Klarinet Archive - Posting 000616.txt from 2001/01

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: RE: [kl] Re-facing & metaphors
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 10:26:33 -0500

<><> Jay Webler wrote:

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. [snip] 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.

That is why I included "Music is not a science, and I wouldn't want
it to be" in my post, but.....

There are times when isolating certain effects and communicating
them are eseential. Teaching is an impo
; but science has one thing that all communication requires eventually
-- regardless of what the topic is: Numbers, a means of quantifying.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0After an eveining of experiment, I
can tell you that the re-faced 5RV is about 7 cents sharper than my
other mouthpiece. =A0 But what can I say about the tone? =A0 In my
perception, 'bright' vs. 'dark' doesn't describe the difference. =A0
'Light' vs. 'heavy' comes closer, but the distinction between 'bright'
and 'light' is ambiguous and undefined. Ditto for 'dark' vs. 'heavy'.
@-----. Pyne has some spectrum graphs on
display at http://hughes38.som.ohio-state.edu/spectra.htm. =A0 They show
different notes played by different people on different instruments (so
far as I know). =A0 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.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0For 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? =A0 I suppose this experiment
has already been done somewhere.
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Many experts, including a few on this
list, have said that the problem is too complex to analyze. @-----.
=A0 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?
@-----. =A0
There would be tremendous value in it! =A0 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?
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Obviously it does, or otherwise every
serious textbook would explain it.
@-----.
Cheers,
=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0Bill
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