Klarinet Archive - Posting 000999.txt from 2000/12

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] B natural/F# [was better high Ebs]
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2000 11:39:40 -0500

On Tue, 19 Dec 2000 14:32:06 -0000, tony-wakefield@-----.net said:

> On 19 December 2000 12:50, George Kidder wrote:

> > I remember reading somewhere (library book, so I can't look it up
> > quickly) that some performers had the sliver-key fingering tuned
> > correctly for the B natural and the "RH second finger" fingering
> > tuned for the clarion F#, so that they always had one fingering
> > which was correct. How common this is (or was) I have no idea.

> Well - - - -I would say O.K. <if> the sliver key clarion F# after
> re-tuning is O.K. And <if> the RH 2nd finger low B after re-tuning is
> also O.K. It`s a <big> "it depends on" isn`t it?

Yes. Remember that the second finger clarion F# is used a lot
melodically, and the corresponding sliver key is sometimes tricky to
use, if not unusable, depending on which note you're coming from. So
you want that one tractable.

On the other hand, in faster moving music, a very slightly flat or sharp
note isn't so noticeable. And in wind chords, you sometimes need a note
that's flat or sharp to equal temperament. I seem to remember that the
opening of Mendelssohn's 'Midsummer Night's Dream' Overture requires two
clarinets to play D and F#, sounding B and D#, in the second bar. The
F# in the first clarinet needs to be on the flat side, being the third
in a B major chord; and the G sounding E in the third bar needs to be on
the sharp side, being a fifth in an A minor chord. (Also, if I'm
remembering rightly, the 2nd clarinet C sounding A in this chord needs
to be 'not sharp'. (I don't have the score to hand, so I might be
'looking foolish' here:-) And F# as a third in D major occurs a lot in
clarinet music.

The upshot is that you want a tuning of the clarinet that will enable
you to get to all the common adjustments without compromise of
tonecolour. (You can get to almost *any* pitch by sacrificing quality
of sound.) Different people prefer different compromises. Having a
flattish and a sharpish fingering for a note is useful.

By the way, quite a nice fingering for clarion F# on a lot of clarinets,
if you've time to use it and the dynamic is right, is *third* finger RH,
plus F#/C# RH or LH little finger. That's has a very nice resonant and
'simple' sound in the slow movement of Weber I, for example, though you
need to be quite careful approaching it or leaving it. Don't make the
judgement on it until you've practised it for a bit.

> > Trying to remember to use the right one must have been a problem.

Deciding about these things, like deciding which 'resonance fingering'
to use for throat notes, requires a constantly running submodule. I
sometimes describe this as being like having a parrot on your shoulder,
saying "Is it in tune? Is it in tune? Is it in tune?....."

> If the clarinet is properly tuned in the first place, (12ths etc),
> then there is certainly no need to remember which fingering to use;
> modern instruments preferable of course, and again a <big> maybe for
> older instru.

One of the difficulties of playing old instruments is the extent to
which the submodule I mentioned above has to be conscious, because it
changes so much with the conditions. Perhaps it's because we don't play
those instruments all the time -- after all, violinists have equally to
'remember' that certain notes need to be a bit one way or the other in a
chord -- especially on gut strings, that are almost always a bit impure
in intonation.

> This book sounds to me as though it could have come off some extremely
> obscure and dusty shelves, in a backwater library somewhere in the
> Wild West. Did they <have> libraries and clarinets in those pioneering
> days? (I wonder who took the first clarinet over to the New World?)

:-)

> All in all, I`d advise against it, most definitely. But if you`ve got
> the "readies" and the workshop, and a disposable instrument, and
> you`re a clarinet scientist George, then go ahead and invent something
> we`re all searching for. Best, Tony W.

I find that I quite often adjust such things with a small bit of Blutak
in the hole, which has the advantage that you don't need a workshop to
try it out -- or to reverse it, when you've decided you don't want it.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... On the other hand....you have five different fingers

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