Klarinet Archive - Posting 000123.txt from 2002/11

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: reverse Mozart
Date: Sat, 2 Nov 2002 14:11:55 -0500

Gary's comments are very perceptive here. Any instrument that overblows
a 12th will have greater difficulty playing a chromatic scale than one
that overblows an octave, at least early models of such instruments will
have this problem. And it comes about because of the fact that it is a
far more difficult engineering feat to get the two notes of the register
to be both in tune in an instrument that overblows a 12th. Therefore,
some of the upper register notes will have intonation difficulties that
affect the upper chromatic scale much more than the lower one.

This is shown most clearly in contemporary bass clarinets that have a
low e-flat, d, d-flat, and c. When one plays those notes, they are
invariably in tune, but play them with the register key on and the 12ths
are often badly out of tune. While it is true that such fingerings were
never considered by instrument designers, there is no theoretical reason
why they should not work. And the problem is even true on my
contemporary full-boehm clarinets were I cannot use the overblown low
e-flat for its theoretical equivalent upper register b-flat. It is
stuffy, ugly, and out of tune. On my brand new basset horn, Steve Fox
fixed this problem (maybe by consulting with an astrologer) so that all
the low notes overblow perfectly in tune. Early clarinets had this
problem for several of the notes in the upper/lower registers and,
without alternate fingerings for the upper-register note, the chromatic
scale was, by definition, out of tune.

As for Karl's comment about string players complaining about complicated
keys, that is one of the few blessings for clarinet players. No matter
how complicated the concert key gets, we can always simplify our
problems by changing clarinets.

Clarinetists should consider the problems of key changes to be like a
boat with a high mast coming to a bridge. In the case of strings, they
have to raise the bridge. But clarinet players have a different
approach. We can, by changing clarinets, effectively lower the water.

Dan

Gary Van Cott wrote:
> Karl,
>
> I am not an expert on this, but I believe that it was more difficult to
> play chromatically on the clarinets of this period than it was on the
> other woodwind instruments.
>
> Gary
>
> At 08:22 PM 11/1/02, you wrote:
>
>> Dan,
>>
>> Well, my tongue was a little way into my cheek, but I didn't mean to
>> imply
>> string players would have objected to the use of a B clarinet, rather
>> to the
>> use of a key signature with 5 or 6 sharps in it. Or is it only modern
>> string
>> players who whine about those keys?
>>
>> And what of the other woodwinds, who didn't have as many choices of
>> instruments to alleviate their key signature woes? If the piece were in B
>> Major, did Mozart simply leave out the other woodwinds and substitute B
>> clarinets instead (I don't know the opera excerpts you cited and am not
>> handy to a library with scores, or I'd answer my own question)?
>>
>> Karl

--
***************************
**Dan Leeson **
**leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

---------------------------------------------------------------------