Klarinet Archive - Posting 000821.txt from 1997/08

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: Ligatures
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 13:52:34 -0400

Ligatures
As someone wrote in, the ligatures (most of them) are one of the
cheapest commodities for the clarinet player. I try to imagine that
until Muller invented the metal ligature around 1820's, no one had
problems with ligatures.
Just had to get a type of string to tie the reed down. They had other
problems with the mouthpieces of those days and had often to reface the
mouthpiece that would warp.

The mouthpieces in those days were made of wood and with the humidity
would warp.
Sometimes there were mouthpieces that had a silver inlay on the table,
to keep that element constant. The rich could have mouthpieces made of
ivory or some other exotic material of those days.

At one time I used a string and it's interesting that even then, there
were different sounds with different quality strings. I tried all kind
of strings, fishing lines and other kinds.

I gave string up because the mouthpiece didn't have the grooves on it to
keep the string securely in place. Of course, one could file in the
grooves but then there was the danger of somehow spoiling the sound of
the mouthpiece when you take off any of the material from it.

I tried many types of ligatures (and still have a whole collection of
them). Even had ligatures made specially, some with three screws and
some with four screws.
My rationale was that the top and the bottom screws should be further
apart. The middle screw was there just to touch the reed very lightly.
So what am I playing now? An old Bonade inverted ligature. I have come
to the conclusion that every reed requires a different ligature.

I'll relate what I read in some article about Henry Lazarus, an English
clarinet player in the last century. He had a table laden with 50
mouthpieces, all set with reeds.
I think that his solution was to fit a reed to a certain mouthpiece and
leave it on "forever".
It would be like a double reed setup where no double reed player takes
reeds apart.

There is something that I learned from this (and also from experience)
that sometimes it's best for some particular reed, to have a different
ligature. Don't run out to buy more ligatures but realize that one
particular ligature can not necessarily give you the sound you want to
hear.

As far as ligature slippage, many have already remarked to put some
material on the inside of the ligature, the part that touches the
mouthpiece.

I cut three pieces of masking tape, stick them together tape and cut it
in the middle.
I then stick each side of this to the inside of the screw side. When
the masking tape gets worn out, I just peel the tape off the ligature
and put on fresh strips.
I found that sometimes those strips get "tired". Fresh strips rejuvenate
the sound a bit.

These things are completely up to the feeling of the player.

Avrahm Galper
Adjunct Professor,
University of Toronto,
Royal Conservatory of Music