Klarinet Archive - Posting 000778.txt from 2002/04

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Embouchures in general
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 17:34:32 -0400

Karl Krelove wrote,
>Am I alone in finding that my tactile (auto-kinetic?)
>sensitivity in ensemble situations is often completely
>unreliable? Sometimes what I'm doing "feels" fine until
>my part is suddenly exposed and a quick adjustment of
>my pitch or tone becomes necessary. I don't "feel" rhythm
>in my fingers nearly so accurately when I can't also hear
>the result. As a consequence passages that I can play
>perfectly competently when I can hear them can become
>befuddling and hard to control when I can't hear them
>through the din around me.

Aside from the orchestra sound making your own sound more difficult for you
to hear, the sudden difference when the orchestra drops back and you solo is
not just a difference in your hearing. Part of it is a real, measurable
difference in what your clarinet produces, relative to the other ambient
sounds in the room. The instruments around you produce multiple sound waves
that interfere with your sound waves to *change* your pitch and your tone
quality.

Pipe organ players use this phenomenon. They learn not to couple up certain
ranks of pipes with certain other ranks because those pipes throw each other
out of tune or produce throbbing, jangling noises. Organists learn that
certain other combinations of pipes enhance each other. This phenomenon (far
more extreme in an organ than in an orchestra, because the humans in the
orchestra instinctively compensate, which the organ can't do) is the reason
why some ranks of pipes are deliberately tuned flat or sharp. Played
together with certain other ranks, they don't *sound* out of tune, even
though they're tuned out of tune.

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