Klarinet Archive - Posting 001078.txt from 1998/03

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Another peculiar acoustical phenomenon
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 12:41:27 -0500

> From: MX%"klarinet@-----.91
> Subj: Re: Another peculiar acoustical phenomenon

So far we have had several explanations for the phenomenon of a
clarinet overblowing an octave when the mouthpiece is replaced
by a double reed affixed to the clarinet in a variety of
ways. I suggested a cork with a hole in it but George Kidder
came up with another solution to the attachement problem.

One view is that the clarinet overblows a 12th because it behaves
like a closed pipe with a traditional mouthpice and when that is
changed, the acoustics change.

Another view is that presented by George below.

Also noted was that the clarinet bore is cylindrical (which it
really is not) and that somehow is involved with the mouthpiece/
oboe reed phenomenon.

It's fascinating, to be sure, and I'm learning a great deal but
I am also not sure that we are getting where we are supposed to
be getting. Yet it is good to see these weird things happening.

> Following Dan Leeson's comment that he had heard that a clarinet fitted with
> an oboe reed would overblow an octave, Bill Edinger's report that he had
> tried it and it did, and my comment that maybe it was due to the small size
> of the oboe reed, I got together yesterday with Michael Dicker, the
> bassoonist here at ISU. I took a rubber stopper which fit into the bore of
> the barrel of an old clarinet (not into the tennon socket, but farther in)
> and drilled a hole in it to fit the outside windings on a contrabass bassoon
> reed. Then Michael tried it (I've never blown a double reed im my life!).
> It sounded AWFULL, but the register key indeed shifts the fundamental sound
> by (about) an octave. Removing the barrel and placing the reed at the top
> of the LH joint did not change things - still an octave.
>
> Note, however, that the bore of a contrabassoon reed is maybe 3 mm, while
> the clarinet is some 14 mm, and there is still a big discontinuity. Maybe
> we need to do the experiment the other way around - get one of Leeson's
> "single reed for oboe" mouthpieces and try it on a clarinet. Or perhaps one
> cound try an Eb mouthpiece wound with paper or something to fit into a Bb
> barrel. This would give the discontinuity in bore sizes while preserving
> the single reed. THEN see what happens.
>
> Any takers on this experiment?
>
> George Kidder
> gkidder@-----.edu
>
=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================