Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2002/06

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Why play the Period Clarinet?
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2002 10:33:43 -0400

In a message dated Tue, 4 Jun 2002 1:25:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time, w7wright@-----.net writes:

> The barrel in this (Jack Brymer's book) photograph is at least 'bulbous', perhaps spherical, on the exterior. I'm wondering about the bore inside. Does your clarinet have such a barrel? If so, is the bore spherical?>>

Bill, I don't have the Brymer book handy, but I will take a peek next time I'm at our local library.

The barrel on the clarinet I bought is in fact very pear-shaped. When I examined the barrel, however, I found a very interesting construction.

As you well know, modern barrels have an upper and lower tenon socket. If you have a barrel of say 66 mm, the upper tenon socket will be approx 17 mm, and the lower will be approx 19 mm, leaving only about 30 mm of "bore". (But what a critical 30 mm!)

On this barrel, there is a lower tenon socket, but no upper socket. Or, to put it another way, the upper portion of the barrel`is all tenon socket. The dimension is approx 21.5 mm. It seems that the mouthpieces of the day had a tenon that reached all the way down through the barrel and mated up with the bore of the upper joint. The barrel, therefore, becomes a "connector" but has no bore that actaully touches the airstream.

I consulted an authority - yes, Tony Pay - about this and he confirmed my assumptions.

I had to "construct" a mouthpiece in order to make this thing play. I'll discuss this in much more detail later.

In the meantime, I have to run. I'm in a panic getting ready to go to the University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, where I'm appearing for the first time as an exhibitor. Total panic!

Walter Grabner
who is......a glutton for punishment
www.clarinetxpress.com

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