The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Previous Message | Next Message

Re: blind test

Author: Liquorice
Date: 2004-11-08 06:22

Phat Cat- you are right, there are far too many variables here to draw any definitive conclusions. This was never meant to be a scientific study. I was just sharing my experience for interests sake.

However, I must disagree with you on a few points:

Reeds- reeds are cut to suit the mouthpiece that you are playing. Some people manage to get Vandoren Black Masters to work on a French mouthpiece. But I have never heard of anybody using White Masters on a French mouthpiece. The cut is wrong for the facing so it just wouldn't work. While I agree that the mouthpiece is a major factor in sound quality, I really don't think one could say that the reed cut was the cause of one player sounding "German" and another sounding "French". Put a White Master on your Vandoren B40 mouthpiece- it won't make you sound German, in fact it won't even play well!

Ligature- The idea that putting a string ligature on a French reed/mouthpiece/instrument will make you sound "German" is absurd! And like "mystery science dieter" said, many German players use metal or leather ligatures.

Volume- There was no noticeable tendency in terms of volume of a particular instrument. And I never said that I preferred one instrument over the other. Some clarinetists made wonderful music on German clarinets and others made wonderful music on French instruments. I voted for the best players, some were playing German system, some Boehm.

Repertoire- the candidates were playing the same list of repertoire.

Performer expectations- You say that it is known that German system players have a “darker” “covered” sound. I disagree. The various players on both German and Boehm instruments had very different sounds. Some German players sounded very "bright" while others sounded "dark" to my ears and understanding of those terms. But there was a certain innate quality to the German instruments which is hard to put into words, but which I could pick out every time. But it really didn't have to do with the players all trying to make the same kind of sound- the different playing styles and tonal approach of various German system players was as different as could be.

So I am absolutely convinced that the difference has only to do with the instrument and mouthpiece. Of course a more interesting and scientific test would be to see if one could hear which instrument Larry Combs (or any other player who plays both systems) was playing in a blind test. Hopefully somebody will have that opportunity someday?!

Post Edited (2004-11-08 06:28)

Reply To Message | Avail. Forums | Flat View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Topics

Author

Date

blind test

Liquorice

2004-11-06 06:57