Klarinet Archive - Posting 000223.txt from 1999/12

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Cylinders & Cones
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 04:07:02 -0500

I think I'm right in saying that Carre invented something rather more
complicated which got called a "polycylindrical" bore, involving expansion
by
abrupt steps in the upper joint. Reversed cones in clarinet upper joints
are quite old.
Roger S.

On Sat, 4 Dec 1999, Don Longacre wrote:

> Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 21:04:28 -0500
> From: Don Longacre <nw2v@-----.com>
> Reply-To: klarinet@-----.org
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Cylinders & Cones
>
> 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>
>
>
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