 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2003-03-04 12:50
Last night, one of the fellow bass clarinetists in our band showed up with a loaner instrument, as hers was being repaired. She told me that it went down to low D, which surprised me, because I had never heard of an instrument like that. After examining the Conn instrument, it became clear that someone had modified it in an attempt to extend its range a half step. The Conn, like my Buffet, originally had a tone hole in its bell, made to sound the lowest note, E-flat (or in the case of my Buffet, C). The original owner must have assumed that closing that tone hole would extend the range another half step and had a mechanism, operated by the right thumb, added to close the hole. Although I have never tried it myself, I strongly doubt that doing this on one of these instruments would add a properly pitched tone because the bell was very likely not tuned to produce a lower pitch. In other words, what controls the pitch played is not the holes covered, but the position of the lowest hole that is open. I'm also surprised that the repair technician who made the modification would do something like this.
I'm not necessarily looking for comments, but wanted to share something ridiculous that I saw.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-03-04 14:09
Don -
I've seen and played an old Conn BC to low D. The keywork was original -- the low Eb was on the body and the low D was on the bell, which was exactly the same as a standard low Eb bell.
Several years ago, Dee Hayes Flint said she had seen a similar instrument. She asked why this may have been done, since the Eb is necessary for Wagner and other music written for BC in A, but the D seemed superfluous. We ended up speculating, not on any historical evidence, that written low D, sounding C, would permit the instrument to double cello parts.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2003-03-04 15:55
Don and Ken,
This is not such a ridiculous thing! Last year, as a precursor to making a complete low-C extension (in work now) for my own bass clarinet, I made a prototype low-D-only "mini-extension" out of PVC pipe and some old saxophone key bits and pieces, operated by my right thumb (by a lever next to the thumbhook). It was successful enough that I used to keep it in my case and use it on certain occasions for band pieces which, I found, sometimes go down to low D but no lower --- I don't know why, but so far I've found that, when band music is written for extended-range bass clarinets, the low-D is called for maybe 75% of the time, with the remaining two lower notes needed only 25% of the time. Thus the "mini-extension" is more useful than you might expect, at least for concert band repertoire. Using the bell to produce the low D is no more absurd than having it produce the low Eb as on most standard bass clarinets.
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Author: Wes
Date: 2003-03-05 07:47
A friend gave me a beautifully made low D extension for a bass clarinet. It is made of a undyed piece of grenadilla wood. However, when it is used, the Eb cannot be played. I suspect that this extension could have been made by the late Glen Johnston who made a lof of low C extensions.
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Author: jez
Date: 2003-03-05 11:50
I have a friend who is a very capable craftsman and innovative designer.
He does have a theory, however, that you may find amusing.
He believes that it is best, if possible, to avoid actually using the bell-note of the instrument at all; 20 notes come out of tone holes and 1 comes out of the bell.......it's bound to sound different.
He's, therefore, extended his low C bass down to a theoretical low B but leaves the lowest tone hole without a key to cover it. ALL the notes now come out of tone holes, the bell merely being used for amplification and decoration, hopefully providing a more even sound!!!
Believe it or not, he's even done this to his BBflat contra!!!!!!!!!
jez
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2003-03-05 12:30
If I'm mistaken and the Conn was originally designed to go to low D, please ignore my remarks. I had never heard of the existance of such an animal.
And if people are clever and skilled enough to build usable and properly tuned extensions to their instruments, more power to them.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-03-05 14:07
jez -
I agree about avoiding "bell" notes, especially on large instruments. Bass and alto clarinets that go only to low E almost all sound awful on low E and, particularly, the B above.
The low C on my Leblanc BBb contra sounds exactly like the low Db -- and both are more vibration than actual pitch.
My Selmer Eb contra goes only to low E. When Steve Fox restored it, and we discussed adding a section with a key to the lower joint, so that the E/B sould speak from a hole rather than the bell. However, it would have been expensive, even at Steve's low prices and in Canadian dollars, so we decided to wait until he finished the other work to find how the E/B sounded without the addition. It sounded fine, so I saved the money.
I have read that Rossi has made replacement straight wood bells for standard (to Eb) bass clarinets, which are said to improve the instruments a lot.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Mitch K.
Date: 2003-03-05 18:24
When I was in grad school in Colorado, we had a guest recital/clinic with bass clarinetist an amazing European bass clarinetist who is part of a bass clarinet/marimba duo--sorry I don't remember his name (and I can't seem to find the program either)--who was simply an artist of the highest caliber. He had an extension built for his bass that took the low C out of the bell. There was still a tone hole on the bell, so that, theoretically, low B could be added (but that would have defeated the purpose of having the extension built--to take notes off of the bell). I believe he said that Rossi built it, and had also constructed (or was constructing) an wooden bell for him.
cheers,
Mitch King
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