Klarinet Archive - Posting 000774.txt from 2004/07

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Measuring sound character
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:24:26 -0400

Georg Kuhner's interesting note causes me to think that two
issues are being intertwined in this discussion, and I am not
sure that they belong together.

One issue has to do with assertions about the character of sound
produced on a clarinet having anything (or nothing) to do with
the material from which the clarinet is made. The argument
suggests that if you put your mouthpiece and setup into a
clarinet of any material it will sound the same (or else that it
will sound measurably different).

The second issue is the one Georg brings up, but it echos similar
statements from other players, namely the very important role of
the mouthpiece in producing sound character.

From the inception of this discussion (which goes back several
years now), the assumption has always been that it is the
clarinet about which we are speaking, not the clarinet AND its
particular mouthpiece.

There is little doubt that mouthpieces (and setups involving
reeds and ligatures which have their own issues) have a
distinctive impact on sound character. I certainly have never
denied this, but at the same time I have never mentioned the
subject because I always assumed that what we were talking about
was the clarinet and the clarinet alone.

So when I would argue about consistency of sound from clarinet to
clarinet, I invariably stated clarinets of wood, hard rubber,
glass, even bamboo, each of which would use the player's standard
mouthpiece. And when I spoke of a behind-a-screen test, my
assumption was always that a player would execute on clarinets of
a variety of materials, but with a single mouthpiece and
undisturbed setup. Maybe that was a bad assumption on my part,
but it is part and parcel of my entire argument about sound
character being unaffected by material of the instrument.

Do we have two issues intertwined here?

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Georg Kuhner [mailto:Georg.Kuehner@-----.de]
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 7:00 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Re: Measuring sound character

Ot only the difference of the same type of wood but also the way
You work
with the wood!!!
I sent this a few days ago to the list:

"I had an really interesting experience last week!

I visited my old teacher professor for a private lesson (bot
interesting to
You all so far).

I started to play some long notes some staccato ... And after a
few minutes
he came into the room and said:

You are using a reed made by machine using sanding paper and not
a plane!!!

He was absolutely right! I have both sort odf machines and he
ould hear
difference without listenin to me one and a half years just after
a few
seconds!!!"

Regards Georg

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jimmy Lee" <jrlaudio@-----.net>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 8:26 AM
> Subject: Re: [kl] Re: Measuring sound character
>
>
>> Is it possible for there to be as much difference between two
pieces of
> the same type of wood as between two dissimiliar types of wood?
Just
> thinking out loud.
>> Jimmy
>>
>
> Quite likely. Wood is not a homogeneous material so two pieces
of the same
> type of wood are going to be different in internal structure.
For example,
> the density of the wood is affected by the amount of moisture
the tree
> received. The wood can even vary in density in the same piece.
>

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