Klarinet Archive - Posting 000925.txt from 2003/03

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Cylinders vs. Cones
Date: Sun, 23 Mar 2003 13:40:40 -0500

On Sun, 23 Mar 2003 13:26:47 EST, Elgenubi@-----.com said:

> *I understand science, and am pretty good at math, but I have never
> understood why a clarinet overblows the 12th. For all the reasons
> discussed already, there is no one line explanation. I understand
> that 1st order theory says the cylindrical bore, closed at one end
> should overblow the 12th, yet Dan Leeson says anecdotedly that it
> overblows the octave.

I don't think 'orders of analysis' come into the question what different
modes of vibration can exist. They may come into what makes up the
harmonic spectrum of a clarinet sound -- for example, explaining why
even harmonics are present to some degree in the sound of the
fundamental -- but that's another thing. The analysis of overblowing
assumes that the reed vibration is coupled to the tube vibrations, via
the invocation of the boundary conditions, which don't even mention the
reed.

As I said in another post, about Dan Leeson's experiment:

> In a way, I suppose none of this is surprising. Real instruments are
> designed in such a way that the reed and tube vibrations are strongly
> coupled, and it's that coupling that allows the simple mathematical
> analysis to work.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
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... A closed mouth gathers no feet

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