Klarinet Archive - Posting 000617.txt from 1995/06

From: Luuk van Buul <vanbuul@-----.NL>
Subj: Re: Is clarinet European?
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 04:13:04 -0400

Some time ago somebody asked the Dutch members of this list to come out of
Lurkers Land. So here we go with a real Dutch discussion:

Twan Maintz from Holland writes:

<snip>
> Almost everybody in the orchestras I play in here in the Netherlands
>plays on a Buffet crampon (around 90% of the players, I guess. The rest
>play on selmers, leblancs and a few lucky ones have a wurlitzer [drool]).
>They almost consistantly play at A@-----.
<snip>
>Anyone have an explanation, or am I just wrong in my observations?

No, your observation looks right to me (I'm also a Dutch wind band player).
Our conductor Pierre Kuijpers (also conductor of the Koninklijke Militaire
Kapel which translates as Royal Military Band for our American and other
friends) says we should tune on A=442, but in the 'heat of the game' the tuning
frequency rises often to 444 or higher.
Temperature also has a big influence on tuning. Last wednesday, when the hot
weather of last week started (it was over 30 centigrees in our repetition room)
we played at something like A@-----.
By the way, the Wurlitzers in our band are notorious for their high intonation,
specially above c'''. The Buffet RC's are high over the hole range. Leblanc
appears to be more stable in maintaining tuning frequency.

Furthermore you write:
<snip>
>I have noticed that practically ALL dutch wind bands play sharp. Not only
>the clarinets, but the entire orchestra.
<snip>

In our orchestra, we tune to the oboe at 442Hz, but when tuning problems occur,
the conductors (we have two) often ask the first clarinettist, who plays a
Wurlitzer, to give a tuning note.
In this way the clarinets impose their high intonation to the whole orchestra.
One day the clarinets had to play a slow musical line in unison with the flutes.
The flutes appeared to be too low. The conductor asked if they could shorten
their instruments by pushing it in. This was not possible because the flutes
were at their end and couldn't be pushed any further.
This high intonation of some players/instruments sometimes leads to ridiculous
situations.

Luuk van Buul

vanbuul@-----.nl