Klarinet Archive - Posting 000238.txt from 1997/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Step 2 of n (Don Christensen)
Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 11:41:25 -0400

On Wed, 7 May 1997, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> If Don is correct, there is some heavy duty conflicting information
> that I'm getting on the matter; i.e., that the successive raising
> of the fingers, one at a time, and in the natural sequence, does
> not produce an F major scale on the period clarinet.

Any woodwind instrument can be set up in one of two ways with regard to
the "home key" of the instrument. (This is the key which is implied by
playing the note which requires that the three fingers of each hand plus
the little finger of the right hand either cover holes or depress keys,
and then lifting those fingers successively from the bottom.) On the
modern flute, saxophone, and clarinet in the clarion register, that scale
is C major. (F major in the chalumeau register of the clarinet.) On the
oboe, bassoon, recorder and almost all pre-19th century woodwinds, that
scale is a Lydian scale (similar to a major scale with the 4th scale step
raised a semi-tone). That is why the home key of the oboe is G major,
even though the "seven-finger" note is C, and that of the bassoon is C,
although based on a seven-finger note of F. There have been some oboes
which produced C major as a home key. When I began on the oboe nearly 50
years ago I played on such an instrument. That was a long time ago, but I
believe that oboe had a "modified military system" of keywork.

The crux of the matter is this. On the instrument in question, what is
the interval between the two notes produced by these two fingerings:

= =
= =
= =
and
= =
= O
= O
=

On the Boehm clarinet, the flute and the saxophone the interval produced
is a Perfect fourth. On the oboe, bassoon and all the other instruments
named above, including the classical clarinet and even the Albert system
clarinet, the interval is a tri-tone (augmented fourth or diminished
fifth). This accounts for the different scales.

Generally, it is easy to tell which type of instrument any woodwind is by
just looking at the mechanism. When the first finger of the right hand
operates its key or ring, if the keywork is setup in such a way that
linkages cause _two_ holes to be covered simultaneously, then you are
looking at an instrument of the more modern, Boehm-system type. If there
are no such linkages, then the instrument is of the older, one might say,
more primitive type. Yes, the oboe, and especially the bassoon, are more
closely related to their more primitive ancestors.

> In effect he suggests that raising the fingers in successive order
> produces no scale at all. (I believe that he also says the
> same thing about the upper register with the notes e to f being
> played the same way they were executed in the lower register).

I don't think this is what he is saying. There _is_ a recognizable scale,
but it happens not to be the major scale based on the "seven-finger" note.
And, in some instances, such as on the recorder, the intonation of that
scale isn't very good without the benefit of "favoring" the pitch of the
4th scale degree, or additional venting or fork fingerings.

Ed Lacy
*****************************************************************
Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
*****************************************************************