Klarinet Archive - Posting 000169.txt from 2005/03

From: Tim Roberts <timr@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Re: German sound: acoustical analysis
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 13:00:02 -0500

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 16:26:26 -0500, "Vann Joe Turner"
<medpen@-----.net> wrote:

>I've found the discussion on "German sound" interesting, and followed some
>of html links.
>
>If I missed one that pointed to a detailed acoustical analysis of the
>clarinet in various schools, pls point it out to me.
>
>If such has not been done...would it be worthwhile to commission such a
>study? I've visited the site below several times, and see it as a possible
>starting point to find acousticians to do the analysis.
>

I believe this would be a useless waste of time and money.

To do this, you would have to divide your sample population into various
schools. How are you going to do that? Do you ask each performer which
"school" they believe they represent? Do you ask them where they were
born? Where their teacher was born? Where they had their first
professional job? Or do you listen to them, and classify them yourself,
thereby skewing the results before you even start?

How are you going to quantify this? What unit of measurement would be
meaningful? Sure, you can get a spectrum analyzer and snap a picture of
a graph, but which notes? One? All?

With the mobility and homogenization of human beings and performers
today, does this "schools" argument really have any meaning any more?
I'd wager real money that there is far more variation within each
"school" than between the "schools".

And even if, despite all of my skepticism, you are able to come up a
result, then what? If the "German sound" is 7 spuds and the "Tahitian
sound" is 5 spuds, so what? How is that information of use to me?

--
- Tim Roberts, timr@-----.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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