Klarinet Archive - Posting 001505.txt from 1998/04

From: Dee Hays <deerich@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [klarinet] All Metal Clarinets
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 06:10:40 -0400

Jason Hsien wrote:

> Okay... this is a concept foreign to me. An all metal clarinet?
>
> Now, if the clarinet is simply made with metal, but thick walled, etc...,
> then never mind, but if it's thin walled (ie- saxophone), it makes me
> question the quality of sound out of one. Wouldn't it sound more like a
> soprano sax or something similar, rather than a clarinet? Also, and this
> really confuses me, how are open keys worked? Especially those with levers
> above them and the screws and all that which are put into the horn, but
> hidden away from the interior by the wall of wood.

The keys work just the same as a regular clarinet. Mounting provisions for the
keys
and levers are incorporated into the body as are appropriately raised tone
holes for
the open holes.

The main thing that makes a clarinet sound like a clarinet is that acoustically
it acts like
a cylinder closed at one end. Although not a perfect cylinder, it is classified
as a
cylindrical bore and acts like one. So it will NOT sound like a sax even
though
it is made of metal.

The characteristic sound of each of the woodwinds comes from the combination
of bore type, reed type, whether it acts like an open or closed pipe. The
following
table will illustrate this. A metal clarinet will sound like a clarinet. If
anyone made a wooden sax, it will sound like a sax. Flutes have been made of
metal, wood, crystal and they all sound like flutes.

Clarinet - Cylindrical bore, single beating reed, acts like cylindrical pipe
CLOSED on one end
Result: Registers jump by odd harmonics only (the jump from
chalumeau to clarion
a twelfth rather than an octave)
Saxophone - Conical bore, single beating reed
Result: The jump from the lowest register to the next register
is an octave
Flute - Cylindrical bore, no reed, acts like cylindrical pipe OPEN on both ends

Result: The jump from the lowest register to the next register
is an octave
Oboe - Conical bore, double reed
Result: The jump from the lowest register to the next register
is an octave

Hope this helps,

Dee Hays
deerich@-----.net
Canton, SD

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