Klarinet Archive - Posting 000351.txt from 1997/01

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: How much opinion vs. how much fact
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 08:08:04 -0500

>I think I suggested playing C parts on an A clarinet some months ago
>when this subject last came up. I'd just read Benade's book and seen
>the same charts as you.
>
>On further reflection though, this is not a satisfactory solution for
>a couple of reasons.
>
>First the break will be in a different place. No matter how much we
>strive to hide it the frequency specrums of the different registers
>are completely different so the tone quality of the notes that end up
>in a different register will be different.
>
>Secondly the "bad" notes will be in different places. For example the
>throat Bb which is a notoriously poor note would occur on Bbs on the
>original C clarinet and on Gs on an A clarinet.
>
>Ian Dilley
>
>

This is true enough, but the "break notes" and "bad" notes are relatively
few. It depends to some degree on how the piece is written and which
particular notes the piece uses, but in most cases one can successfully
transpose and maintain the overall timbre of an instrument.

By the way, it depends on which C clarinets a given composer was writing
for. I'm bet there were other C clarinets that had higher cutoffs etc.....

-----------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net