Klarinet Archive - Posting 000587.txt from 2002/07

From: MVinquist@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: strange keywork
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2002 22:49:18 -0400

Bill Edinger asks about some unusual keywork on two of his instruments.

My 1894 Buffet Albert system Bb has the tab you mention, extending down from
the left index finger ring. It has a pad beneath it. The ring is
interlocked with the ring for the left middle finger, so that when that
finger is down, the pad attached to the index-finger key is also closed.

When you play first-line E (and the B above), the index-finger hole and the
pad are both down. The F/C above that is played with the left index finger
up and the left middle finger down, and the F#/C# above that is played with
the thumb only. To get the half-step up to F/C in tune, you need
comparatively little venting -- just the hole covered by the index finger.
To get the whole step up to F#/C# in tune, you need additional venting from
the hole covered by the tab and pad attached to the index finger ring.

Your 1914 Buffet A Boehm clarinet has the "doughnut" key for the left middle
finger, which, as you say, is like the same key on a French system flute.
This key covers a large hole that combines the left middle finger hole and
the pad that is attached above it on the standard instrument. This is
because the instrument also has the 7th ring for the left ring finger, which
gives you a left-hand fork fingering for Eb/Bb.

On a standard Boehm clarinet without the 7th ring, the standard fork
fingering (both index fingers) activates the bridge mechanism, which leaves
the hole for the left ring finger open but closes the attached pad. On a
7-ring instrument, with no additional mechanism, if the standard fork
fingering is in tune, then the left-hand fork fingering (with the left ring
finger down) is very flat. The doughnut key opens the entire hole when you
finger the left-hand fork, but when you finger the standard fork, the
doughnut closes but the hole in the doughnut remains open.

Acoustically, this is not satisfactory. On a standard instrument, E/B is
vented through the left middle finger hole and the hole covered by the pad
attached to that ring. With a single large hole venting these notes (and
also the left-hand fork Eb/Bb), the tone on those notes is open, blaring and
honky, like the "bell" notes E/B.

Thus by the 1920s, and perhaps earlier, Buffet had abandoned the doughnut
key. For a while, they adjusted the size of the left-hand holes to made both
the standard fork Eb/Bb and the left-hand fork Eb/Bb more or less in tune
without any extra mechanism. However, the intonation was so bad that they
quickly dropped this design.

By the time my 1929 7-ring Buffet was made, the company had adopted the
mechanism that's universally used today, with a tiny hole and pad between the
rings for the left middle and ring fingers, which is open for the left-hand
fork fingering and closed for the standard fork fingering. This brings both
fingerings in tune with good tone quality.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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