Klarinet Archive - Posting 000818.txt from 1999/06

From: Note Staff Unlimited <notestaff@-----.de>
Subj: Re: [kl] over the break
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 17:26:04 -0400

Jack Kissinger schrieb:

> Despite David Glenn's admonitions (and, at the risk of sending innumerable
> traumatized children, including my daughter, to psychiatric wards ;^) ), I
> will take a shot at this. I would appreciate it if the acousticians among us
> would correct me if I am imprecise or incorrect, particularly in my technical
> terminology:
>
> It seems to me there are two ways of describing "break(s)," a technical one
> and a practical one. The technical one describes what's happening and the
> practical one explains how to make it happen or indicates where it happens.
>
> The technical explanation, as far as I can deduce from previous threads, is
> that the first break occurs where one shifts from playing fundamental tones to
> (first series?) overtones. The practical way it is accomplished is by opening
> the register key so that the first overtone sounds. It can also often be
> accomplished (sometimes inadvertently ;^( ) by "overblowing." On a clarinet,
> the location is between the "throat" Bb' and the clarion (long fingering) b'
> (the lowest note in the clarion register of the standard Boehm clarinet).
>
> On a clarinet, the second break occurs where one shifts from the clarion
> register (first series overtones?) to the beginning of the altissimo register
> (third series overtones?) . This is usually defined practically as the point
> where one moves from (high) clarion c''' to altissimo c#''' though it is
> possible to play at least down to b'' with "altissimo" fingerings. The
> common practical way to cross this break (i.e., bring out the third(?)
> overone series), is to open the first finger hole of the left hand as well as
> the register key. Conceptually, it would seem logical that there are higher
> breaks as well. In the altissimo range, we have alternate fingerings based on
> higher series (i.e., 5 and above?) overtones. As a practical matter, however,
> since they are all in the altissimo range, I suspect most clarinetists don't
> think about such "breaks" though they may think about overtone series when
> trying to devise an alternate fingering.
>
> It seems to me that the term also applies to the saxophone with the first
> practical "break" occuring between open c#'' and (clarion?) d'' (though it is
> possible to play Bb', b' and c" as clarion notes). As far as where the second
> break occurs, theoretically, it would seem to be between a" and Bb". Where is
> it practically? You tell me. Many saxophones now go up to f#''' (and some as
> high as g''') without requiring the player to cross the second "break" (I
> don't hang out much in that range, though. I am one of those low-lifes who
> taught himself to play sax in a couple of hours ;^) and has never gone on to
> master those nuances).
>
> Best regards,
> Jack Kissinger
> St. Louis
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To make a long story short, every register change is called a "break".

My problem is with the word. Do singers changing from chest to head tone go over a
"break"? (Only if their puber voice is changing...) Does a brass player changing
from one overtone to the next go over a "break"? Did you ever hear a flautist call
a register change a "break"? Or a violinist going up past the comfortable third
position?

So why do we call it ..... "the break" ?? Must be a typically clarinettistic way
of seeing things........

By the way, the saxophone can also play an overblown C# (and should a lot more
often - it sounds better!). Between G/G# and A, the octave key changes (in all
models I know of from the advent of the automatic double octave key) but that is
no register change. The third register can start at F (top line of staff) already
(if you're good) by overblowing to the second overtone.

David
David Glenn
notestaff@-----.de

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