Klarinet Archive - Posting 000533.txt from 2002/12

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausmann1@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Clarinet Question
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 12:28:25 -0500

At 08:49 AM 12/21/2002 -0800, you Daniel Leeson wrote:
>Without knowing more, I suspect that what you have is referred as a low
>pitch B-flat clarinet. Let me explain.
>
>In the early part of the 20th century, maybe up to around the 1930s, when
>a clarinettist was called for a job he needed to know about the pitch
>characteristics required of him or her. There was a traditional clarinet,
>pitched as we have soprano clarinets today and with an A of 440-445, and
>then there was a low-pitch clarinet that had an A of 415-420.
>
>Many such instruments have the letters "LP" engraved on the upper joint or
>the barrel. They are, of course, shorter than the standard B-flat clarinet.
>
>Of course, it could also be a C clarinet but I can't tell that from your
>description.
>
>The least likely explanation is that it is a clarinet pitched in
>B-natural, which was, at one time, another one of the many pitches in
>which clarinets were made. Mozart wrote two pieces for clarinet in B-natural.
>
>As for the maker, I think it unlikely that this situation is unique to
>that manufacturer. Everybody made an LP clarinet in the early 1900s.

I hate to say so, but you are much confused on this point. Low Pitch
instruments are built to the A=440 Hz standard. High Pitch instruments are
built to the earlier standard of about A=452. Few remain, as they are now
obsolete and practically worthless, although they turn up on eBay
occasionally. If the original poster's instrument is very sharp, it COULD
be High-Pitch horn, but if it is visually different from a standard
clarinet, it is more likely a C clarinet. (A Low Pitch clarinet, of
course, would be slightly LONGER than a High Pitch one, for obvious reasons
of physics.)

Bill Hausmann

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD!

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