Klarinet Archive - Posting 000162.txt from 2000/05

From: "David B. Niethamer" <dnietham@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Bells & Whistles
Date: Wed, 3 May 2000 18:26:31 -0400

on 5/2/00 2:11 PM, Kevin Fay (LCA) wrote:

>Rosario Mazzeo and his posse of
>students regularly lopped the bell rings off their horns to get a different,
>presumably "better" sounding B natural. Selmer even sold Mazzeo models with
>these truncated bells.

In the vague recesses of what's left of my memory, I recall seeing Benade
at some conference or other with a bell that had very little taper on the
inside. It had the usual outside shape, as I recall, so that it wouldn't
*look strange* to the casual observer.

I also have a similar vague memory of the Selmer Mazzeo clarinets using a
variation of this bell.

If we accept the fact that "material doesn't matter" (wood vs. plastic or
whatever) and accept that it is the bore and tone hole design and surface
of the bore that most affect the sound, then how can a bell ring - on the
*outside* mind you, and furthest away from the mouthpiece where the sound
is generated - have an effect on the sound? I know that different bells
affect the sound/tuning of clarinets, but it has to be in the bore and
taper, since the wood is too thick to vibrate in any significant way, no?

David

David Niethamer
Principal Clarinet, Richmond Symphony
dnietham@-----.edu
http://members.aol.com/dbnclar1/

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