Klarinet Archive - Posting 000053.txt from 2003/12

From: "Keith" <100012.1302@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] The influence of wood
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 06:07:33 -0500

Dan,

Now why is this to be called poop? I have no idea whether it is true or =
not,
but I have EVIDENCE to counter your blatant unsupported assertion :-). I =
am
currently building a harp, and hope not to be ostracised from the =
clarinet
list for this. The reason is, that my wife and I wanted to start level
pegging on a new instrument, to overcome our disparity of technique on
clarinet (me) and piano (her). That's irrelevant. However, what I found =
is
that the soundboard material, traditionally spruce, came from cool
mountainous regions and up to, say the late 19th century, normally had =
20
growth rings per inch, and there is documentary evidence for this. =
Modern
soundboard material, and this applies to guitars and lutes as well, has
about 12 per inch. The 20 per inch material is either unavailable or =
very
rare, because the trees have simply been chopped down and used by now. =
If
you measure similar woods in lumber yards you will find a much greater
spacing, something like 10 per inch. So it is likely true that wood very
similar to Strad's is not currently available except from reclaimed =
timber.

I recently refloored a room in my house with reclaimed timber, in this =
case
pine from the roof of the old London Spitalfields market, circa 1850. =
After
it was laid I examined some offcuts to see what I could make from them. =
To
my horror I found that this wood was also 20 rings per inch. I should =
have
selected out all the radial-cut planks to use for soundboards, but there =
was
this prime musical instrument material - firmly embedded on my floor.

Clarinets don't work like this .... very much. But if you make two
instruments with as closely as you can identical dimensions and keywork, =
but
different woods, they will sound and play differently. Steve Fox has =
done
this with instruments, and Clark Fobes with mouthpieces. And Benade =
gives
good theoretical and experimental reasons for this. Agreed, not VERY
differently, nothing like the influence materials have on violins, and =
not
as differently as players can make them sound by all their body part =
stuff.
But denying there is some influence of materials is as ostrich-like as
saying "it must play better because it is wood" and if Dan persists in
asserting to the contrary, I shall seek out the wrought iron cello in
Devises museum UK (made by a local blacksmith) and flatten him with it =
at
the conclusion of our joint basset horn tour in the southwest USA in
February, and steal his basset horn to boot.

Keith Bowen

> ------------------------------
>=20
> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 10:03:31 -0800
> To: "klarinet@-----.org>
> From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
> Subject: Sex museum
> Message-ID: <3FCB8273.8000001@-----.net>
>=20
> Now that I have your attention, let me talk about an=20
> interesting article=20
> in the paper today about a study of the sound character produced by=20
> Stradivarius violins.
>=20
> According to the latest poop, the issue of varishes and/or=20
> time are less=20
> important that the wood because all the Strads were made from trees=20
> harvested at a period that allowed certain environmental factors to=20
> influence the wood through cold winters and cool summers. Wood taken=20
> from periods where this phenomenon did not occur are said to be of=20
> poorer quality.
>=20

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