Klarinet Archive - Posting 000369.txt from 2002/01

From: George Kidder <gkidder@-----.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Benade Clarinet Mouthpiece Overblowing at the Octave?
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 08:48:46 -0500

Sorry, Dee, but my irony seems to have eluded you.

Dee said

>Whether an instrument overblows the octave or the 12th is determined by the
> shape of the bore of the instrument not the mouthpiece.
>

This implies that since the flute has the same bore shape as the clarinet
(cylindrical), it should overblew at the 12th, if the mouthpiece makes no
difference. The flute overblows the octave, exactly because the mouthpiece
does make a difference.

The discussion is exactly about this difference. We have established
experimentally that a bassoon or oboe reed fitted to a clarinet causes the
resulting "instrument" to overblow the octave. The question is why does it
do this. The two choices seem to be a) that the double reed does not
produce a closed tube as does the single reed, and b) that the dramatic
difference in bores between the reed (even a contrabassoon reed) and the
clarinet makes the resulting "instrument" no longer a cylindrical
bore. This is something that no amount of argument or "reference to the
archives" will settle - what we need is an experiment.

Fortunately, we have one in the making. One of our list members (who I
will not name since he contacted me privately) owes one of those tiny
single-reed mouthpieces which were sometimes used on oboes. When he can
find a cork to fit it to his bass clarinet, we will have a good test. The
difference in bore diameter should be about as big as one can get, but it
will still be a single (beating) reed. I await the results.

George

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