Klarinet Archive - Posting 000294.txt from 1998/01

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: Reed Tip Closing
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 15:02:30 -0500

Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com> wrote:
>Don't feel bad. We are talking about some extremely rapid opening and
>closing (hundreds or thousands of times/second, depending on pitch). You'd
>have to be awfully sensitive to notice that!

OK, despite my strong intuitive sense to the contrary, I guess I have to
grudgingly allow that the reed hits the tip of the mouthpiece. It just
seems incredible to me that the reed tip could flex that far, and I would
have guessed that the forces caused by the sudden stoppage of the airflow
would blow the reed apart.

However, I REFUSE to believe the reed vibrates at the pitch frequency! If
a reed were capable of generating all the pitches on its own, why would we
need all those holes and keys? You could make music with a mouthpiece and
a barrel.

The reed is vibrating at some reasonably low fundamental, but it is the
changes in effective tube length caused by the interruption of the holes
which create the harmonics that make up the various pitches.

I recommend "Horns, Strings, and Harmony" by Arthur H. Benade, which
contains a readable discourse on how instruments (including the clarinet)
produce notes.
--
- Tim Roberts
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
timr@-----.com