Klarinet Archive - Posting 000275.txt from 2002/01

From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Benade Clarinet Mouthpiece Overblowing at the Octave?
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 13:24:21 -0500

I think the oboe-reed plus clarinet combination overblows (approximately) at
the octave because the overall shape is more like a cone than a cylinder.
Reed end: very small. Bell end: large. The part in between is like a very
lumpy cone, if you think of it as a cone, and so you'd expect some terrible
intonation problems. BTW, the Turkish zurna is built along those lines:
double reed on a conical staple, then a cylindrical section where the
fingerholes are, and a flaring bell. It overblows approximately at the
octave.

Benade wrote about the flute/clarinet combination in _Fundamentals of Musical
Acoustics_, Chapter 22.6, "B. Implications of Putting a Flute Head Joint onto
a Clarinet" (p. 490 in the Dover edition).

Besides these two combination instruments, though, I'm pretty sure the
original post was correct about a "clarinet" that overblows at the octave.
It's not in _Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics_, but in one of Benade's
papers, and involved a very strange register hole. I'll see if I can find the
article.

--Doug

Dan Leeson wrote:

>I have also reported on this list as early as 5 years ago that a
>clarinet with a cork in the upper end of the barrel and which cork had a
>hole in it with an oboe reed inserted there overblew an octave.

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