Klarinet Archive - Posting 000465.txt from 2002/11

From: "Tim Roberts" <timr@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Dark Sound
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 23:54:53 -0500

On Mon, 11 Nov 2002 14:26:53 -0600, Paul Harris <pwharris@-----.net> wrote:
>
>I think that most of us will admit that there are differences in the
>controllable sound we can produce from any given instrument.
>...
>It seams to me that we have a consenses already of the description of the
>these term as aplies to sound whether we can quantify them mathamaticly or
>not. When as a group of clarinetist we meet together at the Symposiums to
>talk about each others' playing, we use the terms dark, bright, light, warm,
>excetera and we understand what we are saying.

No, we don't! That's the ENTIRE point of this very long discussion. There
is no concensus on what "dark" means. One man's "dark" is another man's
"warm", one man's "velvet" is another man's "bright". These are completely
subjective terms. What is the opposite of "dark" playing? Is it "bright"?
Is it "white"? What makes it so?

I was astonished to read Kelly's assertion earlier list today that "smooth"
is the opposite of "centered". I would never have guessed that.

You, personally, can take a set of ten clarinet recordings and place them in
order from "dark" to "bright" (or whatever the opposite of "dark" is). I'd
wager that out of 25 clarinetists, NOT ONE would place them in the same order
as you. Further, I'd wager that not more than 3 would even have the same two
extremes of the scale.

There is real danger in using these terms casually. We have many beginners
on this list who are inclined to take everything that appears here as fact.
They see someone use a term like "dark" approvingly, and with enthusiasm they
ask, "what do _I_ have to do to make my tone darker"? There is no answer to
that question, partly because there is no scale upon which to gauge one's
progress towards that goal.

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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