 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: leonardA
Date: 2003-07-03 12:15
I bought a used clarinet and in the case was an extra 55 mm barrel. Can someone tell me when this short a barrel would be used?
Thanks.
Leonard
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-03 15:43
With that barrel being some 10 mm shorter than is conventional, I'd think it would be useable ONLY if the upper joint were made longer at its top, OR, perhaps someone [ill-advised] tried to make a C clar out of a Bb !!! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-07-03 19:52
The barrel for the C clarinet is usually about 47mm or 47.5mm ...GBK
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2003-07-03 20:15
Occasionally one sees an older Bb clarinet that has an unusually long (by modern standards) upper joint, which therefore requires an unusually short barrel --- I can't remember the brands off the top of my head, but I know they exist. Perhaps your short barrel belongs to such a clarinet? The contrary situation can also exist --- I have a very nice old Pruefer Bb clarinet which has an unusually short upper joint and for which I had to make a short extension to play at A440, even with the long 69mm barrel I use on it.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2003-07-03 20:28
David is correct.
Barrel length can vary with the manufacturer of the instrument. My R-13 A clarinets all play well in tune with a barrel of 65mm, but the Amati full Boehm A clarinet came with (and plays in tune) their standard 61mm barrel...GBK
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Author: allencole
Date: 2003-07-03 22:12
The $64 question, Leonard, is the length of your normal barrel. Is it in the 65mm range? An old trick from the big band players is to have a very short barrel on clarinet to compensate for flattening factors such as loose embouchure, soft reeds, coldness of the instrument, etc. Personally, I need only shorten to about 64mm under such conditions, but I practice clarinet regularly. Many sax players have a different approach to the instrument.
Allen Cole
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-07-04 03:53
It was probably used to play in British high pitch A=452. This compromise was used until the abandonment of high pitch starting from 1965. There are a couple of brass bands worldwide that still play at this pitch including some American Civil War bands.
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2003-07-04 15:44
Now that this thread has "blossomed", I did a bit of looking at my oldies. I recall a Buffet barrel which "appears" to have been shortened to 61 mm [gave it to my Buff-loving good friend!, I guess]. One of my oldies, a German {Muller?] "salt-spooner", 4 "ringer" [1850?], has a 55mm barrel, but still has about an inch of UJ above the high tone [and register] holes. Am not sure of its pitch! Except for a modern [display model] 2-ringer, which is short, only my Conn-Pupeschi Model [1900?] is short overall, again not sure of its pitch. Ain't history interesting?? Comments, Al Rice?? Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: Mark Pinner
Date: 2003-07-04 23:35
The question of absolute pitch is interesting. Many Baroque and classical woodwind instruments, especially flutes, contained multiple body joints, usually the upper, so that travelling musicians could attain the pitch of the orchestra or band that they were required to play with. I have seen examples of flutes with 4 or 5 such extra joints.
When I first started playing the cornet, circa 1973, our brass bands were only just standardised at A=440. My first instrument, post WWII, had an array of crooks insterted between the mouthpiece and leader pipe to allow both high pitch and low pitch Bb and A. You needed to adjust the valve slides. Trombones often came with high and low pitch tuning slides. Boosey and Hawkes stopped parallel production of high and low pitch in 1965 and instrument repairers made wholesale conversions of high pitch horns after this date. There was little hope of converting most woodwind. Clarinet players availed themselves of different length barrells to cope with both high pitch bands and pianos that were tuned under A=440 or tuned to themselves as the expression was. The true art of compromise.
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Author: leonardA
Date: 2003-07-05 03:41
I appreciate all the very interesting responses. From them I glean that I either have a piece of history or a worthless piece of junk or both .
Leonard
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