Klarinet Archive - Posting 000582.txt from 1999/05

From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Tone
Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 00:58:40 -0400

Here's a bit of what A. H. Benade had to say about "light" and "dark"
(Fig. 22.9 refers to a graph of cutoff frequency vs. pitch):

"Figure 22.9 shows the variation of cutoff frequency across the
low-register scales of several clarinets. For reference purposes, the
curves for both A and Bb Boehm-system clarinets are drawn with heavy
lines. One can see clearly the close correlation between the darker tone
color and lowered fc of the A clarinet relative to its Bb brother.
Clarinet number 4, a C clarinet from the time of Beethoven, is
particularly interesting in this connection since it has a lower cutoff
frequency than
any of the other instruments. Cutoff frequencies on today's Boehm-system
C clarinet normally lie in the region of 1700 Hz, making the instrument
bright for playing orchestral parts written in the early 1800s.

I have taken a pair of brand new Bb clarinets (part of a gift made in
support of my research activities by Vito Pascucci
and the Leblanc Corporation) and carefully reworked them so that one has
its fc raised by about 3 percent while the other has its fc lowered an
equal amount. Both instruments are well tuned and have excellent
response. Players of classical music are very much attracted by the
low-fc instrument, while they consider the other clarinet to have been
ruined; serious jazz clarinetists are equally positive in holding the
opposite opinion! Both instruments have been borrowed from time to time
for public performance. We have here a beautiful example of the way in
which good musicians select their instruments to fit their musical
requirements."
p 488, "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics, Second Revised Edition",
Arthur H. Benade
----
Mark Charette@-----.org/clarinet
"Cards by Aimee", http://www.sneezy.org/Aimee
"The phenomenon is too variable for proper study" often
translates from "I don't know how to get musicians to do
anything twice the same" - A. H. Benade

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