Klarinet Archive - Posting 000415.txt from 1995/09

From: Pat Flannery <pjfnefro@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Undertones
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 1995 13:16:08 -0400

All this talk of Undertones and subtones reminds me of a question I've been
meaning to ask for some time now. I think I know how to make a subtone
accidentally, but how do you do it intentionally? That is to say, how does
one produce what, in the 30's and 40's, was called a subtone? This was an
effect on the clarinet used in Big Band (or Smooth Band) music wherein the
low register was made to sound unusually low and (pardon me here, Dan)
dark. My favorite example is Freddy Martin (a tenor man, I know, but he
did double on clarinet) doing "Deep Night".

I've asked several clarinetists about this and, of the few who knew what I
was talking about, no one knew how to reproduce the sound. I'd appreciate
any help I could get on this. It's not an emergency or anything like that;
I'd just like to know.

Pat Flannery