Klarinet Archive - Posting 000862.txt from 2002/03

From: Audrey Travis <vsofan@-----.ca>
Subj: Re: [kl] Concerning clarinet timbres and transposition, Dan.
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 15:37:01 -0500

Robert wrote:

>
>
> If I take my mouthpiece, reed, ligature and even barrel and move it from one
> Bb clarinet to another (switching brands), playing simply an articulated C
> Major scale (Bb concert, just so I don't leave room for you to wander off
> into non-sense), the harmonica players from any podunk school in the swamps
> of Georgia, would hear slight differences in the timbre. And I am talking
> about bright and dark. The CLARINET body DOES make a difference.
>

I agree with what Robert says here about the clarinet body making a
difference. My Greg Smith mouthpiece (purchased last August) made a huge
positive improvement in the beauty of my sound. My Morrie Backun barrel
purchased about 2 months ago, brought another leap of improvement (getting
farther away from the mouth, aren't we?). Morrie is now making bells which my
teacher, Wes Foster (principal of the VSO) is trying out for him, one of which
Wes says produces a "magical sound". Wes already plays with gorgeous tone
colour. If he says this bell is *magical* - yes, that is his taste, but it
also means he is hearing a clear difference (and we're about as far away from
the mouth as we can get on a clarinet). Besides, if the clarinet makes no
difference to sound quality why did you, Dan, go to the expense and trouble of
ordering a hand crafted Stephen Fox bass clarinet?! And I'd find it hard to
believe if you told me it was for the keywork and beautiful wood alone. Okay -
never mind me, an amateur, even though I am intelligent and my experiences are
valid to this discussion. But almost all the professional clarinetists in
Vancouver (including all 3 Vancouver Symphony players) and Abe Galper and Greg
Smith (was trying them out, maybe has bought some by now) have purchased at
least 1 of Morrie's barrels. Why? Because there is a highly noticeable
difference in the sound they hear when playing them, one they clearly see as an
improvement. Just because no one has yet *scientifically proven* an
improvement/difference (and who's taste would we use to judge that anyway?)
does not mean there isn't one. Here, science is irrelevant. I certainly would
trust my own ears more than anyone else's pronouncements to the contrary.

To my way of thinking, embouchure, shape of the aural cavity, teeth structure,
tongue position and air flow matter a very great deal to quality of sound, but
the equipment can enhance or detract from that sound too. I am convinced by my
own ears that parts of the clarinet body *do* make a difference in the sound.

Audrey

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