Klarinet Archive - Posting 000324.txt from 1997/11

From: ROBERT HOWE <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: Re: Leblanc Throat mechanism
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 1997 09:43:05 -0500

Roger Garrett wrote:
> No offense meant here, but, if I read this correctly, you are saying that
> no notes should need to be voiced or colored? Please forgive me for
> thinking that perhaps you are not very advanced.....or, perhaps, you just
> don't listen very carefully. No instrument built on the planet, including
> the best string instruments, have perfect scales or perfect voicing on
> every note. You add the SK mechanism to a horn....and solve one problem
> but create others.

Not at all, I am a 41 year old physician and professionally trained
oboist who doubles on clarinet & Sax and has advanced training in
woodwind acoustics. I'm not a pro player, but I have worked with many
fine teachers and makers of modern and historical instruments. My
observation is that clarinets, inch for inch, are much less well voiced
than oboes, and that the clarinet has a couple of really obnoxiously
built notes, the worst being throat Bb, which no oboist would accept.
Voicing is of course needed on all instruments. If you look at the Bb,
you see that the register vent, which should be minute, is being usd as
a tone hole, which should be fairly large. Therein lies the rub.
Oboists have a resonance key for fork F which makes low F the best note
on my horn, instead of the worst. On baroque oboe or oboe d'amore,
which lacks the fork F resonance, I need to do all kinds of
things--which you would call voicing or coloring--to fix the note. I
maintain that the current throat Bb is as archaic as a low F on a
two-key oboe and that a simple key-mechanism fix would be to your
advantage, Roger.

BTW, I do not advocate the SK mechanism or any other. I use, on my
Buffet R13 Bb and Selmer Series 9 Eb, the third side key with A for slow
throat Bbs, keeping fingers down and using the standard and to me very
imperfect fingering for Bb in fast passages. On bassett horn (LeBlanc)
and Bass clarinet (Buffet prestige) I use the standard fingering and the
horn fixes it for me.

Nice talkin' to you,

RObert Howe