Klarinet Archive - Posting 000891.txt from 2003/03

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Cylinders vs. Cones (was: Introduction)
Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 20:04:10 -0500

On Sat, 22 Mar 2003 15:54:16 -0800 (PST), b1rite@-----.net said:

> Benade, "Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics", pg 490 (paperback edition):
>
> A favorite lecture demonstration of mine, the purpose of which is to
> display the varying behavior of an air column when it is coupled first
> to one and then to the other of the two types of air controller, makes
> use of a special flute head joint to fit on a clarinet as a
> replacement for its normal mouthpiece and barrel joint. When the
> instrument is played with this special head joint in place, the
> listeners are astonished to hear the characteristic sounds of a flute.
> [Benade describes how this shifts the low-register 'clarinet'
> fingerings upwards an octave, and also how the instrument can overblow
> either an octave or a twelfth depending on how you arrange
> everything.]
>
> The acoustical implications of using a single cylindrical air column
> to produce both flute and clarinet sounds can be clarified if [...a
> bunch of math...]

Yes, all that's pretty clear, and what you would expect. Benade's
'astonished' listeners must have been acoustically highly naive.

> I found a description (Benade, "Horns, Strings, and Harmony", pg 200
> in paperback) of a commercially manufactured 'miniature' clarinet
> mouthpiece which allows a clarinet player to double on oboe without
> using a double reed, but while still producing a 'NORMAL' oboe sound.

And that too. (It's more normally done on bassoons, actually.)

> I could not find anything about the opposite --- namely, putting an
> oboe reed onto a clarinet --- but I didn't do an exhaustive search.

What you need is an [exhaustive] experiment, clearly.

(And with the other stuff as well;-)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
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