Klarinet Archive - Posting 001046.txt from 1998/11

From: "MARY A. VINQUIST" <kenshaw@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Wagner; Fiume March; Helium and Pitch
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 22:15:34 -0500

For preparation to hear Wagner's Ring, I suggest the following:

George Bernard Shaw [no relation], "The Perfect Wagnerite." GBS was a
great admirer of Wagner's music. This short book gives a good summary of=

the plot and the underlying ideas. It is, or used to be, available in
paperback.

Also, no study of Wagner is complete without listening to Anna Russell's
brilliant parody lecture, recently reissued on CD.

If the suggested books are not availabe at your bookstore, think music
library....

------------------------------------

Gary Van Cott asks about Fiume March. The West Point Band has an enormou=
s
library of marches. When I was there many moons ago they had nearly 2,00=
0.
There are usually some WPB players lurking. Maybe one of them could
check, or you could call the band music library.

------------------------------------

Concerning Tony Pay's remarks on helium, he is correct about the
physiological mechanism that signals the need for breathing. It is not
triggered by lack of oxygen, but by increased blood concentrations of
carbon dioxide. That's why you don't feel suffocated when an unpressuriz=
ed
plane climbs to, say, 20,000 feet, but simply black out.

A terrible example of this happened about 20 years ago in Staten Island,
New York. A worker went into a large tank that had stored natural gas bu=
t
was then apparently empty. After a few seconds, he collapsed, and severa=
l
others who went in to rescue him also collapsed. All died. It turned ou=
t
that the tank had been purged with nitrogen. The men were breathing pure=

nitrogen and had no inkling that they were getting no oxygen.

If you breathe helium, that does not stop your body from metabolizing
oxygen and producing carbon dioxide. Therefore, holding your breath for =
a
few seconds after inhaling helium would not stop carbon dioxide from
building up, because your body would metabolize the oxygen you had taken =
in
during preceding breaths. However, you wouldn't want to take more than a=

couple of inhalations of helium, since on each exhalation would would get=

rid of carbon dioxide without taking in any more oxygen.

Also, helium molecules are the smallest of any substance except hydrogen.=
=

Helium passes through microscopic holes in, say, latex rubber balloons,
which is why they go flat so much faster than balloons filled with air. =

Your lungs are constructed to permit gases to pass through the walls of t=
he
cells into the blood. Helium would get into your blood more quickly than=

oxygen, or anything else. I don't know that physiological effect it migh=
t
have, but at least one of the noble gases, xenon, is a powerful anestheti=
c.
Yet another reason to avoid more than a single lungful of helium.

Tony has brilliant insights about "stale" air playing flatter than "fresh=
"
and using that to control pitch. It's the sort of great idea that makes
you say "why didn't I think of that?" =

I suppose everyone has burped while playing and heard the pitch go WAY
down. I wonder if I could create an instant A clarinet from my Bb by
swallowing air....

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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