Klarinet Archive - Posting 000553.txt from 1999/02

From: "Fernando Silveira" <fernando1@-----.br>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reed Aging
Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 22:55:11 -0500

Dear George, to answer your question I should translate all my theses to
english.
It is not possible, but I will try to clear it with my bad english.
My way to prove it was the experimental method.
First of all I made a bibliografic research to know which methods have been
using to seals the reed.(Books:ARMATO,1980; BENADE, 1976; BONADE,s.d.; The
Woodwind Anthology[book with articles from "The Instrumentalis magazine"];
two artiles from Peter ELCOCK; HEIN, 1970; JAFREY, 1956; OPPERMAN, 1956;
SPRATT, 1981; STIER, 1991; TOSÉ, 1962; articles from "The Clarinet"
magazine, etc... ).
On the book "Woodwind Anthology" I could find a very intersting article
about saliva x water in oboé reeds. The author made a experience to soak and
dry, in water and in saliva, several times(circa 300 times) and, combinate
with chemistry conclusions, he affirm that neihter saliva or water will
affect oboé reeds(and clarinet reeds too, since the oboé reeds are made with
the same "arundo donax" of the clarinet reeds).
So after that, and based on the experimental method, I have tested all the
ways to seal the reed: thumb presure, nose oil, sand the back, and, of
course, puting nail polish on the hell of the reed(more soak in milk, boiled
water, etc...). Just one method shows work: nail polish. Because, in 95% of
the tested reeds, the reed, after two days playing 10 minuts each, the reed
didn't soak more!! And, cutting the reed and puting it in a microscopie you
can see, clear, that the treatment keeps the moisture out of the reed's
xylems. All the another methods were inconsistents: works in less them 15%
of the reeds; and, even on the reeds it works didn't seals the reed
properly - after two or three days the water could go inside the reed. Thunb
presure in the vamp, from a results of the sight in the microscopiem broke
the reed's fibres.
After that, 10 reeds were treated with nail polish and 10 not. All treated
are(even today) playing perfectly(of course they lost a litle of strongness,
but can play well). The anothers, without treatment, 70% lost drasticaly
strongness in the first 15 days!!
All my students and a lot of another clarinet players are using that method
and they have been talking that the reed's life raise about 50% or 60% .

I hope it clear more my point.

All the best

Fernando
Fernando Silveira
Principal Clarinet - National Symphony - Brazil
Clarinet Professor - Rio de Janeiro University
fersilv@-----.br
Phone (55)(21) 613-4229
Fax (55)(21)716-2248
-----Mensagem original-----
De: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.edu>
Para: klarinet@-----.org>
Data: Domingo, 14 de Fevereiro de 1999 23:04
Assunto: Re: [kl] Reed Aging

>I was also interested in Fernando's experiment, since I had had similar
>thoughts without doing anything about them. The trachea of the reed are
>there (biologically) as water passages. They still work after the plant is
>dead - indeed, the cells of which they are made are dead (in the living
>plant) before they can function this way. As the reed is shaped, all of
the
>trachea which have one end on the vamp have their other end in the heel.
We
>hear lots about "sealing" the vamp with rubbing, nose oil, etc., but it
>stands to reason that one could prevent much of the water uptake by sealing
>the other end, with the advantage that the sealant should have little
effect
>on the critical part of the reed.
>
>I imagine others have noticed that reeds which seem porous when you suck on
>them always seem to be not so stable as the reeds which are tighter. I
also
>imagine that Fernando's treated reeds admit very little air when you suck
on
>them.
>
>But - in a field as intensely personal as the preparation and selection of
>reeds, it would be good to have the data, not just the conclusion. So:
>Fernando and Ed - can you share the data on which your conclusions were
>based, so the rest of us might have a starting point for trying it
>ourselves? And are there others who have tried sealing the heel? And with
>what effect?
>
>the Elephant's Child
>
>At 05:20 PM 2/14/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>On Sun, 14 Feb 1999, Fernando Silveira wrote:
>>
>>> On my dissertation I could affirm that if you put nail polish on the
>>> "heel" of the reed will help to prevent the reed became with a lot of
>>> moisture, sealing the reed.
>>
>>I believe this is true, for single reeds as well as for bassoon reeds. I
>>discovered it by accident while making bassoon reeds. But, I don't know
>>why it works. It seems counter-intuitive. We might imagine that if the
>>ends of the fibres are left open, moisture molecules could escape there,
>>but it doesn't seem to work that way. Any suggestions or theories about
>>why this works?
>>
>>Ed Lacy
>>el2@-----.edu
>>
>>
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