Klarinet Archive - Posting 000956.txt from 1999/10

From: Grant Green <gdgreen@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] should the embouchure move?
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 12:22:04 -0400

>Tony Pay pointed to his earlier post:
>
><<<See my post on 'Hippopotami blowing clarinets':
>http://www.sneezy.org/Databases/Logs/1998/12/000764.txt>>>
>
>This is, of course, preposterous. While it is entirely possible that a
>membrane-on-a-box *could* get a "decent" tone, it would be completely
>impossible for a hippo.
>
>-- Dental structure all wrong. In order to touch the relevant front teeth
>of a hippopotamus, the mouthpiece would have to be at least 2 feet wide.
>This would lead to the use of really, really large reeds. So while bass
>saxophone may be possible, clarinet certainly is not.

Why touch the teeth at all? Surely a hippo would play "double lip" ;-)
Besides, the inside bore of the mpc doesn't have to match the outside bore.

>-- Hippos have no thumbs, and everyone knows that neck straps aren't
>allowed. The lack of fingers is also a potential problem.

More to the point, imagine what would happen to the instrument.
Probably submerged in brackish water most of the time... Imagine
trying to get a hippo to put the instrument away carefully after
practice...

>I am interested that a cardboard box could have a better tone than some of
>my students. This may be due to a couple of factors, however: first, the
>person blowing into the box may have better breath support than the little
>monsters. Second, perhaps the box listens better.

I believe there's a study of brass instruments that came to the
conclusion that the highest note attainable on an instrument was
essentially only a function of pressure at the mouthpiece, and did
not substantially vary with bore size, mpc type, etc. I.e., a
screech trumpet player should be able to play the same stratospheric
notes on a tuba or horn that he or she does on trumpet, as long as
sufficient pressure is developed. Perhaps a similar principle
applies to clarinets...

Grant

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant Green gdgreen@-----.com
http://www.contrabass.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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