Klarinet Archive - Posting 000656.txt from 2004/07
From: GrabnerWG@-----.com
Subj: Re: [kl] Material influence on sound...one more time
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 12:07:58 -0400
In a message dated 7/16/2004 11:21:01 PM Central Daylight Time,
ormondtoby@-----.net writes:
<<Morrie Backun or Walter Grabner or Clark Fobes all have the boring
equipment to try this. I know that at least one of them has CNC
equipment and can probably do this experiment more precisely than I can
with my kluged-together-on-the-cheap equipment. I've often wondered
why one of them hasn't done so and announced the results.>>
You can do that. Then you can announce the results. Then people will say -
prove it.
In fact I have done it.
The problem here is that we are dealing with perceived phenomena, not
scientific results. I may make a barrel (or mouthpiece) that one person loves, and
another discards.
Even though I disagreed with Dan in his recent post, to a very large degree
what he says is correct. The diameter and shape of the clarinet bore has an
affect on tone many times greater than that of the material used.
However, I and others do perceive differences in tone (and response) based on
material even when the measurements are as close as we can possibly get them.
Benade believed that different materials influence tone because of the degree
of porosity in the walls of the material. For example, no matter how much you
polish wood it will still have a porous structure, far different from say,
plastic. The amount of porosity determines how much of the energy is absorbed by
the walls of the instrument.
If I am understanding what I am reading correctly, the differences in the
amount of energy absorbed accounts for the differences in the tone quality as we
hear it. (Again, this has nothing to do with the body of the instrument
vibrating.)
Here is a very simple example. Cocobolo is more porous than grenadilla,
plastic much less porous than grenadilla. If I make three barrels, trying as hard
as I can to duplicate all the measurements exactly, and make one of cocobolo,
one of grenadilla, and one of plastic, I would have three barrels with SLIGHTLY
different tonal characteristics. If we say the grenadilla barrel is the
"control," the cocobolo barrel would sound more covered, less penetrating; in fact
"darker." The plastic would be less covered, more penetrating, or "brighter."
Maybe most of the difference is appreciable by the player. To what extent the
difference can be heard by the casual listener ten feet away, I cannot tell
you.
Maybe I can do some trials on that someday. However, nobody pays me to do
that, and I do have to make a living. Great topic for a dissertation?
To a certain extent however, I don't care. People stand in line to buy
barrels made of exotic woods. I could make plastic barrels all day and offer them on
eBay for $20 each and no one would buy them. It is amazing, sometimes, how
the market decides these things.
Walter Grabner
http://www.clarinetxpress.com/
World-class clarinet mouthpieces
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