Klarinet Archive - Posting 000055.txt from 2009/10

From: Diego Casadei <casadei.diego@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] New A clarinet from Patricola
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 11:37:40 -0400

Dear Dan,

I fully agree with your comments. However, I don't think you provided
some other way of defining the sound, did you? Shall we speak about the
power spectrum?

I'll try to play with old and new barrels and make a recording for
people who care. However I can't compare new against old instruments
because I only own one type (old B-flat, new A) and must warn people
that the microphone does have some effect (I'm not a lucky owner of some
good mic...). I hope to have something on the web in few days.

Anyway, in textual messages we need to invent some convention to
describe the sound. Usually "bright" means "rich in high-frequency
harmonics", "warm" means "rich in mid-frequency harmonics", with "dark"
and "cold" _almost_ at the opposite.

Cheers,
Diego

Dan Leeson wrote:
> In my opinion, we are once again falling into the use of meaningless and
> counterproductive descriptors when speaking about the character of a
> particular clarinet's sound.
>
> I suggest that the terms used by Diego -- "warmer," "darker," and
> "bright" have no universal meaning. Clearly the sound of a clarinet
> needs to be described, but images of color and temperature as used here
> are not helpful. In practice, they are about as unhelpful as terminology
> can be because there is little a student can do to obtain (or to reject)
> the character of clarinet sound the s/he wants to have. And what is
> "warmer" to one person can well be ice cold to another.
>
> I have told my story about Manny's music store on 48th street in NY
> several times, but it is worth telling again.
>
> A young boy came into Manny's with his father to buy a clarinet. He
> said he wanted one that had a "nice dark sound."
>
> The salesman picked one out saying that its sound was like the grave, as
> dark as night. It was like playing while wearing a shroud. Blah, blah,
> blah.
>
> The kid tried and eventually chose not to buy it. Nothing lost. The kid
> couldn't play anyway. Father and son left the store and went elsewhere.
>
> Within 10 minutes another young student came in asking for a clarinet
> with a bright sound. The same salesman took the same clarinet out and
> told the student that its sound was as bright as the sun at midday. "You
> need to play this instrument with sunglasses on," said the salesman.
> The student was so impressed, that he bought the instrument.
>
> Dan Leeson
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diego Casadei"
> <casadei.diego@-----.com>
> To: <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 7:57 AM
> Subject: Re: [kl] New A clarinet from Patricola
>
>
>> Dear Fred,
>>
>> you are completely right about springs etc. I also pay attention to
>> such detail. About the sound, I should say that the "Virtuoso"
>> clarinets are warmer and darker than the previous "Professional"
>> series from Patricola, whose sound was typically bright. One of the
>> past achievements from them was to change the barrels to make a warmer
>> sound (again, I was bothering them a bit... I'm tedious): they showed
>> me a hundred or so of old-style barrels that they decided not to sell
>> any more. Still, the A clarinet is a bit warmer than the B-flat. But
>> this is ok, and it is desired in almost all pieces written since the
>> mid of XIX century. On the contrary, they still produce the C
>> clarinet with the "old" sound, which is very bright: they told me that
>> this is what people want from such an instrument. BTW, it's exciting
>> to visit them: they are not an industry but work as old craftsmen
>> (everybody is able to do everything), from the wood to the mechanics.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Diego
>>
>>
>> Fred Jacobowitz wrote:
>>> Diego,
>>> I have had a similar issue in the past with my R-13s.
>>> Unfortunately, most of the R-13 A clarinets I was able to get my
>>> hands on then (alright, 25 years ago, but still...) were ridiculously
>>> resistant and ultra-dark. I had to wait for at least a year, trying
>>> out A's until I finally found one that was free-blowing, and (not
>>> coincidentally?) was also quite in tune. It was brighter than the
>>> other A's I'd tried too, so it blended perfectly with the sound of my
>>> Bb. It was a great pleasure to occasionally forget which horn I was
>>> playing - they were that similar in feel. However, my experience, as
>>> far as I can tell, was (and still is!) quite common - and not just
>>> with Buffets. GOOD FOR YOU for complaining to Patricola, and BRAVO to
>>> Patricola for recognizing a problem and fixing it (would that Buffet
>>> would pay attention to such things!).
>>> May I also suggest that you do as I did, and spend a few bucks to
>>> have a superior repair person make the spring tensions on both horns
>>> identical, so there is no finger-confusion when changing horns.
>>>
>>> Fred Jacobowitz
>>>
>>> CASE CLOSED Musical Instrument Case Repair Service
>>> Kol Haruach Klezmer Band
>>> Ebony and Ivory Duo
>>>
>>> You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.
>>> ~Doug Floyd
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Oct 5, 2009, at 5:32 AM, Diego Casadei wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> I'm pleased to say that, after some month of discussions with the
>>>> Patricola brothers (http://patricola.it/), they were able to satisfy
>>>> my request of having a more uniform feeling when switching between
>>>> the B-flat and A clarinets.
>>>>
>>>> Some time ago, they started selling the B-flat "Virtuoso" clarinet,
>>>> which is a great instrument (if you try, you buy...), together with
>>>> the A clarinet. I had the impression that the latter, though a
>>>> great clarinet, was giving a feeling not very similar to the
>>>> B-flat. When playing in orchestra, switching is easier if the
>>>> natural difference between the two instruments is less pronounced,
>>>> hence I started bothering the Patricola pushing to change as much as
>>>> possible the A feeling toward the B-flat one. After 2-3 bad
>>>> prototypes, they were finally able to find the way of providing a
>>>> similar response of the two instruments. On Friday, I played the
>>>> first 2 new A instruments, and I should say that they are really
>>>> great (my contribution has been negligible, still I'm proud of it
>>>> :-) ...): now switching among a pair B-flat/A of "Vitruoso"
>>>> clarinets is easier, and the A instrument did not loose anything of
>>>> its qualities (which is the risk, whenever one makes changes to the
>>>> bore).
>>>>
>>>> I hope you'll have a chance to test their instruments too.
>>>>
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> Diego
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> PS. Just to reassure everybody, I don't earn any money with it :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Diego Casadei, PhD.
>>>> Physics Department, CERN
>>>> New York University bld. 32, S-A19
>>>> 4 Washington Place 1211 Geneve 23
>>>> New York, NY 10003 Mailbox J28310
>>>> USA Switzerland
>>>> office: +1-212-998-7675 office: +41-22-767-6809
>>>> mobile: +39-347-1460488 mobile: +41-76-213-5376
>>>> http://cern.ch/casadei/ Diego.Casadei@-----.ch
>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Diego Casadei, PhD.
>> Physics Department, CERN
>> New York University bld. 32, S-A19
>> 4 Washington Place 1211 Geneve 23
>> New York, NY 10003 Mailbox J28310
>> USA Switzerland
>> office: +1-212-998-7675 office: +41-22-767-6809
>> mobile: +39-347-1460488 mobile: +41-76-213-5376
>> http://cern.ch/casadei/ Diego.Casadei@-----.ch
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>

--

Diego Casadei, PhD.
Physics Department, CERN
New York University bld. 32, S-A19
4 Washington Place 1211 Geneve 23
New York, NY 10003 Mailbox J28310
USA Switzerland
office: +1-212-998-7675 office: +41-22-767-6809
mobile: +39-347-1460488 mobile: +41-76-213-5376
http://cern.ch/casadei/ Diego.Casadei@-----.ch
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