Klarinet Archive - Posting 000919.txt from 1999/01

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Subjective and Objective
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 00:29:50 -0500

On Mon, 18 Jan 1999 23:44:00 +0100, notestaff@-----.ch said:

[snip of description of George Ignatius's Resonance Spectral Tuning]

> I helped Georg make some contacts with clarinettists and clarinet
> manufacturers. The same pattern occured again and again. They show
> great interest, invite him to the factory. (I've been as a
> demonstrator as well) They send him whole instruments or instruments
> without keys or parts of instruments for the adjustments. And then,
> it suddenly stops.
>
> Georg has a Schreiber clarinet which he did and which he managed to
> get back again for demonstrating purposes after Schreiber went off the
> air. He has several Mollenhauer recorders. Buffet still has a barrell
> which he did for them. Eddy Vanoosthuyse (Leblanc - Europe) has asked
> Georg to do some barrels but ... They haven't responded.
>
> Of course, it *could* be a worthless fluke. But I am very happy with
> the improvements.

I just went back and read your post of Sept 27, David. I now remember
thinking at the time that it's known that wall vibration can affect the
acoustical properties of instruments (it's mentioned on p 500 of
Benade, for example); even the tuning can be altered significantly.
Most players know that different barrels and bells often have a
surprisingly large effect.

I think the difficulty is rather to determine that the effect is
necessarily an improvement to the instrument as a whole. I have tried
barrels that seemed to me to improve the response of the instrument at
first; and then, when I switched reeds, or tried them again a few days
later, it was less clear that I preferred them to my standard barrel.
Same with ligatures -- sure, there's a difference, and sometimes a
particular reed goes well with a particular ligature, but you'd be hard
put to say that that ligature was *better* for all reeds.

However, this doesn't mean that Georg's improvements are of that nature,
though the cycle 'initial interest --> not followed up' from the
manufacturers does seem rather typical.

I suppose it's just rather unlikely, given the rather large amount of
highly sophisticated professional study (particularly of violins) that
has been done, that your friend has chanced upon some mathematical
machinery that improves all string instruments. (Not to mention the
walls, loudspeakers and skis that you talked about in your initial
post.)

But you may be right, and anyway, it's great that you find it an
improvement. I wish I'd thought of it when I was playing in Switzerland
recently, and taken you up on your offer of a visit to the Black Forest.

Another time!

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

Believing Truth is staring at the sun
Which but destroys the power that could perceive.

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