Klarinet Archive - Posting 000297.txt from 1999/05

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Timbre of notes
Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 17:43:46 -0400

At 08:49 AM 5/9/99 -0400, David Blumberg wrote:
>-------------------------------------
>Bill, of course the throat tones, and over the break would be cheating. **
>I do not have perfect pitch**, but can tell the timbres of the notes, and
>name pitches by that. Let's do an example - 3 notes clarion E,F,G on the Bb
>Clarinet would be F,Gb,Ab on the A Clarinet, and D,Eb,F on the C Clarinet
>(to preserve the actual pitch in each example).
>It would be obvious what Clarinet was being used by the TIMBRE ALONE. There
>are probably lots of players who can do that.
>
Obvious to you, perhaps. And maybe even to me, in a perfectly quiet and
controlled environment, with all my concentration devoted to making the
distinction. In real life, I doubt that I could. I also find that it does
not matter in the slightest to me. Also, the way I set up my original
blind test, you would have to make the distinction between the same written
note played on each, preserving not the pitch, but the resonances of a
particular fingering. The way I see (hear) it, what you hear to make the
distinction is the inherent imperfections of the instrument which result in
minute differences in timbre from note to note. When the perfect clarinet
is invented (yeah, right, everybody hold your breath while we wait for THAT
to happen) those distincions will disappear.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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