Klarinet Archive - Posting 000414.txt from 2001/05

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet History
Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 09:43:46 -0400

There is another element of complexity in the heritage of an instrument
that overblows a twelfth. It is a far more difficult acoustical
engineering task to add keys such that the produced note is in tune in
BOTH registers.

Furthermore, the fact that the world of clarinetdom has so many pitched
clarinets in each family is a direct consequence of the fact that it
overblows a twelfth.

Doug Sears wrote:
>
> Instruments that overblow at the octave can play a complete scale with no
> keys at all. Examples are the early transverse flute, recorder, shawm (oboe
> ancestor), and cornetto. Instruments that don't overblow can also play a
> complete scale within their limited range, for example the chalumeau. The
> clarinet, overblowing at the twelfth, needed keys, because most of us only
> have ten fingers. I think it was the need for keys that retarded the
> clarinet's development.
>
> --Doug
> ----------------------------
> Doug Sears dsears@-----.net/~dsears
>
> >Why was the clarinet developed so late, relatively speaking? The early
> >clarinet lags behind the early oboe by several hundred years. I find this
> >surprising. The clarinet seems like a natural derivative from the old
> >recorder, much more natural a double reed arrangement.
> >
> >I presume there have been innumerable masters theses on this topic. Anyone
> >have any pet theories?
> >
> >--
> >- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
> > Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
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--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

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