Klarinet Archive - Posting 000789.txt from 2004/07

From: "Forest Aten" <forestaten@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Measuring sound character
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 13:10:46 -0400


> Hello Dan,
>
> I just wanted to give an example that a well trained person has the
> possibility to hear the slightest difference - for example the way a reed
is
> produced without any help of oscillators or such stuff only using the ears
> (something musicians shoul do more often :-))
>
> So I think if the difference could be heard why should it not be possible
to
> hear the difference between different materials?
>
> Regards Georg
>

Georg,

How do you know the "difference" perceived is due to materials alone? I
believe this is what Dan is trying to sort out.

Many additional variables regarding the way a clarinet plays have been
introduced and discussed in this thread about material. Any or all of these
variables could/do effect a "difference"....even within a identical
material.

Which brings me to this point.

Clarinet manufacturers do a fairly amazing job at bringing certain
consistent elements to a particular brand/model. They do this by controlling
certain factors involved in the design and manufacture of a clarinet. Even
then, as players, we can detect slight (and sometimes not so slight)
differences between instruments of the same brand/model. (and the same
material I might add....and even wood from the same tree...right Dan?)(even
the same branch of the same tree) Sometimes the differences between
clarinets of the same brand/model are very "different".
I often perform on my Buffet, Greenline clarinets. No one sitting around me
in the Dallas Opera even knows I play a synthetic clarinet. The conductor
doesn't know. The audience doesn't know. The management doesn't know. The
player sitting next to me doesn't know. I have Greenlines that play as well
or better (in my opinion) than any clarinet that I've ever owned or played.
Differences? I could line up the five Bb clarinets that I own and you could
not only listen to...but play them all....and I am very sure that you would
not be able to tell which one was the Greenline. You WOULD be able to tell
that there is are differences between the instruments. All of the
instruments. I have selected and maintained these clarinets for different
reasons over the years...they all play differently and I count on it. All
are Buffet clarinets. Two R13's, two Festivals and one Greenline. I've
played many, many clarinets over the years...100's. Most of these were
played in selection processes for myself or students. All played
differently...even within the same brand/model.

I've asked Francois Kloc (at Buffet) about this issue of "difference".
Buffet tries very hard to control elements that almost all players expect to
have in a quality clarinet. For example, good intonation...or perhaps I
should say controllable intonation. Some of their clarinets "fix" pitch
better and some allow players flexibility. Players can choose.
As far as sound quality...Buffet (should say every manufacturer) has an idea
about how the clarinet should sound. They all try to build that into their
clarinets. Players can like it or not. Their concepts are based on many
years of player input, engineering input, listeners, conductors,
management....etc., many factors and a lot of tough decisions made by the
executives go into what a company brings to market. The fact that there are
differences in sound from clarinet to clarinet within one brand/model isn't
necessarily a bad thing. Manufacturers count on it. How many different
opinions or ways of playing have we seen expressed on the list? Players with
very "different" way of performing....often play the same clarinet...and
sometimes even use the same mouthpiece and reed. I'm not sure that (even) if
clarinet manufacturers had the material and technology to produce an exact
duplicate....clarinets produced one after the other all without
differences....that they would do so. I'm not sure that the manufacturer or
the player (well...the player that liked that particular clarinet would)
would necessarily benefit.

I believe if you had a clarinet with a similar bore....in every way....that
you wouldn't have any greater differences perceived by a player than you
would from two identical clarinets made from similar materials. Buffet has
demonstrated this pretty darn well with the Greenline clarinet.

I think it would be great to have a first rate study done and
published....but in the end, players are still going to play clarinet after
clarinet to find the one that they like best. And the one you like best may
not be the one I like best.These clarinets might both be from the same
factory, the same model, the same people working building them, the same
material used...and different.

Forest Aten

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