Klarinet Archive - Posting 001436.txt from 1999/01

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Leaky pads good??!!
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 05:44:41 -0500

Tony P.,
Might this harder work be easier to do using a bottom-lip embouchure than
with the top lip??
Roger Shilcock

On Fri, 29 Jan 1999, Tony Pay wrote:

> Date: Fri, 29 Jan 1999 09:28:58 GMT
> From: Tony Pay <Tony@-----.uk>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Leaky pads good??!!
>
> On Thu, 28 Jan 1999 21:13:03 PST, scottdmorrow@-----.com said:
>
> [snip description of 'bodged up' instrument]
>
> > Then someone will write for this "period instrument", and future
> > generations will be in a quandary over how to play the piece on
> > "modern" clarinets while still attaining the "sound" the composer had
> > in mind!
>
> Though Scott is taking the p*ss here, there is a fact about the
> acoustics of actual period instruments, related to their leather pads,
> that is not very well known. I personally try to make my instruments as
> airtight as possible for reasons of security, but I was surprised to
> hear that that may not be how they sound at their best. And I found it
> interesting and illuminating to learn why, even if I don't take
> advantage of the phenomenon.
>
> Instruments with flat leather pads, even properly adjusted ones,
> often aren't quite as airtight as modern instruments. When the
> adjustment isn't optimum, there is a significant probability of
> disaster, in fact; and this was at least part of the reason for the
> initial resistance to clarinets with keys, until the technology matured
> a bit more.
>
> But a slight failure to be airtight has another effect on the
> instrument. The effect is to flatten and broaden the resonance peaks of
> the tube.
>
> As has been explained here before, the clarinet tube for a given
> fingering has resonance peaks that correspond only approximately to the
> harmonics of the fundamental pitch that is being sounded. When these
> resonance peaks correspond well, the sound is richer in harmonics; and
> when they correspond less well, the harmonics are not so strong.
>
> So if the tube is very slightly leaky, the effect is that the resonance
> curve, rather than having very steep high peaks, as it would if the tube
> were completely airtight, instead has lower peaks that are approached
> more gently. The summits of the peaks are in the same place, but lower
> than the 'airtight' ones, and on either side of them the tube is
> actually *more* resonant than before.
>
> (Just to be clearer about what is meant by this picture I'm describing:
> the tube resonates differently to different frequencies. If you draw a
> picture of how resonant the tube is for varying frequencies, you get
> a curve that looks like a mountain range, with the high peaks at
> frequencies where the tube is more resonant, and valleys at frequencies
> where it's less resonant. In the picture, the height at a given
> frequency is a measure of how much resonance you get from the tube at
> that frequency.)
>
> But what this means is that a harmonic that was 'off-peak' when the
> instrument is airtight can actually be amplified *more* if it's slightly
> leaky. So the sound is actually richer in harmonics, which is what you
> mostly want, even though you have to work harder to get it. The
> response of the instrument is also more even.
>
> I'm told that some horn players use a similar technique to make 'tricky'
> notes more secure: they allow a bit of air to escape at the embouchure,
> thus broadening the resonance peaks of the instrument so that it gives
> more 'help' to the pitch that they want.
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
> .... I don't steal taglines -- I replicate them.
> .
>
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