Klarinet Archive - Posting 001022.txt from 2000/03

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Reed's mode of vibration
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 07:22:30 -0500

At 09:59 AM 3/31/2000 GMT, Tony Pay wrote:

>An alternative view is possible -- namely, that if you set the apparatus
>up so that the reed shuts, then the reed shuts; and if you set the
>apparatus up so that the reed doesn't shut, then the reed doesn't shut.
>
>And in fact, Benade ('Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics', Second Revised
>Edition, Dover 1990), in a discussion of reeds and mouthpieces (section
>21.2, p435), says just this. The clearest statement for our purposes is
>on p442, numbered statement 2:
>
>"The simple relationship described in statement 1 between the partials
>of a tone is only observed when the motion of the reed-valve parts
>themselves is of small enough amplitude that the variable, pulsating
>airflow through them is never entirely shut off. Once the blowing
>pressure is raised to the point where the reed is blown entirely closed
>for a portion of each cycle of its oscillation, the player notices a
>change of feel, the listener notices a change of tone, and the higher
>partials tend to grow in a way that parallels the growth of the
>fundamental."
>
>So, if that's the 'truth', are you happy with it?-)
>
>Or do you think that the article is challenging Benade, describing an
>experiment that shows that 'shutting' is required for *any* sound to be
>generated? That would of course be possible.
>
>However, I think it's unlikely. If I use a reed that is very stiff on a
>mouthpiece, I can make a quiet sound by putting a lot of air through the
>system, corresponding to a vibration that never has the reed shut off
>the airflow. And the opposite is also true: a reed that is very
>flexible shuts almost immediately.
>
>Benade's simple mathematical argument seems to make sense too.
>
>I've heard it said that the German technical term 'echoton' refers to
>the sort of quiet, relatively harmonic-free whisper that you get by
>deliberately playing so that the reed never actually closes. This is
>harder to do on a German setup than on a more open setup.
>
>Amusingly, this was the basis of someone's, I think Alan Hacker's,
>calculated insult around 25 years ago to a certain brand of English
>clarinet playing, which, he claimed, wasn't *really* a *tone* at all,
>but merely "an 'amplified' echoton."
>
If I read this correctly, what you are saying is that it is possible to
create special effects by setting up so the reed does not close. This
results in something OTHER THAN a standard clarinet tone. That is all well
and good, but I'm sure the thrust of the study was to determine what
happens under NORMAL conditions. And observed experimental data beats
theory every time.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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