Klarinet Archive - Posting 000018.txt from 2003/12

From: karlkrelove@-----.net
Subj: Re: [kl] The season to kill bad ideas
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 12:15:25 -0500

Come on, now, Dan. The question until now has been "does the material it's made of matter?" and the answer many of us were willing to accept was that, given two identically designed clarinets, different materials alone should not make them sound different from each other.

That different designs (hence, different brands) produce different sounds, absent any special effort on the player's part to defeat/overcome the design differences, is another issue. You don't need to know what's different in the bore, the way the tone holes are machined, etc., to be able to say "this clarinet sounds different from that one." Nor do you need to define words like "dark" and "bright" to hear "difference." No doubt the construction differences can be discovered (and many people know them already).

That my Selmer 10G and my Buffet-Moennig pre-R13 sound different from each other when I play them with the same reed, mouthpiece and *embouchure* is not debatable. Nor is it true that I can't, by manipulating my physical approach and, to some extent, the reed that I use, make them sound largely (but I think not completely) indistinguishable from each other. But unless I make those changes/accommodations, they sound different.

The reason people choose one instrument over others is (apart from responding to advertising hype), first of all, because they can get the sound and musical results they want with the least amount of effort. I don't think you really believe it isn't possible for two clarinets to sound different from each other. Why can't the differences between products with different brand names be different enough to explain what Bill was talking about?

Why couldn't I say that one brand of vanilla ice cream tastes different from another without knowing what the ingredients are in each one?

Karl
> Bill Hausmann wrote
>
> "To each his own. Selmer clarinets do indeed sound different from
> Buffets. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on the individual.
> I LIKE my Selmer's sound, very direct and forceful, what I would
> define as "dark;" that is, heavy on the fundamental and lower partials
> with relatively less energy in the upper partials. As for its
> condition, it looks pretty good to me! Of course, I have neither the
> funds nor the need for such an instrument, but I figured somebody here
> might. You can't ALL be exclusive Buffet Artists!"
>
> OK. I'll bite. What physical property may be found in the Selmer
> clarinets (or vice versa) that allow them "to indeed sound different"
> from Buffet clarinets (or vice versa)? And once you describe that
> physical property, the next question is how does this difference
> manifest itself in a sound that is "heavy on the fundamentals and lower
> partials with relatively less energy in the upper partial (which you
> define as "dark")?"
>
> --
> Dan Leeson
> leeson0@-----.net
>
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