Klarinet Archive - Posting 000157.txt from 2010/08

From: Jennifer Jones <helen.jennifer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] About clarinet acoustics
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:29:50 -0400

Mike McIntyre wrote to Tony Pay
>>> The only way out I can see is that the textbook "cylindrical bore"
>>> is at best an approximation -- especially near the mouthpiece?
>>> If the bore cross-section varies along its length, then that
>>> shifts the node-antinode pattern, of course, as
> ---------------
>>> with the extreme
>>> case of oboes and saxophones. =A0If you tell me how the
>>> cross-section varies I could think about this a bit more.
>
> Conically?
>
> -Jennifer

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 12:49 PM, Keith Bowen <keith.bowen@-----.com> respond=
ed:
> Only a few mouthpieces are conical - I think the old Boosey and Hawkes on=
es
> were. Most are cylindrical, until of course the back start to taper down.
> Then they are cylindrical with an approximately planar diagonal cutoff.

That description fits my experience with saxophone mouthpieces (as
well as clarinet), though sax mouthpieces fit over a cork on the neck,
as opposed to the clarinet where the mouthpiece's corked tenon fits
into the barrel. But would the behavior of the saxophone mouthpiece
be that different from the clarinet? I expect the differences to come
from the conical bore of the sax and maybe the mouthpiece fitting over
the cork.

I was actually thinking of the conical bore of oboes and saxophones.
Does the mouthpiece bore of these instruments have much bearing on
node/"region of maximal variation" position relative to our problem in
clarinets? My guess is it might vary...

In the case of oboes, the double reed fit right in to the top of the
instrument. In the case of bassoons, the double reed inserted into
the bocal. These are narrow tubes and seem quite different from the
clarinet. And then the oboe is a conical bored instrument.

I like Mike McIntyre's solution that the cylindrical bore is an
approximation up to the lower portion of the mouthpiece, where the
internal diameter decreases toward the reed. It is very sensible.

-Jennifer

-------------------
It would be quite a story if:

Adolphe Sax created the saxophone to settle the question of whether
the reed induces the cylindrical bore effect. Oboes have conical
bores and behave as such. Flutes have cylincrical bores but behave as
pipes open on both ends (b/c they use edge tones/ whistle rather than
use a reed). Clarinets have cylindrical bores and behave as a
cylindrical pipe closed on one end. Make a single reeded instrument
with a conical bore. Does it behave like a clarinet or oboe/flute?
...Except that the Tarogato predates the saxophone by at least a
century and a half. Probably longer.

http://www.sfoxclarinets.com/Tarogatoart.html
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