Klarinet Archive - Posting 000054.txt from 2008/01

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] more legato
Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:06:35 -0500

Keith Bowen wrote,
> Could you expand on why the need to minimize mouth-resonance (small
> cavity)? I had thought that the aim would be to match the resonance of the
> mouth (etc) with that of the clarinet note, to maximize the energy
> transfer
> to the clarinet, ie to make the tone sound efficiently.

Tony Pay wrote,
>>You want to match that resonance if you're playing a throat Bb, sure,
>>and even to hang an appropriate length of resonant tube below the
>>business bit -- a resonance fingering; but not if, for example, you're
>>playing the opening of the Mozart clarinet quintet, where the open
>>G sticks out in the arpeggios if you have too large a mouth cavity.
>>Better there to have it too small.
>>
>>I should say that I have very little knowledge of how 'fast air' is
>>actually used in American pedagogy, so I content myself in general
>>with having tongue position as a variable that I allow to influence
>>the sound without knowing exactly how -- as when we speak:-)

Later, he added,
>>> Better there to have it too small.
>>>
>>>>....the opposite of the hippopotamus, if you recall:-)

I can't imagine a precise definition, one that doesn't depend on metaphor,
because we all start out with such differently-sized mouths to begin with.
"Small" to someone with a big mouth may be the same amount of space in
millimeters as the biggest space a cramped little mouth like mine can
produce. I can open up to produce what seems like "warm air" or "slow air"
*to me,* but I've got a very small mouth (in the literal, physical sense,
although I've frequently been accused of having a big mouth in the
metaphorical sense...) and I'm starting to think it's not possible for me to
open up enough to produce anything that most clarinet teachers would
identify as "warm air" or "slow air" relative to a clarinet mouthpiece.
Cold air, fast air--that's easy for me. (Okay, relatively easy. Shadow Cat
probably thinks I sound like a hippopotamus with gas no matter what I try to
do with my tongue.) It's easy for me to narrow the space down to *too*
small, so that I get the dreaded unintentional altissimo. Well, too bad
it's not the only excuse I've got if I play like a pig---but Mother Nature's
a mean old bitch, and there's only so much we can do to compensate for
whatever She gave us.

This has been an instructive thread, btw. Thanks.

Lelia Loban

P. Sssssssssssss.

Christine made Tony type,
>>(I'm making my pet human type this...
>>So beware, shadowcat, you have a tagline adversary!
>>Christine)

I'm making my stupid pet human type this. If Christine is an adversary--if
Christine *likes* the sound of a basset horn, for instance--then I assume
Christine must be a basset hound, or something even worse--certainly not a
cat.

Of course, if Christine is a car, particularly if she is the namesake of a
certain car made famous by Stephen King, then I encourage Tony to put all of
his clarinets in the passenger compartment, leave the key in the ignition
and go indoors. I encourage him to go indoors because your friendly cats
wish our pet humans well even when we disapprove of their unfortunate
professions and hobbies.

Ssssssst!
Shadow Cat

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