Klarinet Archive - Posting 000104.txt from 2010/11

From: Richard D Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RES: Orchestral Pitch
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:42:42 -0500

Dear Diego,

The fact that your clarinets have 66mm barrels, in and of itself,
means very little to the overall pitch of your instruments. I know
that most student model clarinets made today also have 66mm barrels.
What you may not know is that the manufacturers cut one to two
millimeters from the top end of the upper joint. The mouthpiece, its
bore where it joins the barrel, its internal displacement also affect
the tuning of the instrument.

Have you ever tried using tuning rings to lengthen a clarinet's
length? This is a common problem with most student model clarinets. I
find that even when adding tuning rings to student model clarinets,
the opening heights of the throat tone keys (top ring key for open G,
the G#key and the A key) need to be changed to get the throat tones in
tune with the rest of the instrument.

Additionally, few manufacturers are careful about establishing a
correct key opening for the Bb/register key on their instruments.
Usually, the register keys are allowed to open way too much. This
causes the upper of the second register, and those notes just over the
register break (B natural and C) to play much sharper than they should.

Yours truly,
Richard Bush

On Nov 11, 2010, at 2:38 AM, Diego Casadei wrote:

kurtheisig@-----.net wrote:
>
> Band directors: Try an experiment. Tune your bands to 439 for one
> month. I bet you never go back.

Not with modern instruments. My clarinets play in tune, when they are
cold, at 442 Hz with a 66 mm barrel (the "normal" size is 65 mm for
them). As soon as they warm up, I need to add roughly another
millimeter.

I can play at 440 Hz, but start feeling unbalance between "throat" tunes
and "all closed" notes. Indeed, whatever we do with the barrel, the
holes stay in the same place. Hence, for me 440 Hz is a problem. Going
down will only make the situation worst.

Hence, if you want people to play more relaxed also in the acute ranges,
you really need to provide them with different instruments.

BTW, having 442 Hz as reference is also a problem for singers, so that I
really don't understand why we moved up to this reference. Apart from
the fact that shortening an instrument is much more difficult than
adjusting the positioning of the barrel, so that the producers prefer to
stay on (their) safe side.

Cheers,
Diego

--

Diego Casadei
__________________________________________________________
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
----------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Klarinet mailing list
Klarinet@-----.com
To do darn near anything to your subscription, go to:
http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com

_______________________________________________
Klarinet mailing list
Klarinet@-----.com
To do darn near anything to your subscription, go to:
http://klarinet-list.serve-music.com