Klarinet Archive - Posting 001402.txt from 1999/01
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Bore sizes
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 12:29:18 -0500
On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 15:18:32 +0000, johnd@-----.com said:
> In a post about the Selmer centered tone Tom Ridenour wrote
>
> > Be wary of clarinets of bore dimensions over 14.7 if you want to
> > give yourself a fair chance at playing in tune with anyone else.
>
> I play on Boosey and Hawkes 1010s, which I bought new 33 or 34 years
> ago, and which were described at the time as having a larger bore.
> Does anybody know what their bore size actually is? I don't have too
> much trouble playing in tune, but perhaps I've just got used to them.
>
> And while I'm asking, I've always been curious about how the name
> '1010' was derived, and their sister clarinets the Imperial 926.
According to Jon Steward, the bore size of a 1010 clarinet was supposed
to be .600 inches, which is 15.24mm, although the instruments were often
nearer 15.3mm when they had been polished. The top joint was a straight
cylinder, and they were to be played with a parallel bore mouthpiece.
The flare at the bottom was like the French instruments. They first
appeared in the 1930s.
The twelfths were roughly right at the bottom of the instrument, narrow
thereafter, and then wide at the top, because the speaker tube was
large and set low. The players who used them (including myself for the
first 12 years I was playing) learnt to compensate for these
characteristics of the instrument.
Certainly some people played out of tune on them, but one or two players
(I'm not thinking of myself) had what you would want to call impeccable
intonation. (Of course, some people play out of tune on high-tech
polycylindrical clarinets today.) But the instrument was aimed avowedly
at a particular quality of sound and response rather than at 'perfect
intonation as a given'. (It's worthwhile underlining once more that
perfect intonation as a given, which is attainable only by varying the
bore if you limit yourself to a single speaker tube, is incompatible
with a highly resonant and 'clarinetty' low register. Many different
sorts of compromise have been offered over the years; the matter has
been gone into in greater depth by myself and others previously on the
list.)
The 1010 was simply a catalogue number; there were instruments called
1001, 1002, etc. through 1010, and the final one came to be known as the
ten-ten, often written 10-10.
The 926 wasn't part of this classification, the name being cooked up
after the war as an appropriate name for a smaller bore instrument.
I remember starting myself on a single Imperial 926 Bb, and then being
dismayed when I got my shiny new pair of 1010s at around the age of 12
or 13. I had been dreaming of having all my problems disappear, which
of course didn't happen:-)
Nor has it since, I might add!
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339
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