Klarinet Archive - Posting 000627.txt from 2003/04

From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Different sorts of authority, and the 'barrel'.
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:39:23 -0400

In a message dated 4/17/2003 9:18:36 AM Eastern Standard Time, Tony@-----.uk writes:

> But you see, what you write here encapsulates the entire problem.
> The internal dimensions of a barrel are almost entirely determined by
> intonation requirements. There are some small variations possible --
> hence the 'reverse cone' -- but if you're looking for a significant
> change in sound, there's no room to play about. The tuning
> is just too sensitive to any modification.>>

I have been conspicuously quiet on this issue even though I have been invited to contribute in several different ways.

As Tony says, "the tuning is just too sensitive to any modification". It's true, and there's not a whole hell of a lot we can do about it.

Think about a barrel from the inside, as a continaution of the bore from the end of the mouthpiece to the beginning of the upper joint. When you subtract the length taken up by the two tenon sockets, you have approximately 30 mm of "space" to play with.

What happens in that 30 mm is critical to the intonation pattern of your clarinet, especially in regard to the tuning of your 12ths. Most clarinetists focus on the length of a barrel, in regard to tuning, but almost never on internal bore dimensions.

Very minute changes in bore size and taper can have a very major impact (for good or bad). I am talking about changes in the .01 mm range.

(Clark Fobes has written very clearly and eloquently regarding this topic on this list. I am not even going to paraphrase his words. If you want more information check his posts to this lists, especially in the 1997 - 1999 period. Virtually everything he wrote there is worth diamonds.)

I have made over 100 barrels in the past three years. Some have been very successful, some have been total waste of efforts. Other than the few total physical/mechanical screwups, the difference between a usuable barrel and a totally wretched barrel is VERY VERY minor. A few turns of the reamer, removing literally DUST, can make a good barrel great, or a great barrel trash.

Bill, if you were going to investigate what happens to tone and intonation when a reverse taper bore of a Moennig or Chadash barrel is increased +.02 mm in the lowest one third of the tapered bore; or the effect of a hour-glass shaped bore of a certain dimension, I would be right with you.

But creating a barrel with a big "bubble" in the middle just makes no sense according to how I understand the clarinet works, or any explanation I have seen in either of the Benade books.

Like Tony, I appreciate your energy and enthusiasm, but you are not taking up where others have done pretty exhaustive research before.

As a fun practical experiment, you have proven what the books predicted all along, that large variances in bore size in the tube of a clarinet bore will produce big variations in intonation patterns. Fine. But after 100 or so e-mails, we have not learned ONE thing new here. That's my issue.

Walter Grabner

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