Klarinet Archive - Posting 000785.txt from 2004/07

From: reedman@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] Re: Measuring sound character
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 12:39:19 -0400

I wonder if there is another factor, too -

I know that I change the shape of my oral cavity if a particular reed is
not giving my the sound character (voicing) that I want, or if I'm wanting
a different color for a particular musical phrase. Sometimes, this is
virtually unconscious. If one clarinetist plays a variety of clarinets of
different materials, might he/she not do the same, causing these different
materials to sound the same to a listener?

Jeff

Dan Leeson wrote:
> 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

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