Klarinet Archive - Posting 000181.txt from 2007/03

From: Simon Aldrich <simonaldrich@-----.ca>
Subj: [kl] Quarter-tone mouthpiece prototype
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:31:33 -0400

Today I tried a prototype of a quarter-tone mouthpiece designed at
IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) in
Paris.
The mouthpiece is designed to give the player the capacity to lower
the pitch of any note by up to a semitone, without changing the
fingering of the note.

The modification to the mouthpiece is accomplished by boring a hole
(about 2mm across) in the left side of the mouthpiece, about 2 cm
down from the tip.
The hole enters the interior of the mouthpiece at the approximate
midway point between the baffle and the reed.
Attached to this hole, welded to the left side of the mouthpiece, is
a hollow metal cylinder about 4 cm long and 1 cm across.
Inside the cylider is a piston whose base is attached to a cable (not
unlike a bicycle's brake cable).
The cable exits the cylinder's base (the end not attached to the
mouthpiece) and descends to the floor where it is attached to a foot
pedal. When the pedal is depressed, the piston in the cylinder pulls
back from the mouthpiece, effectively increasing the inner volume of
the mouthpiece, thereby lowering the pitch.
The cable is screwed into the footpedal (therefore detachable) and
permanently attached to the cylinder/mouthpiece (if memory serves).
When the footpedal is depressed all the way, the piston in the
cylinder pulls back all the way, lowering the pitch by a semitone.
When the footpedal is depressed half the way, the piston in the
cylinder pulls back half the way, lowering the pitch by a quarter-
tone. Of course any microtone between a unison and a semitone is
possible if the player knows to what point the footpedal needs to be
depressed to produce the desired microtone.
The prototype soprano mouthpiece was a converted Vandoren M30. Since
the cable is permanently attached to the cylinder which is
permanently attached to the mouthpiece, the whole kit (foot pedal and
mouthpiece modified with attached cylinder and cable) comes in a
microphone case, a bit smaller than a single clarinet case.

There is a common contemporary music situation which immediately
comes to mind in which this mouthpiece is a godsend, namely, where
the whole instrument needs to be a quarter-tone low for the whole
piece or movement. Without this modified mouthpiece, finding the
point at which the mouthpiece, barrel, middle joint and bell need to
be pulled out to give you an actual quarter-tone dip on every note
can be a nightmare. That point, once found, is still very
approximate. Some notes are less than a quarter-tone flat, some are
more.
When the part requires the clarinet to be a quarter-tone low on every
note, most composers and conductors are content with the player
pulling the barrel out all the way and sounding generally out-of-
tune. Some composers (like Brian Ferneyhough) insist on every note
being a perfect quarter-tone low.
I hope IRCAM will make a quarter-tone bass clarinet mouthpiece.
Quarter-tones are much harder to produce on bass clarinet than on
soprano clarinet because of the bass's lack of openhole keys.

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Simon Aldrich

Clarinet Faculty - McGill University
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre Metropolitain de Montreal
Principal Clarinet - Orchestre de l'Opera de Montreal
Clarinet - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
Buffet-Crampon Artist/Clinician

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