Klarinet Archive - Posting 000173.txt from 2000/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Molto Difficile
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2000 18:31:23 -0400

At 01:00 PM 10/3/2000 -0700, William Wright wrote:
> I take my lessons in a studio immediately next door to the "flute
>room." I commented once to the flute instructor that there seems to be
>more tonal variation among students than among clarinet students.
> Her reply was, "Certainly. That's because we don't have a
>mouthpiece to help shape the air flow. Sammy," she said to a student,
>"give me your best forte."
> Sammy was a teenager and he played a note. Then the instructor
>played the same note herself. First of all, she was so much more forte
>than the student that (figuratively speaking) I felt as if I had been
>thrown against the wall. I've heard the same demonstration on clarinet
>at master classes, and someone posted here what he or she heard
>Stoltzman do under similar conditions, ppp vs. fff, but I do believe
>that there's a greater difference possible on the flute -- probably
>because a skilled flutist puts all the air where it belongs and doesn't
>waste any of it.
> The other thing that was obvious was the tone itself. Sammy's tone
>was breathy, the instructor's was (to use a metaphor) 'as solid as a
>wall' without any hiss -- for the same reasons, I presume.
>
It is not really quite correct to say that flutes have no mouthpiece.
Different headjoints can produce DRAMATIC differences in sound due to
differences in their risers and particularly the cut of the embouchure hole
in the lip plate. I have always found Gemeinhardt headjoints to have that
"breathy" sound built in, although their new design that came out a year or
so ago has eliminated that. I find that Emersons are VERY focused and
direct, Yamahas, Jupiters, Armstrongs and the new Gemeinhardts a step
behind them. The instructor's skill surely is responsible for some of the
difference, but she may have been helped by better equipment, too.

Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265

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

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