Klarinet Archive - Posting 000725.txt from 1998/05

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Instrument Development--Clarinet v. Oboe v. Flute
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 19:59:36 -0400

At 10:15 AM 5/13/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Interesting contrast with Flute and Oboe. While there may have been work in
>the 19th century on those instruments, development seems to have stopped for
>both (at least until recently).
>
>Dr. Lacy will undoubtedly know more about oboe--all of my info comes from
>watching my wife play, and he knows what he is doing--but it seems to me
>that the oboe was never "designed" at all. Unlike the flute, whose key
>mechanism was integrated by Boehm, or the clarinet (ditto by Buffet, I
>think, in making the "Boehm" system we know today), it appears that oboe is
>a collection of keys with little rhyme or reason. As a cylindrical bore
>instrument that overblows on the octave, shouldn't its key mechanism be no
>more complicated than the saxophone?
>
For some reason, the "military" key system for oboe never fully caught on.

Just last night I saw a turn-of-the-century (we think) wooden flute in
Boehm system. Other than having a trill key for B instead of the usual Bb
and rollers on both the the low C and C# it was not greatly different from
modern instruments. The headjoint was cracked, but metal-lined.

As regards flute scales, I believe "low pitch" is A@-----. It had been
higher before. But the rest of your story checks out. They just modified
the length without reworking the scale.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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