
as did our soloist last week who did the Schnittke concerto. I played
that set so I heard both performances. And what amazed me and caused
me to readdress the issue of sound and the source of its character was
the fact that this same piano played so very differently under two
different pianists.

As I think of a piano, I always presumes that, unlike a clarinet for example,
the sound of a piano was purely a function of the instrument itself and that
the player could have little impact on the character of that sound. But, if
my ears do not betray me, I was mistaken, at least with respect to the
piano.

For two different players to achieve such remarkably different sounds (if
indeed they did - this could be all in my imagination) demonstrates that
there is some force unrelated to the mechanics of the piano that influences
the sound.

I wonder to what extent how this phenomenon sheds further light on our
discussion about clarinet sound.

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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