Klarinet Archive - Posting 000613.txt from 2001/01

From: webler <webler@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re-facing & metaphors
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 09:50:57 -0500

I, for one, am frankly baffled as to why we need to quantify the various
tonal qualities from different Clarinets, using different players, on
different mouthpieces. Using Science to try to get an electric Piano to
sound like a clarinet, which doesn't seem to have been greatly successful,
is one thing. But why should we try to get scientific research to get a
Clarinet to sound more like a Clarinet.

One of the beauties of the Clarinet is its versatility. The tonal quality
that you want in a Symphony Orchestra is not the one you want when playing
Klezmer. Even if you could quantify the many nuances of the Clarinet,
would there be any value in the day to day playing arena. Worse yet, would
we then be subject to submitting audition tapes to a computer to make sure
we have the "Right Sound".

As ambiguous as the terms "light" and "dark" are, I would rather live with
the mystery that they create than, once again, be proved wrong by a
computer. In other words, there are times in our highly technical world
that I would just like to live on the "truth" of folklore.

Jay Webler
Jay's Clarinet and Percussion

-----Original Message-----
From: William Wright [SMTP:Bilwright@-----.net]
Subject: [kl] Re-facing & metaphors

Spending this evening with my re-faced 5RV has focused my attention
on metaphors again. The two mouthpieces that (now) I find enjoyable to
play have a difference in tone color (tone character) that no listener
can ignore. If I had a reason to describe the difference to you, how
would I?
Music is not a science, and I wouldn't want it to be; but science
has one thing that all communication requires eventually -- regardless
of what the topic is: Numbers, a means of quantifying.

After an eveining of experiment, I can tell you that the re-faced
5RV is about 7 cents sharper than my other mouthpiece. But what can I
say about the tone? In my perception, 'bright' vs. 'dark' doesn't
describe the difference. 'Light' vs. 'heavy' comes closer, but the
distinction between 'bright' and 'light' is ambiguous and undefined.
Ditto for 'dark' vs. 'heavy'.

Dr. Pyne has some spectrum graphs on display at
http://hughes38.som.ohio-state.edu/spectra.htm. They show different
notes played by different people on different instruments (so far as I
know). I dearly hope that someday someone will put on display a couple
of sprectra for one person playing the same written note on the same
instrument on the same day but with purposeful variation -- a difference
in loudness or tone or perhaps just a different mouthpiece -- so that we
can see to what extent the graph changes when less than 'everything'
about the player and equipment changes.
For example, a computer program could probably scan the graph and
measure the areas included underneath the odd- and even-numbered peaks.
Would something as simple as the ratio of the sums of odd and even be
informative? I suppose this experiment has already been done
somewhere.

Many experts, including a few on this list, have said that the
problem is too complex to analyze. Okay. There's no compelling
reason for me to communicate to you the results of my re-facing anyway.
I don't know precisely what was done to the mouthpiece.... so what value
would there be in quantifying the result?

....that's a rhetorical question. There would be tremendous value
in it! Obviously the manufacturers of electronic keyboards have
spectral graphs of (say) trombone vs. clarinet, or piano vs. harp.
Does the problem become so much more difficult when comparing tones from
instruments more closely related, such a two clarinets with different
bores?
Obviously it does, or otherwise every serious textbook would
explain it.

...oh well, it's time to hit the hay.

Cheers,
Bill

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