Klarinet Archive - Posting 000148.txt from 2010/01
From: Diego Casadei <casadei.diego@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] full boehm
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:19:16 -0500
Dear Dan,
in my (limited) experience, the full Boehm system has less intonation
problems than the "normal" configuration, thanks to the slightly larger
number of additional pads. However, traditional full Boehm systems do
not allow the acute F obtained as harmonic of the low G (i.e. all finger
hole closed, left finger C#/G# key pressed) because of the trill
mechanism mentioned at your point 3. The full Boehm by Patricola has a
way to disable the trill mechanism, to allow the acute F fingering
above. Of course, it's not a good idea to enable/disable it during the
execution, unless one has really some time to play with the screwdriver.
I think that the full Boehm is a better instrument than the normal one
but did not play it anymore for two (admittedly studpid) reasons: it is
more expensive and it does not fit the single case holding both Bb and A
clarinets. If one is looking for a single instrument (i.e. willing to
transpose A parts), then the full Boehm is my recommendation.
Best regards,
Diego
Dan Leeson wrote:
> I suspect that like most things, the term "full Boehm clarinet" has
> different meanings to different people. I owned two full Boehm clarinets
> and played on them for years. Each instrument had the following items
> that were unique to a full Boehm instrument some 30 years ago, but some
> of which are now on the traditional clarinet.
>
> They are:
>
> 1. low E-flat (written) which is the note called for on a B-flat
> clarinet in Peter and the Wolf;
> 2. a-flat (lower register)/e-flat (upper register) key with left hand
> pinky touchpiece, giving those notes on both sides of the clarinet;
> 3. articulated b-natural/c-sharp in the low register, and
> f-sharp/g-sharp in the upper register (this for use in the notorious
> f-sharp/g-sharp trill in the opera Carmen; i.e., the smuggler's music
> which begins with a bassoon solo and then is duplacted in the clarinet;
> last weekend it was played live from the Met in NY, and whoever played
> it did not have the articulated key; the intonation on that trill was
> very suspect because of that instrument's deficiency;
> 4. g/b-flat tremulo in the upper register; it is supposed to work for a
> c/e-flat in the lower register too, but the intonation on my instruments
> for that tremulo was not satisfactory; didn't use that facility very much..
>
> Mazzeo always told me that such instruments had intonation difficulties
> but I did not find this to be the case.
>
> I sold both instruments -- alone with an apendage that allowed the
> clarinet to descend to low d -- to a Japanese man.
>
> Dan Leeson
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "rien stein" <rstein@-----.nl>
> To: "klarinetlijst" <klarinet@-----.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 3:11 PM
> Subject: [kl] full boehm
>
>
>>
>> what is a "full boehm" clarinet? One with a low e flat key, or are
>> there other differences compared to the "normal" boehm?
>>
>> Rien
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
--
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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