Klarinet Archive - Posting 000139.txt from 2003/04

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Clarinet sound
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:31:16 -0400

Ed

I don't know if I would recognise the different instrument every time
without question on a few notes. They are after all, all clarinets, and
the harmonic content does not vary drastically on every note (but it
does between registers). If it were a passage, especially a familiar
one, I probably would.

You have misquoted Dan a bit in your post, since he has vigorously
argued that bore does make a difference (look up his posts about basset
horn). Before ordering my basset horn from Steve Fox, I played both
Dan's and Steve's medium bore, and the difference was both clear to me
and to Steve; although Steve at that time preferred the medium bore
himself, he could easily tell the difference when I was playing, and
agreed that I sounded better on the narrow bore. The instruments were
otherwise pretty much identical, being made adjacently by a great
craftsman.

Dan also agrees, as we pretty much all do, that the mouthpiece makes a
difference. In particular, the French and German styles seem to me to
have a clear acoustic difference, though I have made no measurements.

True, Dan has argued that the material of the body makes no difference,
and here I do part company with him. Many people here have misquoted
Benade and his experiments to say that there is no difference in the
sounds produced by different materials. This isn't what he says. The
experiments showed that the energy radiated into the outside
(auditorium) is very small, less than 1% of that radiated by the
vibrating air column. (I would not, however, rule out hearing an
influence from this on the tone, since the ear has many orders of
magnitude dynamic range.) Clearly the major effect on tone is from the
bore and the tone hole lattice. However, Benade shows (by sticking bits
of e.g. lead tape on different parts of the clarinet) that the
vibrations of the body of the clarinet do affect the vibrations of the
air column and hence affect the tone. So material does have an effect,
but not in the obvious way. You probably could make a good clarinet out
of cement (of fine enough grain to make the holes with precision, and
sealed against porosity which definitely affects the air column) but it
would be a subtly different shape from that of a similarly-performing
wood clarinet. And makers have a couple of centuries experience to draw
on in making wooden instruments; they are less adpet at concrete
clarinets.

Clarinets made of the lighter boxwood, which does vibrate more than
grenadilla, do sound different. I have a suspicion that the material is
a significant contributor to this, but they are usually also different
in so many other ways (tone hole lattice, bore, mouthpiece) that one
cannot be sure. I don't know of real side-by-side comparisons between,
say, a 5-key boxwood and a 5-key grenadilla or rosewood. As clarinets
became more complex in the 19th century, the woods also changed from box
to the harder, denser woods such as rosewood, cocus and grenadilla. I
suspect this was a combination of availabilty and workability (retained
key posts etc). Any historical instrument makers care to do the
experiment? I'll donate the rosewood of which I have a large slab, aged
for 70 years!

Keith Bowen

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Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 10:55:11 -0500
From: Ed Wojtowicz <ewoj@-----.net>
Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinet sound
Message-ID: <BAB314FF.3389%ewoj@-----.net>

I apologize if I am not clear. Maybe questions would better illustrate
my thoughts. When you used to play your A bass clarinet vs. your Bb,
could others in the ensemble (violist, conductor, etc) know without
question which instrument you were playing at the time?

If so, was it due to the pitch relationships or the sonic differences
between your two instruments? Was the sonic difference due solely to the
pitch, or did the differences in the pieces of wood, bore, design also
contribute to this? You (correct me if I am wrong) seem to state that
the great sound differences that people often speak of (dark, bright,
etc) are nonsense. I am therefore puzzled why different pitched
instruments are thought to have different sonic qualities, (a chocolate
A) yet it seems that two clarinets which may have substantial
differences in design do not. I am thinking at the moment again, of
closely related instruments.

Sorry about any miscommunication,

Ed
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