Klarinet Archive - Posting 000226.txt from 1997/11

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [Fwd: Materials]
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 10:15:59 -0500

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> Subj: [Fwd: Materials]

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> Message-ID: <345F9A97.BE1626E5@-----.net>
> Date: Tue, 04 Nov 1997 16:58:48 -0500
> From: Ben Bentley <Ben.Bentley@-----.net>
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> Subject: Materials
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I thank Ben for his posting but I regret to say that it is, in my
opinion, made up science. In effect, Ben believes a certain thing
to be true and, therefore, has constructed his scenario that permits
him to come to no other conclusion.

His analogy of three glasses might be suitable if we were
discussion violins, but it is totally unsuitable for clarinets
(and other instruments as well).

There are fundamentally three kinds of musical instruments: (1) those
whose sound production is totally encapsulated within the human body,
such as the human voice and for which materials external to the body
are irrelevant; (2) those whose sound production is completely formed
outside the human body, such as a violin, and for which
materials external to the body are all important; and (3) those whose
sound production involves an interaction between forces inside and
outside the body, such as a clarinet. For this latter class, the
influence on the quality of the sound of what lies outside the body
vs what lies inside the body (and vs what is at the transition point
of being inside and outside the body such as the embouchure) is
very much a question on which there is some disagreement.

It has been argued that the nature of a particular clarinetist's sound
is unique and is dependent on factors over which s/he has little
control; i.e., the shape of the head, the nature of the cavities in
the skull, the chest dimension, the lung capacity, the quantity
and quality of the teeth in the head, etc. And it has also been
suggested that once the air column leaves the lips and enters into
the clarinet, the sound, for all intents and purposes, is fully
formed. Now this may be too strong a statement. I'm not really
certain myself and a lot of science is needed to confirm or deny
these hypotheses. But it is an unfortunate and unscientific
oversimplification to contrast the production of sound on a
clarinet with the character of the sound produced on three
containers of differing materials.

A number of years ago, Stanley Drucker was involved in an automobile
accident in which there was some damage to his face, and particularly
a few teeth. The hospital where he was taken for emergency care
was preprared to do surgery but were stopped cold by Naomi Drucker,
Stanley's wife, who insisted on a great deal more examination by
maxillary surgeons. Now Naomi is a clarinet player, just like her
husband, and I suggest that he concern had two branches: (1) the
physical equipment inside the mouth needed to manage the playing of
the clarinet, and (2) the impact on Stanley's sound were he to have
lost teeth.

I, and many other clarinetists, have undergone oral surgery called
periodonture in which the gum line is lifted higher, thus exposing
more surface area of the teeth. I cannot speak for others, but my
main concern was sound production after the surgery, and in fact,
there was a significant change, even though the change involved
millimeters of surface area on each tooth.

All of this shows the importance of the clarinetist's body to
the character of his or her sound, and the fundamentally lesser
importance of the instrument.

>
> Re. materials discussed in another thread, let's do an experiment. Take three
> dimensionally identical drinking glasses. On is plastic, one is glass, one is
> crystal. Tap each lightly with a fingernail. If they sound the same, materials
> don't matter. If the sound different, materials do matter.
>
> The materials used to make clarinets are much more similar that the above extreme
> example, therefore the differences between clarinets made of different materials
> will not be as great. The resonance of the materials of the mouthpiece and bore are
> secondary to the tone generation which takes place within the chamber of the
> mouthpiece (minimal impact of the material used).
>
> The size and shape of the chamber, reed condition, embouchure, and support of the
> air stream are the primary tone inducing factors within the chamber. The length of
> the bore (modulated by the holes & keys) is the primary tonal factor in the body of
> the clarinet.
>
> Other secondary tonal effects are produced by variations in the bore diameter,
> method of cutting tone holes, and other such things that either aid or impair
> generation of harmonics of the primary tone being produced. The wall thickness is
> important to the ability to sustain resonance after the note has changed. Thinner
> walls sustain higher tones better, while thicker walls sustain lower tones better.
>
>
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=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================