Klarinet Archive - Posting 000393.txt from 1998/08

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Articulated G#
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 23:43:02 -0400

On Thu, 13 Aug 1998, Kevin Fay (LCA) wrote:

> A more interesting question is the oboe. Like the saxophone, it
> overblows on the octave. Why the heck is its key system so screwed up?
> Seems to me that it shouldn't be any more complicated than a soprano
> saxophone . . .

I can't say that I regard the fingering system of the oboe as "screwed
up." I guess it is just a matter of what you are used to. Again, the oboe
is an evolved instrument, the saxophone is an invented one. The
mechanical principles behind the saxophone fingering system are the same
as on the Boehm flute and the Boehm/Klose clarinet. The oboe and bassoon
are more closely related to their more primitive ancestors, but with a
degree of refinement, especially in the case of the oboe.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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