Klarinet Archive - Posting 000303.txt from 1997/03

From: Floyd Williams <F.Williams@-----.au>
Subj: Re: Hard/Close (was Re: Breathing on the clarinet)
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 04:32:57 -0500

> At the risk of sounding argumentative, I need to interject at this point
> that I use (as do many of the clarinet players here in Philadelphia) a
> Gigliotti P facing (around 1mm opening) with VanDoren V12 #4 or 4-1/2. I do
> adjust the balance of most of the reeds I play on and am fairly selective
> about which ones I actually use. I don't play with white noise at any
> dynamic level, nor do any of the good players I know here. I never heard
> white noise in Gigliotti's sound in all the years I studied with him. White
> noise doesn't need to come from a hard/close setup. Some players who play
> on those setups tolerate it because they just like the resistance they get
> from a very stiff reed, but that can be gotten from an open facing as well
> - just use stiffer reeds. White noise is more likely the result of
> unbalanced reeds or reeds that are just too stiff for whatever mouthpiece
> they're being used on. It isn't a necessary result of hard/close
> combinations if you select/adjust your reeds to be responsive and don't
> want the noise to be there.
>
> Just my $.02 worth of point-counterpoint.
>
> Karl

I would like to second what Karl has written re "hard/close" set-ups.
Some of the most admirable of American clarinetist have preferred just
such a combination, i.e. Robert Marcellus(a Kaspar 13 or 14, which trans
lates to a 1.13 or 1.14 tip opening)and Harold Wright(a Chedeville with
a tip opening of c.1.01 with a #5 Vandoren). Both of these players
produced a clear, pure tone with no noise, even up close. Another
example is Dick Waller, ex-principal of the Cincinnati Symphony, who
used a Kaspar 14. In any event, I don't think it's possible to
characterise combinations like the above as producing particular
problems. As Karl said, balanced reeds of the correct hardness for a
particular opening can be played with a clear tone without noise.

Floyd Williams
Brisbane, Australia
http://gu.edu.au/acsc