Klarinet Archive - Posting 000677.txt from 1996/05

From: Leonardo Fuks <leonardo@-----.SE>
Subj: Re: A Centered Tone/Voicing
Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 10:14:47 -0400

>I have two clarinet sound quality related terms that are very fuzzy to me;
>
>What is meant by a "well-centered tone"?
>
>What is meant by the term "voicing"?

Hello Klarinet,
Mr. Browning mentions "clarinet sound quality related terms", but at least
"voicing" is borrowed from the Organ Building field.

Voicing stands for the techniques applied on an already made pipe, to
define/improve its sounding qualities, mainly the attack and the
"breathiness" (related to the sound efficiency). It requires a high ability
and experience from the voicer to make the whole organ register to sound
evenly. As an analogy with organ, it can be used to describe how homogeneous
is the register of any other instrument (mainly woodwind). Of course the
player is part of this process of voicing the instrument. A highly trained
player might be able to compensate the natural uneveness of a student's
model and produce a "good voicing"...

The meaning of a "well-centered tone" is really fuzzy, I agree. It gives the
idea of a tone that is getting close to a center (???). I would guess that
it is mostly related to intonation. Each instrument system (the basic body
plus mouthpiece and reed) has a spontaneous intonation. If it is played
with its conventional fingering and a fixed embouchure, it will produce a
sequence of pitches that would deviate from a standard tempered scale
(equal, pythagoric, natural , etc...). The player will have to compensate,
through embouchure and blowing control, these deviations (which are
specific for each note/fingering) if he wants to play on tune (or close to).
This spontaneous intonation can be expressed in a table/graphic plotting the
deviation range (in cents, for instance) versus the note/fingering. In this
case a instrument with a well-centered tone would be as close as possible in
tune with the least compensating efforts by the brave player.

Other ideas ?

All the best,
Leonardo Fuks
Music Acoustics PhD Programme
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm,
SWEDEN

   
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