Klarinet Archive - Posting 000144.txt from 2001/12

From: "Don Yungkurth" <clarinet@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Subject: Material...was: Clarinet Bores - not me - the internal dimension kind.
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 17:11:00 -0500

Walter Grabner quoted someone:

<< The assumption that material has little or no effect on tone ......>>

and proceeded to give his personal experience with barrels of various
materials. He said (greatly edited)

>I am going to dispute this assumption, and dispute it vigorously.

>Material DOES make a difference, and we as clarinetists know that
instinctively.

HUGE CUT

>Please let me know....I know you all WILL.....what you think of my
hypothesis.

I've read Dan Leeson's traditional rebuttal about the lack of science and
basically agree that there is no such thing as a single variable experiment
(which he didn't say). Essentially this argument is that, "If everything
were equal, everything would be equal". While trained in science myself,
I'm of the belief that most of these discussions fall into the large gray
area where the opinion of those skilled and/or successful in the art is of
greater value than scientific attempts.

That said, my own personal experience, along with the demonstrations of a
wonderful player and teacher, indicate that what the individual player of
the
clarinet hears is not necessarily the same as what is heard a few feet away
or in row 25 of a theater.

I wonder what a person familiar with Walter's playing would have said about
the difference in sound from the different barrels. When I experimented
with Legere reeds, I was pleased that my wife could not tell the difference
in my sound between cane and plastic. At a chamber music week last summer,
I had string players come up to me and ask if it were really true that I was
using plastic reeds. They said pleasant things about my sound!

Oh yes, the individual ears are an important variable. I can't tell if
someone is using a glass mouthpiece.

Don Yungkurth (clarinet@-----.net)

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