Klarinet Archive - Posting 000132.txt from 1999/12

From: Don Longacre <nw2v@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Cylinders & Cones
Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 21:04:28 -0500

Neil wrote:
But in the grand scheme of things, you're saying that the clarinet
is categorized as a cylindrical bore instrument? I always thought
it was conical, simply by intuition. 'Starts out narrow at one end
and gets wider as you go down. This isn't the most exciting of sub-
jects (it's boring, yes), but I'd be interested to know the common
cone-ceptions on the subject (and hopefully spawn a few more really
bad clarinet jokes in the process).

Neil:

As best I recall, R. Carre,a craftsman with Buffet back in or about 1950
discovered that if the clarinet left hand joint was bored slightly conical it
effectively brought about better 12ths,a better scale and had better harmonic
content, thus a better tone. The success of this inovation saved Buffet from
bankruptcy and turned the clarinet world around. Carre, unfortunately, did not
save his data and the whole process had to be reinvented later. The right hand
joint remained cylindrical which I believe is carried out to this day. The
diverging bell doesn't figure into the upper joint taper acoustically. The
"base" of the cone is at the barrel;the smaller diameter at the mid-joint.
The amount of taper is very slight, hardly deviating from a cylinder, but it
can be seen if you look into the upper joint from the mp end and sight along
the tube walls, first one then the opposite. This all has to do with better
alignment of the high impedance points in the standing wave of the air column
which leads us into the physics of acoustics and I think we better stop here.
The best reference is of course, Art Benade's FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ACOUSTICS.(Dover Press, available from Univ Indiana Bookstore). Benade's
book also refered to instrumentation he cobbled up in various experiments
using PVC pipe to measure waveforms,affixed clarinet mps to flutes, etc.
If you read him, don't be dismayed by the graphs and equations, he explains
if all in lay terms.

Best Wishes,

Don Longacre, <nw2v@-----.com>

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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