Klarinet Archive - Posting 000316.txt from 2000/08

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Unloading.....
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2000 22:48:08 -0400

This afternoon was my first student recital, and now that it's over
and the anxiety is gone, here are a couple of things that I've been
wanting to post, but I couldn't force myself to sit down an type .

First, I've been forced to buy three instruments recently for
grandchildren because they are _required_ to play in their high school
bands for three years in order to graduate (and schools in this
particular area don't have loaner instruments or any form of subsidized
rentals).
I think I mentioned once that glee club was a required acivity in
my school, but they actually had to kick me out of glee club because my
singing is so terrible. I have lived with the memory of it (it crushed
me) for 50 years now. So when I think about children being _required_
to play in order to graduate, it gets under my skin! Some kids just
can't produce music. Appreciate it? Yes. Play it? Not everybody.
And this isn't mentioning the expense factor for struggling young
parents who are still in the early parts of their lives and coping with
family expenses.
So in addition to venting a little bit about this, I'm wondering:
Is this particular school district unusual, or does this happen in other
parts of the nation as well?

*************

Psychology of Music (Deutsch) makes an interesting point about
tone color:

Months ago, I told my teacher that lower-pitched notes on the
clarinet sound more interesting to me than alto & altissimo notes, and I
wondered why composers "stay up there" so often?
If you limit the discussion to components of a sound wave that are
perfect sine waves or partials thereof (which isn't true in real life,
of course), then there are a limited number of components possible that
fall within the range of human hearing.
As pitch rises and the lower components disappear, there are fewer
combinations available to determine the tone's color. It's a simple
mathematical consequence that players and instruments begin to lose
their distinctiveness at higher pitches. There are fewer possibilities
and hence everyoe is crowded into a 'smaller space.'
This could explain my personal reaction to alto & altissimo, since
the number of components is reduced by 50% as you go up one octave. Two
octaves means 1/4 of the available components, and three octaves means
only 1/8 of the available components..

Cheers,
Bill

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