Klarinet Archive - Posting 000993.txt from 1999/10

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] should the embouchure move?
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 19:05:53 -0400

Re. Tony Pay's 'Hippopotami blowing clarinets', Kevin Fay wrote,
>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.>

Yikes, a bass sax mouthpiece is mighty big, but not quite *that* big. I
mean, some people think I have a big mouth, but I don't think it would
accomodate a mouthpiece two feet wide. Hmm, now you've got me curious. What
do the engineers on the list think about how an extremely broad mouthpiece
would affect the tone of an otherwise normal instrument? The human mouth
could actually accomodate, say, a 3 inch wide mouthpiece (not comfortably,
granted, but...). Assuming the length of the mouthpiece and the height of
the interior chamber were the same as on, say, a Vandoren B45, how would such
a mouthpiece sound on a soprano clarinet?

Lelia
proof of non-hippopotamus mouth:
<A HREF@-----.htm">Scarlet Street Staff
</A>
(but I'm not actually a hunchback -- that's my hair)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org