Klarinet Archive - Posting 000806.txt from 1998/07

From: avrahm galper <agalper@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] LEFT HAND SLIVER KEY
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:10:40 -0400

The Left hand Sliver key

I have seen a picture of an early Buffet Boehm clarinet ( in boxwood)
that had the Sliver key of the upper joint starting from the Left
(looking down the instrument) and going to the Right.
It appears in "European and American Musical Instruments by Baines.
Listed as: Clarinet, Louis Auguste Buffet, Paris, 1844. Collection of
Philip Bates. No separate barrel.#637.

When the Toronto Symphony was in Munich Germany, I visited the Museum
there (they have a very large one) and actually saw that type of
instrument and was able to examine it.

One would think that this was just a lever to open the bottom trill key
on the top joint. But it wasn't. This Sliver key, although starting
from the Left to the Right, actually opened a tone hole. The bottom
trill key acted as a lever to open this key.

Why they changed to the system of key work that we know now, I do not
know.

The best way was to see effect the early specimen had.

I got Stephen Fox here in Toronto to put this arrangement on an old
Boehm clarinet. Later I had this put on a regular Buffet, R13.
The thing I remember was the certain notes elsewhere were slightly
unclear.

The system itself worked fine. One thing that did not work was the
trill of Bb in the upper register, when played with the two lower trill
keys. It was flat.
Of course, with this arrangement, only one tone hole opened.
If one is used to trill Bb to C, holding the Bb down and trilling the
forefinger and the second finger then it's OK
I sold this instrument and the buyer reverted to the original keys.
(I had saved them)
So what does all this say about the Sliver key with the Left hand.
Use it in chromatic passages and other passages as well. For instance
the cadenza in the second movement of Scheherezade.
In regular scales. If it can be done with one hand, do it that way.

Regarding the use of the two lower keys of the top joint, when playing
throat F#: I use these keys not only in a chromatics;
there are many scales (Db major, for instance) where one would
use that fingering.
Mention was made of the Klose Mechanisms.
There is a modern version of Klose put out by Leduc (it's expensive)
that has a lot of fingerings marked in for those mechanisms.
If one wants a cheaper book, one can buy " Clarinet Scales and
Arpeggios" published by Boosey and Hawkes.
Those mechanisms are there, sometimes with four different ways of
playing them.

--
Avrahm Galper
New Throat Bb vent and key
THE UPBEAT BAERMANN MELODIC SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html

--
Avrahm Galper
THE UPBEAT BAERMANN MELODIC SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS
http://www.sneezy.org/avrahm_galper/index.html

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